Supposedly the latest format war is all but over. Warner Bros. has aligned itself with Blu-Ray, leaving only three studios releasing exclusively in HD-DVD. While Toshiba, the main backer of HD-DVD, says they will go on, the writing is on the wall.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. Oddly I haven’t really been paying much attention, so I really have no opinion of which format is technically better. But I will say that as someone who once made his living from selling home theater products Blu-Ray winning is a headache.
I’ve sold nearly every time of consumer electronics there is to sell. A large part of sales, at least in my experience, is educating the customer. “Why would I want one of these?” “Why is x better than y?” etc. This is why Blu-Ray is a frustrating branding, and it will hurt the adoption of the new format.
You would be hard pressed to find a person who does not know what a DVD is. Digital Video Disc. DVD was one of the fastest adopted consumer technologies ever. While not as universal, a very large percentage of the population knows what High Definition or HD is. So slap together HD-DVD and no explanation is needed. It is clear what it is, and what its benefit is over normal DVD. Compare that to Blu-Ray. “Blue” isn’t even spelled correctly. And why as a consumer should I care about the color of the laser? “Blu-Ray” tells me nothing, as a comparison shopper.
I am not saying this is a a major problem or something that can not be overcome. It is just frustrating that after years of educating consumers what these terms means, that Sony throws them out the window for some rather silly brand name.
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