A survey sponsored by the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) found that, SURPRISE, people like Blu-Ray technology better. Imagine everyone’s shock when BDA’s survey said that 4 times as many people said they liked Blu-Ray better when the survey BDA sponsored explained the differences to them.
The survey had some interesting facts: 58% of the 1200 surveyed said they preferred Blu-Ray. 26% said they were undecided and only 16% said they prefer HD-DVD. It’s quite odd that an overwhelming majority of the people surveyed voted for Blu-Ray and there were more people undecided than preferred HD-DVD.
According to the press release, the survey examined consumer attitudes regarding high-definition television and next-generation disc formats. Key reasons for Blu-Ray popularity include playability in more CE devices, personal computers and gaming consoles, backward compatibility with current DVDs, higher disc capacity and the ability to record large amounts of high definition or standard definition video and data. When you put it that way, Blu-Ray is obviously superior.
Did I mention who the members of the Blu-Ray Disc Association were? Oh I didn’t? Let me tell you. The prestigious membership includes Sony (creators of the Blu-Ray disc technology), Apple, Dell, HP, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, TDK, Thomson, 20th Century Fox and Disney. The companies are all on the board of directors. Certainly, it’s not a loaded survey, not by a long shot.
The problem with this story is that they don’t release the survey itself, they don’t release the margin of error (was there one?) or any details about the survey itself. It certainly makes one question the legitimacy of the entire survey.
Toshiba has some decent players on its side including Paramount and Warner Brothers (quite a large player in its own right), and then there’s Microsoft. Microsoft has entered into an extraordinarily close alliance with Toshiba and Bill Gates has gone so far as to say that Toshiba’s HD-DVD will show up in Xbox 360 at some point although Microsoft has said it won’t be in the first release of the game.
Many groups, organizations, and companies commission surveys all the time. Often times, the surveys come out with results desired by the organization, at least the ones you hear about do. If they don’t, then they generally don’t see the light of day. This survey would seem to be nothing more than a bogus sales tool in an attempt to lend legitimacy to their claims of superiority. If it’s a better product, that’s fine. The Blu-Ray does have some great points because of its higher capacity. Just don’t give us, the consumers, this load of bull in an attempt to prove it. We know better, we deserve to be treated better and at the very least, we deserve better lip service this.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
