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HD DVD Goes The Way of Betamax
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Bethesda resident Richard Hsu bought an HD DVD player from Wal-Mart in November but was able to return it after the retailer announced that it wouldn't support the format anymore. "Thank goodness for liberal return policies," he said.
For Hsu, it was a close call reminiscent of the last major video-format battle -- between Betamax and VHS. "We were one of those families who bought a Betamax back in the '80s," he said.
Sony, which lost the Betamax battle, emerged one of the major winners this time, as a founding supporter of Blu-ray. The company's PlayStation 3 game console, for example, comes with a built-in Blu-ray player.
Many early PlayStation 3 owners said Blu-ray was a selling point.
"Blu-ray made a big difference in my decision to buy a PlayStation 3," said Evan Weiner, a PS3 owner in Arlington. Weiner admitted he was "a little nervous" about buying into a format that could be made obsolete by the competition, but Sony's aggressive marketing tactics for Blu-ray gave him enough confidence to invest in a growing library of titles. "They're expensive, but they're awesome," he said.
Neither of the competing formats has gained much traction in the market, said Phillip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com. While there are high-definition TV sets in 30 million homes in the U.S., only about 1.5 million households own a stand-alone player in either format.
"That shows [both HD DVD and Blu-ray] did a horrible job" generating enthusiasm, he said.
Swann said confusion among consumers over the competing formats has been an element in slow sales for both formats. And for some, the caution was justified. "Now you have a lot of people who bough HD DVD players who wish they hadn't," he said.
