Fail thread. HD DVDs arnt even being made anymore. /Thread

I'm going to repost what I wrote in another thread, as I feel it's relevant. TLDR: depending on how the survey's methods were (ie: if it was self-reporting), I think many people with an upscaling DVD player think they have an HD-DVD player.

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I think any survey done on HD technology, that doesn't use actual sales figures, or break into people's houses to examine their setup, is going to be terribly inaccurate.

So many people are horribly confused on everything HD-related. Case in point: my Grandma thinks she is watching HD. After checking out her TV, it turns out that she has a 15 year old crap TV, hooked up to an HD satellite reciever by SD composite cables.

I've known people who think they have an HD-DVD player, but only have an upscaling DVD player.

And I've seen plenty of Wal-Marts playing Blu-Ray vs DVD comparison discs on a nice HDTV, but hooked up to the BD player by SD composite cables, windowboxed by the player, and then stretched from 4:3 to 16:9 by the TV.

And more than once I've gone to a friend's house to see a nice HDTV, and an Xbox 360 hooked up to said TV with that switchy-box thingy set to SD, and then god-awfully stretched, mamied, letterboxed, pillerboxed, and zoomed in. (I'm sure plenty of people have their PS3 set up retardedly, but I don't know anyone else with one. :( )

This.

Toshiba, prodded by Microsoft, sold heavily-subsidized players to flood the market and try to hold its own against blu-ray.  It failed.

The blu-ray player numbers cited don't include PS3s, which obviously are relevant to disc sales.

Finally, the article was wrong to suggest that the figures mean a 'battle' still rages.  HD-DVD is dead.  This article is FUD.

Yes, while I do think the survey is inaccurate, because of confused consumers, there is a chance it is accurate. If it is, it would be mostly based on post-HDDVD death. I remember seeing HDDVD players going for something like $20 after Blu-Ray won, less than an upscaling DVD player (so many people bought it for that reason). Furthermore, HDDVDs were going for bargain bin prices, so it wouldn't have been stupid to pick up an HDDVD player and several HDDVD movies for around $100, post BD victory.

HD-DVD should be 360's format.

This.  The title specifically says "Households" and they list household income.

I had considered that when doing the calculations.  However, the wording in the report does not state "households" as you would expect, but rather

"Just one in ten Americans (11%) own a HD DVD player while 7% own a Blu-ray player".  Very unprofessional and misleading wording.

I would also agree that there are a percentage of people who mistakenly think that upscaling DVD = HDDVD, further skewing the results.

This is another example of a poor data set leading to poor results.  I am surprised they would publish this "study" given the small study group and verifiably poor results.

I agree, there are a lot of holes in this report and it's far from definitive. 

Sort of.  I used their numbers without respect to total population.  They say 13% of total respondents own an XBOX 360 and 3% of total respondents (not just the 360-owners subset) own the add on.  Thus 3/13 = 23% of respondents who own an XBOX 360 also own the add-on.  In the $50K-$75K income group they say 21% own a 360 and 11% own the add-on so 52% of 360-owners in that group own the add-on.  You can find lots of other questionable data but this one jumped out at me as being especially insane.

Why did this happen?  Well, they use the term "the external HD-DVD drive for the XBOX 360".  I suspect some people interpreted this as "Hard drive for XBOX 360", particularly since I doubt most of the general population are even aware of the HD DVD drive's existence. 

Also, bear in mind that this was an internet survey.  Phone surveys are almost always more accurate because the person asking the questions can gauge when there's confusion and provide clarification.  They can also provide feedback to let their employers know if they feel the questions are ambiguos or confusing as would surely have happened in this case.

Flawed survey through and through.