Blu-ray winning studio war, but needs to sway consumers
The end of the high-definition disc war seems in sight, say industry observers, with major studio Warner Bros. jumping to the Blu-ray Disc camp and leaving the competing HD DVD format with a dwindling base of Hollywood support.
But ahead lies the real uphill battle: selling high-definition discs — in any format — to consumers who appear more than satisfied with the DVDs they've already bought over the past few years.
DVDs, like CDs before them, were adopted by the mass market quickly because they represented a demonstrable combination of improvements in convenience and quality over VHS and LPs, respectively. But U.S. consumers typically give greater weight to convenience — remember laserdisc? — over quality.
