High Definition DVD Market "STATIC"

"'Neither format is selling well or at the level I had expected. I had
expected early adopters to step up, and other retailers have had the
same experience,' said Bjorn Dybdahl, president of San Antonio-based
specialty store Bjorn's Stereo Designs Inc."

"But since Samsung Corp. rolled out the first Blu-ray player, priced at
$1,000, in late June, Blu-ray has faced complaints of subpar picture
quality on discs, talk of component shortages for players and other
technical problems."

"'High expectations were set. At every meeting with Sony, every
demonstration was spectacular,' Dybdahl said."

"'Then along comes the first Blu-ray player from Samsung, and that's
when my expectations were hurt,' he said. 'When we put the disc in, all
the salespeople looked around and said it doesn't look much better than
a standard DVD.'"

EDM...

This whole HD business is a washout. First of all, content
for the most part is junk. Copy protection required to play
the content is ridiculous. And relative to older direct view
CRTs, most HD sets are very limited in lifespan. It all adds
up to a consumer fiasco that isn't worth the hassle.

"Toshiba launched in April its first HD-DVD players, priced at about
$500, and its lower pricing gave HD-DVD an initial lead in unit sales.
Research company The NPD Group Inc. said HD-DVD player unit sales were
33% higher than Blu-ray player unit sales in their respective first six
weeks on the market."

Jerry Jones