Next-Gen DVD Quality Lost on Smaller Screens?

Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Research, is being widely quoted on several tech Web sites this week for some of his observations on next-gen devices, including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

As far as standard DVD, Greenfield said that 2007 could be the first year to witness a decline in sales due to the "halo effect"--namely that the remarkable expansion of the DVD market to more than 80 percent of all U.S. households in only a few years is quickly winding down. Consequently, most consumers have now rebuilt their libraries of both old and new titles (replacing the VHS tapes), and Hollywood can now only count on selling titles by churning out new movie and TV series hits.

But for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, Greenfield said neither format will have a material impact on studio revenues in 2007. According to Seeking Alpha, Greenfield said, "It remains highly unclear which format will win... not to mention that consumers without 50-inch or large HDTV [sets] are unlikely to appreciate the improvement in picture quality."

While such observations on picture quality are quite literally in the eye of the beholder, Greenfield also said that consumers are still satisfied with the noticeably superior quality of standard DVD discs over yesterday's VHS tapes, and jumping to the next level of DVD quality could still be a few years off for many consumers.

In fact, a new study from Kagan Research predicts that next-gen DVD will not begin to comprise more than half of the video disc market until 2012. The analyst firm does not predict which DVD format, if any, will win out in the end.