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TG Daily: Although it seems like everyone is calling it the next big thing, the majority of consumers are not that excited about 3D TV, and according to one study’s results, interest in the technology actually goes down after users give it a test run.

Nielsen conducted the study to see just how interested American consumers are in the new 3D TV market. It found that around 25% of “active TV shoppers” had some interest in buying a set. However, once they tried it out, that number plummeted to just 12%.

So why the extreme lack of excitement about the new technology? Well, blame it on the young people’s multitasking mindset. 89% said they became disillusioned by 3D TV because it is pretty much impossible to do anything else while watching. If you’re watching a 3D broadcast and commercials come on, you have to take off your glasses if you want to start texting or browsing the Internet. You have to be totally engaged to watch 3D content, which is fine at the movies, but apparently a big turn-off at home.

Around half of those surveyed also expressed disinterest about the requirement of wearing 3D glasses.

TV manufacturers and content providers are still bullish on the 3D market, though. It’s just becoming a stronger challenge. The trick now is to provide content that is so compelling, users won’t even want to do anything else while they’re experiencing it. 3D gaming will be a big part of qualming those fears.

All in all, though, those numbers are abysmal compared to the early excitement about the transition from standard definition to high definition. 3D adoption is going to be much more difficult.

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Broadbandtvnews.com: In a short space of time the digital video recorder has become the second most essential household technology item, beaten only by the mobile phone.

Seven out of ten owners say they cannot live without a DVR (often referred to as the PVR and occasionally DTR), according to the NDS DVR Report.

The survey carried out on behalf of the technology company by Consumer Analysis Group interviewed 1,012 people aged 18-70 years old who have a DVR at home.

Consumers were interviewed in the UK (256), US (252), Italy (251) and Australia (253); all markets where the NDS XTV technology has been deployed.

Nigel Smith, chief marketing officer, NDS: “The survey results show just how fast the DVR has become an indispensable part of people’s lives in the UK, US, Italy and Australia. It’s one of those technologies that, once tried, has you wondering how you coped before.”

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TVPredictions: Consumer interest in Blu-ray players is growing while interest in HD DVD is flattening.

That’s according to a new study from the NPD Group, as reported by Video Business.

NPD notes that consumers’ desire to buy Blu-ray players has risen since Warner Bros. announced last month that it would endorse the high-def disc format. The decision has given Blu-ray a 5-2 advantage over HD DVD among major studios.

The research study found that 8.1 percent of consumers said they “intended” to buy a Blu-ray player, compared to 6.3 percent late last year.

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TVPredictions: Pacific Media Associates is forecasting that flat-screen HDTV prices will fall another 15.6 percent in 2008.

The California-based research group estimates that the average street price for a flat-panel HDTV declined by 14.7 percent in 2007.

However, Pacific Media cautions that some categories — such as 1080p sets — witnessed smaller price drops in 2007.

TV makers last year aggressively marketed the new, more expensive 1080p set, which purports to offer a better picture resolution. The effort was designed to stabilize high-def set prices after a sharp price decline during the 2006 holidays, which hurt both retailer and manufacturer profits.

“At this time last year, manufacturers were hoping that 2007 would bring some stability to flat panel HDTV pricing,” said Rosemary Abowd, a Pacific Media vice president.

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CNNMoney: In their respective segments, the Sony BRAVIA LCD series, Pioneer Plasma series and Samsung DLP series rank highest in customer satisfaction among large-screen high definition televisions (HDTV), according to the inaugural J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Study.

The study measures customer satisfaction with large-screen HDTVs by examining four key factors that drive satisfaction: picture and sound performance; ease of operation; features; and appearance and styling. HDTV model series are evaluated in three segments-37- to 49-inch HDTV; 50- to 65-inch HDTV (both of these segments include model series using either LCD (liquid crystal display) or plasma technologies); and Rear Projection HDTV.

The study finds that HDTV owners report notably high levels of repurchase intent. The number of owners who say they would repurchase the same brand averages 91 percent in the 37- to 49-inch segment and 92 percent in the 50- to 65-inch and Rear Projection segments. In addition, HDTV owners are also extremely likely to recommend their HDTV brand to others, with recommendation intent levels averaging above 90 percent in all three segments.

“Considering that purchasing a high definition television involves a sizable investment, these remarkably high repurchase and recommendation intent levels demonstrate that the vast majority of owners are delighted with their large-screen HDTV purchases,” said Larry Wu, senior director of the technology practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “This presents an excellent opportunity for manufacturers to not only retain market share but also to leverage their repurchase intentions to other products they sell.”

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Electronista: HD DVD is outpacing its Blu-Ray rival in Europe in hardware sales by a factor of three to one, according to a study published by the disc format’s promo group in the region. The agency drew on sales figures which suggest that the format has nearly three quarters of the market in some of the most influential countries in the area, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

Spokesman Olivier Van Wynendaele for the group alleged that the success had been achieved fairly and that profit on HD DVD players in Europe was the same as for its regular DVD players, dismissing US worries that Toshiba was winning by slashing prices to where it makes little to no profit.

However, the marketers have for a second time omitted figures for Sony’s PlayStation 3, which Toshiba has previously said didn’t count as it was officially a game system. The console includes a Blu-Ray drive that can play movies with full features and has been widely attributed as a significant factor in spurring sales of Blu-Ray titles, though the number of movies attached to each PS3 is currently unknown.

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