The next generation DVD format war may have gone a little quiet for the time being, but don't make the mistake of thinking that it is still not ongoing, as it will be until one format wins. It's a battle for the hearts and minds of consumers, and propaganda is a useful weapon.

The Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) has commissioned a survey which it claims clearly demonstrates that consumers "overwhelmingly prefer Blu-Ray Disc" as the dominant next generation DVD format, and that HD-DVD is only preferred by a minority 15 per cent. The BDA claims that 58 per cent of 1,200 consumers studied in the survey preferred Blu-Ray to all other formats. The survey itself was carried out by Penn Schoen and Berland.

How did the people make their choice? The BDA said they were given a side by side comparison of the two formats and supplied with info including tech company support, Hollywood studio support, gaming console support, disk capacity, film title availability and launch dates.