In the poll, conducted by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, consumers were given a side-by-side comparison of the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, including company support, Hollywood studio support, gaming console support, disc capacity, movie title availability and anticipated launch dates.

Public Preferences

The results show that 58 percent of the 1,200 consumers polled preferred Blu-ray Disc, 26 percent were undecided and only 16 percent preferred HD DVD.

Of those planning to purchase the next-generation format, 66 percent gave the nod to Blu-ray and 15 percent preferred HD DVD.

The poll also examined consumer attitudes toward high-definition television and next-generation disc formats.

Among the key reasons consumers preferred Blu-ray was the ability to play the discs in more consumer-electronics devices, personal computers and gaming consoles.

The reasons also included backward compatibility with current DVD media, disc capacity and the ability to record large amounts of high-definition video and other data .

What About Cost, Content?

Yankee Group analyst Nitin Gupta suggested that survey results can be skewed by any company to get the results it seeks, and noted that the poll makes no mention of the cost of Blu-ray players or the availability of content that will be sold on the discs.

"Those are the things that matter most to consumers, and unfortunately the content providers are divided in their support for the two technologies," he said. "It's a worst-case scenario and could drive consumers to alternative sources of next-generation HD video."

Those sources could include on-demand delivery of movies by cable and satellite TV companies and online movie services, he said, as the number of broadband users continues to rise.

"The physical medium is still relevant, and will be for years, but the longer this standoff lasts, the more people will look at alternatives," Gupta said.

Give and Take

About half of the DVD content providers, including Warner, Paramount and Universal studios, support the HD DVD standard. It is touted as an easy hardware update, costing little to make DVDs based on the technology.

The HD DVD format could permit studios to ship a regular-formatted DVD movie on one side of a disc while a high-definition format would be available on the other side.

The Sony-backed Blu-ray camp cites its ability to offer more interactive games and add-ons as an incentive to buy new equipment. Gupta said that putting a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 game console could give the format a significant boost.

"And they have the backing of manufacturers like Apple and HP , although HD DVD has claimed it will be first to market," he said.

A selection of Blu-ray players, recorders and computer drives are expected from Sony, Hitachi, Sharp, Panasonic, LG Electronics, Pioneer, Philips, Mitsubishi and Samsung, as well as from PC hardware makers Dell and HP, the Blu-ray Association said.