Watertown, Mass.-based Cymfony Inc., which culls trends from posts on Internet sites, reported that positive discussions about HD-DVD were 46 percent higher than Blu-ray in a survey of almost 18,000 posts on blogs, discussion boards and consumer review sites from October 1 to November 30.

"Negative Blu-ray conversation indicated a lack of consumer trust in Sony, as well as gamer displeasure with selling Blu-ray in association with PlayStation 3," said Jim Nail, a spokesman for Cymfony, which culls trends from posts on social media sites

Hollywood and electronics makers are hoping high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and interactive features, will reignite the slowing market for DVD sales. But the format war, technical issues and the advent of digital video-on-demand services are creating hurdles for the new DVDs and players.

Andy Parsons, a spokesman for the Blu-ray Disc Association, called the launch of the PS3 a "turning point" for the format.

"Blu-ray's here to stay. The likelihood of people using PS3s as DVD players is significant, particularly when you're talking about millions of consoles Sony expects to sell," he said.