Don't forget Michael Imperioli supports HD DVD. That alone should swing everyone to that side.

I really think the war will end with HD DVDs as the main movie disc, and BRDs as the main computer-associated disc (i.e., BRDs would be your OS disc, your software discs, your archive discs. Stuff for storing data). As much as I would like to see Blu-Ray win (and change its name), I don't see Paramount, Universal or Dreamworks backing down.

You forgot one key difference - the hard scratch protective coating on BluRay disks. This feature alone will cause people to pick BluRay in the long run - you won't have disks going bad due to scratches in your movie collection as easily. For those who buy a lot of movies and maintain a large collection this is a key feature. For those who rent this is a great advance - I can't count the number of DVDs I've rented and wouldn't play due to scratches. The coating is the reason that disk manufacture is slightly more expensive than HD DVD.

Sure feels like dogs fighting over scraps, only we're the scraps...

All the copy protection crap is a major turn off. Feels like only the hackers who pay nothing get to do what I want to do for my $20-30.

I'ld like to see it end with both sides losing and someone delivering a "memory card" type solution. But all that aside with both sides being equally stubborn it will come down to the consumer...just don't buy this junk until it gets sorted out. Hit them where it hurts....the wallet.

Toshiba hires Michael Imperioli for their ad campaign on their new HD DVD player and that will swing everyone?? Was that sarcasm Brendan?

Even though I believe BluRay is better, I'd take a million to do some Toshiba ads!

I don't want to have to switch to either format. I don't relish paying $600 bucks for a BlueRay player or $200 bucks for an HD-DVD player. And unless my pay goes up, I'm not willing to pay more than $20 bucks for a movie. $30-$40 bucks for a movie with a bunch of extra stuff I'll never watch? I don't think so. I've seen the picture of both discs and to me they don't look much different. Yes the technology is great but why not use that mind power to invent something new and useful? Why mess with a good thing. Sorry I'm just venting.

Yes, it is funny how no one seems to mention the scratch resistant coating on Blu-ray discs. It's simply awesome and is one of the reasons I have backed Blu-ray from the start.

I truly believe this paramount move is just bad news and will only further hamper the forward mention of the HD home video industry. Sigh.

I agree with the scratch related comments. When both deliver the same quality, scratch-resistant should be the winning one. I rent DVDs online and receive them in the mail. Sometimes I waste a week to exchange a scratched disc. What is the benefit of 1080 pixels if HD-DVD will suffer from the same thing? What if it is even more sensitive to scratches because of its higher density?

And the new DVDs have *different* regions to old DVDs. As if the whole region-story wasn't a pain in the butt already.

I bought no DVDs or players until the Divx DVD mess was sorted out. The week it was sorted, I bought a (region-free) player and now have hundreds of DVDs. I imagine the same pattern will follow for high-def, EXCEPT I'll wait till I have region-free hardware on my computer.

I'm I the only one who doesn't really give a damn about all the extra features on a DVD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? All those "deleted scenes" were deleted for a reason, they sucked. I have yet to watch ANY deleted scene from a movie, with the exception of ALIENS, that I felt should have been in the original scene. Director's commentary? BORING. I don't care how sick Russell Crowe was when they filmed his most important scene.

My point in all this? There is no point, just mindless dribble. Right now, I'm not making a move towards HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. I couldn't give two poops about who wins, because I'm perfectly happy with DVD and my upconverting DVD player and the picture and sound I get on my HDTV & sound system.

I do have to agree with the whole anti-scratch feature being of paramount importance. Usually when I buy a movie, I make a back-up copy of it right away, store the original, and use the back-up copy. If the copy gets scratched up...so what?...I'll make another copy.

Looks like we have another Betamax vs VHS battle on our hands and Sony is going to lose again, even though their product, like the Betamax, was higher quality.

Personally I am in the HD-DVD camp.

Why? Well, I DO like and use the dual format disks. I have 3 DVD players and only 1 HD-DVD player (the Xbox add-on) so those titles that have the dual media format can be played anywhere, including PCs. I have over 700 DVD titles and over 15 HD-DVD titles. Good video is my vice so I have been an early adopter of Betamax, DVD, HDTV and now HD-DVD.

Blu-ray is fine. Sony was smart with the inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3 (at a cost of $2 billion to them). Maybe Blu-ray will win. If so, I'll switch - just like I switched from Sony's Betamax to VHS when Sony lost that format war. Is anyone really using the PSP UMD movies?

Glad to see the debate here. A couple of observations:

* Mike, Blu-Ray has a simpler set of region codes than DVDs. For instance, "Region 1" now covers the U.S., South America and all of East Asia except China. HD DVD has no region coding at all--not that any of the HD DVD companies seem to care about touting this.

* I think the scratch-resistant Blu-Ray coating Pete and Deniz are talking about is TDK's Durabis, which is not exclusive to Blu-Ray--most of the samples shown on TDK's site are regular DVDs. (Of course, the best protection against the loss of a movie is a backup copy on your own computer, which is far easier to make from a DVD than either high-def format.)

- RP

You made some good points in your post Rob.

But it seems odd that one mid-tear CE company can hold on and keep a lesser quality format alive against the weight of all the other major CE manufacturers, leading PC companies, key retailers and most of the Hollywood studios that support Blu-ray.

Clearly, there are some big bucks backing the effort up from a deep-pocketed software concern in the state of Washington.

For further thoughts, check out my blog at www.sony.com/electronicsblog.

Scratch resistant? Please, TDK has been selling that for years on their burnable DVD+-R's. If the HD-DVD camp decided to do it, you would get it. Besides, all you have to do is make a copy of the DVD for everyday use, and the original stays pristine. That's why both HiDef formats will lose. They don't let you use it according to consumer "fair use".

I think both camps will lose and that is my hope just like the LaserDisc format of the 80's just faded away.
Content is too expensive, players are too expensive. Who wants to make that kind of investment only to find out in a couple of years you will no longer be compatible with the world? Not me.
I'm happy for all of the people that get enjoyment out of either format but one thing is clear to me, neither camp is going to win. During the time these two different formats compete technology marches on (especially in storage) so I see both of these formats relegated to the LaserDisc outcome.
I envision that during the "battle for dominance" these two formats are waging that a write-once memory card solution will be the ultimate winner.
I could be and often have been wrong but so is this formats war.
Count me out. I'll continue to buy the standard DVD's and if I want to see it in a pseudo-HI DEF then I'll buy an upconverting DVD player.

This so-called high def disc "war" will most likely end the same way the so-called DVD+/DVD- "war" ended. It will be a draw. Both formats have media that are of a common size and will fit in either player. All that needs to happen is for a company to market a machine that will do both formats. A few years ago, Sony released a dual format DVD+/DVD- burner, and although it was a bit pricy at $300, it led to a wave of cheaper faster dual standard burners. OEM dual standard burners can be found for as little as $50 today.

LG Has already done this with their BH-100 dual standard player. It is expensive, but once other manufacturers get wind of this machine, less expensive versions will appear. In a couple of years, these dual standard players will probably cost less than $300.

"Simpler" region codes for Blu-Ray still don't go far enough. The English-speaking world is still divided. Hollywood will still region-protect movies that are 50 years old. People will still try to swap regions past the hard-coded limit on their PC DVD drives.Sony will still try to make money by backing region-coding systems AND selling region-free hardware. I won't be able to rent a DVD in Europe and fly to USA (or the reverse) and watch the DVD on a laptop.

welcome all
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