I'm pretty sure the studios know this. They may be irrational about copy protection, but they're not stupid; if there's one thing they're capable of doing, it's crunching numbers.

I truly couldn't care less if the American public picks up on it or not -- just as long as enough people buy it for the studios to stick with either or both formats.

Yawn.

Agree with many here. This seems like a textbook example of how NOT to introduce a new media format. They're virtually assuring this to be a niche product ala' laserdisc until prices drop in line with standard DVD hardware and titles.

Agreed with most here re: waiting for the dust to settle as I am very happy with current DVD format....

BUT, what if retailers and e-tailers start giving HUGE deals on BR/HD discs like there were when DVD first made it's appearance and people used to brag about how little they paid for a disc(s) with all the discounts? Would more people hop onboard then?

I would not, but then again, I seemed to always miss those "insider" sales in the late 90's anyway and seldom got a lot of discounts on DVDs.

Considering the draconian DRM implementation on these new discs, the format war can continue as long as it likes. Although I was excited about the prospect of an HD version of my favorite films, I won't be upgrading until I can own the film and play it wherever and whenever I please, which means I may have to stick with my beloved DVDs for the forseeable future.

The reason you don't still see sales like that is that the retailers lost huge sums of money hand over fist. Many of them went under. I very much doubt we will ever see a repeat of that scenario.

I still dont have a HD TV and am happy with my dvds as they are.

The fundamental problem with the next generation of HD-DVDs, Bluerays, is that they fundamentally don't change the way game DVDS did. DVDs were not only superior to VHS in terms of audio/video, they eliminated some of the most annoying things about VHS - rewinding, wear and size. You can also use DVDs in computers, portable DVD players, etc. - none of which existed for VHS (or at least very big sizes - remember those "portable VHS viewers?"

I firmly believe the next generation of DVDs will be nothing more than a niche market for those who want it..and the inability to come up with a decent standard that allows fair use is going to doom it.

Is it still a war if no one shows up?

I have heard that most CE companies are upset with DVD players becoming low cost commodities with little profit. If most BR players will be PS3 consoles (most likely subsidized by Sony for awhile), who will buy more expensive stand alone BR players. Will Sony's CE partners in BR make money? Would royalty payments make that much difference?

And that is why I will wait until one of the formats is permanently cracked, in the same way DVDs are today, so that I can play the movies on my equipment the way I want to. Until then, upscaled DVD, cable and OTA HDTV recordings will do just fine, thank you.

At least with two formats, there is twice as much chance for them to screw up their copy prevention schemes.

Exactly. Those outrageous dvd-deals were not financed by Hollywood - they were paid for with venture capital from the dot-com boomtimes.

The thing to remember with Blu Ray is that the whole purpose for the format is that Sony co-owns (I believe Phillips is the other half) the format itself, meaning any company that supports it needs to pay a fee to Sony for its use. this is the only reason Sony is pushing the format, and probably the best reason to avoid it.

As opposed to Toshiba and NEC, who have nothing but altruistic intentions?

Well obviously they have not learnt their lesson,'Betamax vs VHS' wayback then.Can't
blame them though, who ever wins there's alotta dough to be had and we the consumers are the real losers and as the saying goes 'When elephants fight the grass will suffer'.

Well...actually (by all the tech specs) Blu-ray is clearly a superior, next generation optical disc format, which is why it has a lot of support in the computer arena.

In addition, Blu-ray is gaining ever increasing backing. I think one of the reasons is that Sony is showing their Blu-ray supporters that they are willing to play nice, because they learned their lesson from the Beta situation. A good part of the reason Beta lost the tape format war was Sony's actions towards other companies. Sony tried to go it alone. The VHS crowd, on the other hand, welcomed everybody.

Although, I will say that the only reason I won't buy a Sony digital camera is because of their absurd, proprietary file storage sytem. I believe Sony is the only manufacturer that uses their memory sticks. Since I already have two other devices that use SD cards, the only camera I will buy must be able to utilize SD cards.

There is a solution. And a way to win the war and a way to make people show up for the war. It is called....1080p. Also, marketing, of course.

Sure, this will cement the format(s) as a high-end, LD-esque product. But what else have they got? Most people haven't even HEARD of HD discs, whereas DVD was talked about for years. And most still don't have an HDTV. They need to make this BETTER than HDTV. DVD is better than SDTV or VHS.

In reality, this is probably too soon for the market to support either/both of these discs. So they will probably have to hang around for a few years with few sales as people finally purchase a compatible TV. It will probably be 'who can be patient enough', rather than 'who can win the war by fighting'. We'll see once pricing starts to be announced.

Are you talking about 1080p hardware Spiky? My understanding, based on numbers given to us with the PS3, is that BR is 1080p capable and that Toshiba hasn't announced resolution figures yet for Hd-dvd? Am I wrong with that?

Regardless, I'm betting we won't get actual 1080p releases for awhile, as they will be using single layer discs for 1080i/720p.

What they need = 1080p (both discs and hardware), full backwards compatibility, no DRM (at least none that restricts your ability to watch your DVD's on various machines or tracks your viewing habits), and HD component inputs.