Discuss. Would like to know everyones opinion, as im interested in keeping up my DVD Collection unless otherwise.

i dont think it will. Even with my new hd set, i don't think an hd dvd will be much better then say toy story 2 disc se, or terminator 2.

In order to discuss, you're going to have to define your terms. What do you mean by "obsolete"?

Will they eventually stop selling them? Probably, but that could be *decades* away. They're still selling and renting VHS tapes after all of these years, and a few of them are still selling pretty damn well.

Will they eventually stop selling machines to play them? Unlikely. At least in your lifetime.

Will the format eventually fall out of favor and will "HD-DVD" eventually become the dominant format? Probably.

But, again, you have a long wait. DVD is a HUGE success. And the upcoming replacement formats are vaporware at this point. And the number of people who (a) have TVs that can handle the new format; (b) have the finances to invest in the new format; and (c) have the inclination to embrace a new format... well, that number is very, very small at this point.

Also, don't forget: When/if HD-DVD takes over, your current DVDs don't melt or explode. You can continue to watch and enjoy them for as long as you wish.

In short -- if I understand your question -- you can continue to "keep up" your collection without fear.

Also with the impending format war (i havent really kept up with it), i don't think the majority of customers would be willing to invest in both. Also i don't see hd-dvd/blue ray becoming affordable to the average person (it took what 2 or 3 years before dvd player prices dropped) for a couple of years after it is on the market.

By obsolete i Mean fade away, like VHS in that they become worthless (going for ~$1 per) and eventually just losing its value and stop being in rental stores etc... Also im comparing it to VHs in that right after VHS came out, it nearly IMMEDIATELY became obsolete with such massive changes, will it be like that...or take a lot more time?

My money says HD-DVD becomes obsolete before DVD does.

It's going to take a long, long time for DVD to start to disappear. I'm not even convinced that HD-DVD/Blu-Ray will be the thing to do it.

But, even if it does, I suspect it'll take a decade or more. Once again, just about everyone out there would have to buy a brand new TV, player, and movie collection to enjoy it. And it's going to be expensive.

Home theater enthusiasts may be willing to do that. (And, if there wasn't a format war, I'm ready to plug a new HD player right into my system today.) But the "average" consumer just bought a DVD player in the past couple of years and has an ever-growing DVD collection. They aren't looking to upgrade soon, and aren't willing to pay thousands of dollars to do it.

HD is in many ways doing a textbook job of how NOT to introduce a product to the consumer market. We're reading about probable format wars, possible input incompatibility with certain existing HD sets, big brother type copyguard possibilities, pretty much assured high market introduction prices.......and delays while the companies play politics. Joe Average isn't going to give a hoot about all of this crap and will just keep buying standard DVDs for a long time to come......and the way they're introducing this new format to the market, I may be Joe Average myself. I don't think DVDs are going to become obsolete for a long time to come and it may well be that they remain the big dog in sales for years after the introduction of HD discs.

Well, we've all seen how quickly DVD Audio and SACD have made CDs obsolete, right?

I would agree with the audio comment except that the average person coudnt tell the sound quality difference of a standard 128 bit mp3 and a CD Quality song if it bonked em on the head...much less DVD Quality.

Nope. It'll be the equivilent of laserdisc to video.

I don't think HD Dvd will replace DVD since it is just upgraded version of DVD.
Format wise, it has not been changed dramatically. I wouldn't buy any HD dvd hardware if it is expensive.

yes HD DVD will reign!

Wow, another thread asking the same question. No offense, but a search would find this same discussion at least 20 times.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray may make DVD technologicaly obsolete, but will in no way cause a lack of releases or reduction of DVD sales for quite some time. The difference is not as big as VHS to DVD. It could take years for any real significant group of HD users to develop. It will probably, at least for the first several years be like LaserDisc - only a few early adoptors will go with it - because quite frankly, if you do not have a 16x9 HDTV with HDMI it will be worthless to have and HD or Blu-Ray DVD. At some point, a HD standard will rule the market, but it could be the next format after these HD formats.

It looks like HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and are are trying the Divx way by pluging in to a phone jack. To me, it seems like another try to stop piracy.

No, they will look and sound just as good now, and the new players will be backwards compatible, so they won't be obsolete.

Plus, I honestly don't expect an new movie format any time soon that's any more successful than a niche market item like lazerdiscs. Especially with the format war and the stupid things both sides seem determined to do.

Why would it be obsolete? As long as you have a working dvd player what does another format have to do with you watching your collection?

The only people who would are people with high end surround sound audio systems, which is a niche group of people just like those with home theater setups. Its actually a very good comparison because its an example of a format war that lead to two separate formats which both struggled to do any sales at all. The only ones with any sort of decent sales are the SACD hybrid discs, which sold to both SACD capable people and us regular Joe's who just wanted something like a remastered Stones or Dylan disc.

Like CD, DVD will live on probably longer than HD-DVD.