Sorry if this has already been covered in the facts / FAQ thread, but what will BluRay and HD-DVD look like?

I know it seems like a stupid question. I'm assuming that HD-DVD will look like a standard DVD, but recently when I saw a flash ad at, I believe it was Panasonic's Japanese site, the BluRay disc appeared to be in some kind of case/cart before it was inserted into the player.

Yes, here is an example of what I am talking about:
http://panasonic.jp/media/blu_ray.html

I thought that BluRay (Sony) invented some kind of casing/shell to protect the discs so that they wouldn't need this cart/case. Confused.

Larry

The kind with the shell is an earlier version of BR only released in Japan.

TDK has a new scratch resistant coating that is suppose to overcome the .1mm limitation of the Blu Ray discs. I'm waiting for that coating to get fully tested, but from what I am reading it can take a lot of punishment with no damage to the discs. That eliminated the need for the Blu Ray discs to be in cases.

Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are stored on 5" discs just like DVD. There are physical structure and manufacturing differences with the discs, but they look the same as what you're used to now.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD packaging will come in keepcases that are a little bit shorter and a little bit wider than current keepcases to distinguish them from DVD. Blu-Ray discs will have a blue banner label and HD-DVD a red banner label on the front of the case.

As Drexl says, the caddy-based Blu-Ray is an older recordable HD format available only in Japan. Sony has recycled the brand name, but it is not the same as the new Blu-Ray coming out this year.

I was hoping the cases would be thinner than current ones. I thought studios were going that route with newer box sets being in thinpaks. Seems to me that everyone wants everything more compact to enable more shelf space.

Are HD-DVD discs also going to contain the scratch resistant coating that BR has?

I don't think so. They will probably use DURABIS 1 (just like DVDs do today).

The Blu-Ray discs use DURABIS 2 which is specifically designed (by TDK) for Blu-Ray. I assume HD-DVD could use it, but it may be unnecessary since Blu-Ray (w/o the coating) is extremely scratch intolerant. HD-DVD is more scratch tolerant due to design so it doesn't need DURABIS 2.

Blu-Ray would still be in caddies if it were not for DURABIS 2.