The more and more I think about it; the more I'm glad that we've had a format war.

Number 1 obviously is that the prices have skyrocketed down. A $299 DVD player didn't happen until nearly 3 years after the first player came out. Now we have the Tosh at $299 and that's only been a little over a year since the first player came out.

The disc quality has gotten astronomically better. Look at POTC and the Matrix. I mean the quality of these discs is amazing. No one, not even me thought that the discs would be this good. Each studio is trying to one up the other and without a war I don't think the level of quality would be this high.

The number of disc releases has increased quite a bit as well. I don't think the variety that we have now would have been possible without the war. All the big hitters are coming out sooner than I thought.

I don't think we'll have the war ending anytime soon which is great for us. I think dual format players will become the norm and this war is going to drive the prices down even lower.

I fully expect a $100 dollar player by next year from both sides and that my friends is why the war has been great for us. I think if either came out on their own that never ever would have happened.

I agree. As I said from the beginning, consumers are winning the war. With only one format, companies can be as lazy as they want to be with quality, extras, and what gets released.

I wish it didn't require $800 for me to experience both formats. That's really my only complaint. If BD had a Tosh-like deal today I'd be out there supporting BD. There's enough software out now that I will want (Pirates, Casino Royale), now it's just a matter of time for the player to come down in price.

I agree that the format war has helped with prices and disc quality (especially Sony, who were forced to shape up after their first lackluster BD releases). The thing that most annoys me about the format war (other than having to buy 2 players) is all the fanboy arguing and gloating (on both sides) all over the place (eg. AVS), that's really pretty pathetic (but admittedly entertaining to read sometimes).

Yeah, thank goodness for HD DVD. BD really dropped the ball out of the gate. Both formats seem to be really good right now. HD DVD has better prices BD has more studios. Both have great movies and disc keep getting better. Only complaint, like others is that I have to switch sources and have two machines (that could end, LG is on the right track, now we need a better company to build a better machine).

That's my problem. If the current BD deal was the same as HD, I would have bought both players. As it is, I bought only the HD because I can't justify paying twice as much for a BD player when, at least to my eyes, there is no difference between the two.

The only problem I have is, I accept HD-DVD, but will James Bond films come out only on Blue Ray, that's annoying.

But I agree the format war has had advantages, it all comes down to how much cash you don't mind blowing for 2 players.

The format war definitely isn't all bad. It forced Blu-ray to get its crap together after they were embarrassingly outclassed by HD-DVD during their initial launch. You think there's any chance Sony would be remastering The Fifth Element(not to mention offering a free exchange for anyone who bought the first copy) or porting over all the extras from SD-DVD like WB and Universal had HD-DVD not gotten off to an early lead a year ago?

The downside aside from needing two players in order to enjoy all HD content is that it's keeping a lot of hesitant studios and companies on the sidelines until there's a winner. New Line, Criterion, Anchor Bay, and powerful filmmakers like Spielberg are refusing to release anything as long as there are two competing formats.

The real question is, how long are the non-entrenched studios willing to keep supporting these formats? The format war does not benefit them in the slightest, so they have the most to lose from it continuing.

Hence Warner and that damn TotalHD disc they are about to force upon us.

Oh, and Warner and Paramount have the money and library to go the distance with both formats if needed - I know they do not want to, but they can and will IMHO.

Let's hope so. I'd sure hate for these formats to die before they can show us what they're really capable of.

Retailers don't want both formats either. It's going to be tougher to catch on with the majority of consumers as long as two are fighting it out. Which means if they do become a niche product, then software pricing likely won't drop much, if at all. If 1 wins, then all studios can push that 1 format, and hopefully more will adopt and then we'll see some better software pricing down the road.

It's only been a year and we've already gotten each formats' biggest releases so far (Matrix/Pirates). And both are impressing the hell out of everyone. I was in Best Buy and they had about 20 copies each of the Pirates films and at least a dozen of the Ultimate Matrix set.

The Spider-man Trilogy will be out later this year, and all the Summer blockbusters as well. So that should certainly help keep the interest going. Player prices will continue to drop as well. I think Q4 we will see some very aggressive promos.

Regarding HD DVD, Kris Deering of AVS, who's has insider sources, says that this Fall, there will be a "big" HD DVD title that gets DTS MA audio. The only thing I can think of that would get that at this point is LOTR, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

The scenarios I think would happen are: HD DVD and Blu-ray co-exist and dual format players become the norm, or Blu-ray wins outright. I don't think we'll see a situation where Blu-ray flat out loses. I know HD DVD player prices are cheaper, etc. but there appear to be a single BD studio even hinting of becoming a dual supporter. I know Fox is MIA right now, but currently, it's still the majority of studios/manufacturers supporting BD. Q4 should tell us what's likely going to happen next year and beyond. BD needs to get a player out there under $400 at some point.

Realisticly, how long can 1 side go on with 1 exclusive, 3 major studio supporters and 1 player manufacturer?

Regardless of what they may say, I believe the REAL reason those studios are on the sidelines is that HD-DVD and BD are in their infancy in terms of sales.

There is a certain cost to releasing a disc - marketing, mostly. These guys want to sell a zillion copies on release day. They want the most bang for their buck.

They'll wait until there are a LOT of hi-def players in peoples homes before they release their signature titles, so they can make the most cash for their marketing investment.

Plus regardless of the marketing cost, they only ever get to release it for the first time on a new format once (excluding special editions, etc), so why not wait until they can make the most money?

I'd bet something from Spielberg, since he's connected to DTS.

You're probably right. The only way Blu-ray loses is if those rumored cheap Chinese HD-DVD players start getting carried by Wal-Mart. Then the user base for HD-DVD could increase rapidly by the end of the year which would make it very tempting for some of those exclusive Blu-ray studios to go neutral.

But I don't see Blu-ray killing HD-DVD until Fox rededicates itself to the format. As long as they're sitting on the sidelines, that's a lot of important exclusive titles that won't be available on Blu-ray.

The problem with HD-DVD is their two exclusive studios, Universal and the Weinstein Co., have almost no recent blockbuster titles to help push the format. This summer Universal has The Bourne Ultimatum and maybe Knocked Up. Next summer they've got The Incredible Hulk on tap. That's not much to brag about.

I think there are many that are getting too 'lost' in all of the techno acronyms.......... DTS MA ??!!

Gee - most average Joes are only wondering about Dolby Digital and 5.1 is all about. How many people do you REALLY KNOW have decent set-ups with 5.1 eqipment (and I'm not referring to the people who come into this forum ??).

DD .... DTS..... Lossless... Dolby HD... 5.1... 6.1 7.1........ DTS MA..... i tend to think that a lot of people are still MIA !!!

Universal was the main reason why I bought HD DVD on day 1. I prefer their catalog of titles over everyone else's. As long as they are exclusive, I'll own HD DVD. Evan Almighty could be a hit too, but it could also flop. Ultimatum and Knocked Up should both be extremely popular titles. And they do have 2 big Oscar contenders this fall: American Gangster (Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington) and Charlie Wilson's War (Tom Hanks, Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Next Summer, I think they are also releasing Hellboy 2 and Jurassic Park 4.

I'm still not sure about seeing any of his stuff this year. He took quite a while before he allowed his movies to release on dvd. With Jurassic Park 4 coming next year, I think we could see the trilogy released at that point. I'd love to have Munich with DTS MA since that had a superb soundtrack. If we did see a Spielberg title this year, I think it'd be Jaws. I thought Kevin Smith had mentioned on his View Askew site before that one of his Universal buddies hinted that we'd see that title this year on HD DVD. But who the hell knows. I have seen it on Universal's HD channel and it looked impressive.

Heh - I think I'll start calling it DTS-MIA until we get support for decoding in the players.

Off topic a bit. Thinking about getting the HD Matrix set, but have to be honest, my HD DVD attachment for the XBOX 360 hasn't exactly wowed me. Should I get a Blu-Ray player as well or get a Universal player that LG developed to play both formats? Could there be something wrong with my big TV with HD ability? I have had it for close to two years and have heard I might need to replace a bulb.

I wouldn't even consider the LG combo. If anything get separate Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players that will cost substantially less and probably be better quality than the combo (it doesn't and will never do IME for HD-DVD if you want that).

What is IME? A little ignorant here! Does the 360 attachment not really do much I guess?

IME is that interactive stuff like PIP commentaries for HD-DVD on certain titles like Miami Vice and The Matrix. I'm pretty sure the 360 add-on works with it, but the LG combo does not.