All things being equal, I buy the HD DVD.

My rental experience has hurt this for me. I have yet to scratch a Blu-ray I own, but I have noticed that scratches on the rental discs can ruin the disc. One single scratch not very deep and the BD disc is going to freeze at the spot where the scratch is. I've had this happen three times so far and I will say most BD discs I have rented are scratch free so the coating works to an extent.

This is not an issue for HD DVD. They seem able to play with scratches just as well as standard discs. I would rather have a format that is easier to scratch, but not hurt by the normal light ones over the one harder to scratch, but ruined easily by them even if they are light.

Combos is another issue. I have had issues with 300 and Superman Returns freezing on a perfect looking disc. That is my only real problem with HD DVDs.

But aren't they all Dolby Digital Plus tracks on the HD version, and only regular Dolby Digital tracks on the BD?
Being the newer codec, shouldn't the Plus versions be ever so slightly superior? Or, if they are encoded at the same bitrate, are they identical? (In which case, what makes it a Plus track then??)

DD+ is lame. On Riddick, the regular DTS track sounds better, the same as if it were regular 5.1. Ghost Rider & 300 have TrueHD & PCM (Bluray not HD) & I'd say the PCM had a slight edge in both cases. Most people will tell you lossless is lossless, as they tried here with me, trying to give technical reasons as to why. But when I asked why some Blurays had 16-bit PCM (4.6Mbps) & some have 24-bit (6.9 Mbps), they had to admit that all lossless is NOT the same. And I think most TrueHDs are encoded at lower rates than PCM. The TrueHD on 300 never gets much above 3Mbps even during the action scenes, whereas the TrueHD on the Nine Inch Nails concert goes over 5Mbps when the music is cranking. This & the fact that I've also had many problems with my A2 and combos, while having no problems with any Blurays means I always pick the Bluray version. And selection? I love the Universal movies & have over 60 of their HD-DVDs, but 9/10 look barely better than dvd. Their catalog titles are the worst of any studio & barely any even have lossless audio, while almost all Blurays do. Warner & Paramount are great with older movies, but now that Paramount is only HD, I'll never hear that Blades Of Glory PCM track. And YEAH!! Transformers won't have lossless audio either now?! This from the format they said has the best specs. By specs they must have meant "payoff money"

I might be wrong but I think the remastered Fifth Element has a 16-bit PCM track but a 24-bit TrueHD track, so not all discs offer higher bitrate PCM tracks. In fact, logic would dictate that since TrueHD has a variable bit rate, it would be more space efficient to offer 24-bit TrueHD than PCM. And I listened to both the PCM and TrueHD tracks on 300 and the PCM was slightly, slightly louder. I couldn't discern any other differences.

I picked HD-DVD, and I was pretty firm on waiting them out. Then I realized that despite the hype about the format war, this is just a rehash of video game consoles/studios going after the same market. You can't play Halo on a Playstation, so you go without or buy both. Or three if you want Mario Kart. I think that both formats will exist for years. A dual format player at a fair price will make the whole 'war' thing seem silly, and people won't pay attention to what color plastic case the DVD is in.

I chose HD-DVD because of price and titles available. I'd like to see Fight Club and Underworld in HD, but Blu-Ray players are far too expensive. I also couldn't go HD and not have The Matrix. The new HD-A3 looks good. Bourne 1, 300 and 5 free DVDs bring the cost down to below what I paid for my upconverting DVD player 3 years ago.

Still, the business side of things is frustrating for people like me who just want to watch a movie for the movie, I don't care what studio is behind it. 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks is Spike Lee's production company, but his films are distributed by others. Inside Man is Universal (HD-DVD), but 25th Hour is Buena Vista (Blu-Ray).

If Sony (or any other company) gives us a BD player for ~$250 with 7 free movies, I'd probably pick that up and have both. But there's no way I'm paying $500 for a DVD player.

You realize that the scratch protection has to be added to Blu-Ray because the data is more sensitive? It's kept closer to the bottom of the disc. That is, without the protection, the discs are more fragile than your average DVD.

Not that I don't appreciate it, but Durabis was added to make up for a fault, not as an extra feature.

Why it has to be more durable doesn't really matter to me... the fact that it is more durable is more important.

Good point.

Blu-ray, all things being equal. I agree with Dignam though...this format war won't end anytime soon, so it doesn't make a big differance to me.

Is it though? I will be curious to see how discs hold up over a long period of time. Especially if rentals get more popular. BDs are not scratch proof by any means.

True. I can only speak from personal experience. 2 of 3 HD DVD floaters I received from Amazon wouldn't play & had to be exchanged, whereas I had 2 BD floaters that played with no problem. I've had 3 Netflix HD DVD rentals that wouldn't play due to scratches, whereas all the BD's I've rented have played. And there was 1 HD DVD I accidentally scuffed myself (little too much to drink that night lol... it barely grazed my component cabinet's glass door). Not scientific by any means, but I know which I prefer.

I was on the fence regarding this whole HD war nonsense, but it all changed a little over a week ago when I purchased my first LCD screen. It was a 37" budget model to be sure, but it's an impressive set for the money,(Orion), with great connection options. I bought the Xbox 360 HD drive three days latter and have amassed the following movies,(wrote them off as holiday purchases so I don't feel as bad):

1.Batman Begins
2.The Bourne Supremacy
3. Children Of Men
4.The Chronicles Of Riddick
5. Constantine
6.FATF:Tokyo Drift
7. Hulk
8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
9. M:I:III
10. Rambo II
11. Serenity
12. Smokin' Aces
13. V For Vendetta

I'm glad I've made to jump now, and look forward to Transformers and The Bourne Ultimatum on HD, as well as the forthcoming German T2 Ultimate Edition HD-DVD,(there's a video presentation for this on youtube). Watching Hulk recently brought a huge grin to my face, which I haven't had since the early days of DVD.

HD DVD, my A1 has analog outs and since I am waiting a while to upgrade to a fully debugged HDMI full featured AV unit, I need those for the best audio. I only buy BD exclusive titles for my PS3. I am sure I will upgrade to a standalone player if they ever make a final spec and a player that meets it. I am also considering the new Integra player, so that would make me want HD DVD as well.

Lately I have been choosing neither. And even worse, I pretty much stopped buying SDVDs as well. I own both a PS3 (got it in a trade, still haven't found a use for it. Waiting for Stranglehold with Hard Boiled to come in though), and the 360 HD DVD (hardly gets use, and the only preorders I have for it are Blade Runner and Full Metal Jacket) add on.

The only thing I am torn on is Blade Runner. I preordered the Ultimate edition for HD DVD, but not sure if it might be better on BluRay somehow. Then I heard rumors about additional content with the 360 HD DVD add on through the internet, and that eased my mind a little. I really hate this stupid format war.

And now that I own both, I feel compelled to just shop for HD movies, but I am not willing to just fling around $20-30 a movie. Also, neither side has really put out anything super spectacular for my tastes (not really into these newer movies, and the only big classic must have I have seen is Casablanca which is an incoming freebie).

So with all of that babbling, I guess I can say that right now I'm slightly leaning towards HD-DVD purchases, but only because of supposed extras through the 360. Beyond that I'm not sold on either side, and it is pissing me off to the point where I don't even want to continue the hobby.

Until the format war is over (whether one format wins or both lose is up to speculation at this point), I'm sticking to both formats. I'm a big movie fan, and while I don't see the need to update all the DVD titles in my collection, there are some movies that simply must be seen in the best quality possible, whether that happens to be Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.

- What holiday? Labor Day?

I thought this was a question for those that owned both. I was gonna answer that if a title is available for both formats, I'd get it for Blu-Ray.

No, my vacation to not so sunny Scotland.

So all things being equal, you buy a copy of both?

All things being equal, I still buy HD-DVD. The only thing that actually makes me go with BD is a combo disc (like 300). Even though the PS3 has much better start up time than my A1, I still go with HD-DVD.

I was going to wait out this war, but when amazon had their A20 with 8 HD-DVD's for about $300 I couldnt resist. So, of course now my loyalties lie with HD-DVD. Now, if amazon has some blu-ray player and 8 blurays for $300 shipped I will likely jump on that deal as well...

All thing being equal, I'll purchase the HD DVD.

At this point, Bluray just because the start up time on my A1 is annoying and the ps3 just loads right up...But to be honest, 300 was the only movie so far for me that had 2 choices. I did get the BD on that eventhough the HD-DVD had the extra feature.