Not sure if this has ever been discussed before, but I thought it might be interesting to see the various reasons people have for going Hi-Def at this point in time (before a clear winner has emerged) and for picking a particular side of the format war (if they aren't format-neutral).

I always thought I'd wait till the format war ended before I made the jump, but the reasonable prices on the Toshiba 3rd gen HD-DVD players in conjunction with the free movie rebate and more free movies in-store upon purchase, the backward-compatibility of HD-DVD players, and the fact that HD-DVDs are region-free made it relatively easy to make the decision early. But the affordability of the hardware, for me, was the primary reason.

I was holding out for a winner, then the HD-DVD deals started coming in. I was considering the 360 add-on, but waited.

Then I need to come up with an idea for a gift from my parents, so I got an HD-A3 for Christmas.

Other.

Bottom line is that i'm a movie fan. I want to watch movies I enjoy in the best possible presentation.

Plus i'm impatient as hell...there's no way I was going to wait a year, 2, 3? for one format to overtake (if ever) the other.

Price drop came and I could afford HD-DVD..

Best picture quality available.

Price drop(Walmart $99) on the hardware, and deals on the software that made me go red and into HD. Hope the same happens for blu-ray next christmas so I can be purple. Yay.

Price drop. Got an A2 from Wal Mart and then an A3 when that went on sale at BB. Now I have 2 players, one for my bedroom and another for my home theater.

Bought my first HDTV, needed an upconverting player for my large collection of SD-DVDs. Saw a great deal on an HD-A2, figured "here's my upconverter, with HD-DVD playback and free movies as a bonus. I don't have to buy expensive HD-DVDs, I can rent them with my existing Netflix account."

It was all upside.

Pretty much the exact same for me...

As uglyjay mentioned, picture quality.

Also the Xbox 360 drive was pretty affordable when I decided to jump into HD-DVD. I think it was maybe $149?

I found a really great deal on the HD-A1 player in July 2006 through OnePass. I got it for around 400 bucks.



My how things have changed.

Won a PS3, then couldn't pass up the Walmart deal for an A2.

I paid $83.xx for my player, there was no passing it up. It was the second player I purchased. About two months prior, I sold my first one for $200.00 because I wasn't sold on if HD DVD was the way to go. Nothing changed in my mind since I sold it, so worse czase, $83.xx for a fine player that upconverts is good for me regardless if the format wins or loses.

Damn Amazon and $155 for A3 and 10 Free DVDs killed me. Now I have over 15 HD DVDs, plus my 5 extra coming in 4 years from Toshiba.

In addition to the obvious improvement in video quality, the kick ass lossless audio is another reason I have HD. I've been a HD DVD owner since day 1, way back in April of '06. Didn't get into Blu-ray until October '06.

I had stopped buying films on DVD around April of 2005 in anticipation of the new high def formats, being a true early adopter, I had to have my movies in high def. I admittedly only bought HD DVD because of word of mouth from people I trust, and price wasn't an issue so I dropped $799 on the Toshiba XA1 back in April 2006.

I knew I was going to buy a Blu-ray player eventually, due to their better trechnical specifications. It also helped that they have the better selections of movies I wanted. I actually started buying disc in October 2006. I finally bought a Samsung BDP-1000 in February 2007 in a package deal with my new TV and actually paid less for that unit than my Toshiba XA1. (I also bought the 80 PS3 when the price dropped to $499, mainly for the Simpsons Game, and the upgrade capability of the unit as a blu-ray player.)

The bonus benefit has been all of the crazy sales that have been going on for software. Due to these sales, and specific studio exclusives, my collection of HDM is sitting around 350 titles with a 75:25 split in favor of Blu-ray.

At this point I'm only buying the rare Universal catalog title on HD DVD, due to my experience with their Combo discs. Since Paramount went exclusive, I have bought only Transformers on HD DVD, and that only becuase CC screwed up and offered BOGO on all HDM by accident in October.

Blu-ray on the other hand... It's been nuts.

fitprod

I find it interesting that so far, the major reasons have been the low price of the hardware, the movie deals, and the improved audio/quality, and only one person cites the particular studios aligned with each format as their main reason. I thought I was in the minority since I bought into HD-DVD but ironically most of the movies I would be interested in watching are actually only on Blu-Ray (that sounds a lot sillier now that I've typed it out).

So my buying strategy going forward would be to buy films that I'm interested in on HD-DVD if they're available on that format and otherwise buy the SD-DVDs and up-convert them.

I was bored and needed more things to purchase. Buying just one type of DVD wasn't enough.

I got the Matrix HD-DVD set for $20 before I had a player and couldn't resist keeping it.

Have since given up on the format because of the terrible support by the exclusive companies and lack of decent prices and sales on appealing catalog titles. Won't be adding Blu to my collection any time soon, either, because of the continued cost-prohibitive players.

Another ditto for this comment.

This "format war" has no end date. We'll get the next generation (1440p? 2160p?) before either side folds.

Other.

Video and sound quality. Why keep buying standard DVDs I will just end up replacing?

I got a good deal on my A3, plus it came with the 5 free movies, 2 more in-box and 2 more in store. If BR had a player for $200 I'd jump on it too.

gotta love the best possible presentation for something that i truely love!

I concur. I keep rebuying better special editions of movies I love I figure HD was the ultimate double dip as I'm getting significantly better picture.

Saw an A1 demo at Best Buy. Tracked down an A1 unit. The rest is history.