Some might think 'who cares' since the screens are so small, but one of the reasons I got into DVD was because of the awesome portable DVD players.

I never found the resolution to be that good though. I was wondering if there will be HD portable players with superlative images.

I certainly hope so.

Let's focus on screen technology instead. I've got an OK Dell LCD for my computer monitor. It's native resolution is 1600 x 1200. It can't display true HD material properly. HD is too big, it gets shrunken down.

The monitor is 20". Even at quarter of its area (10") it's still too big for a portable player.

I can see maybe in 5 or 10 years, but you wouldn't have the HD resolution. At that point it exists solely so you can watch your HD DVD/BDs from home.

This will happen, definitely.

Already there are laptops with HD DVD players included.

Yeah, not sure how well HD would come through on a 10" portable screen, but I pretty much want it so I can watch my BD discs on the plane or on the road, which I can't do right now unless I buy the SD disc as well.

Let me rephrase/expand my answer:

- Will there be small-portable players (book sized or smaller) that will play HD DVDs and BDs? Yes.
- Will you get the full HD/BD experience from them by themselves? No.

Considering that current portable DVD players don't even show the SD DVDs at full resolution I have zero interest in a portable HD DVD player. Laptops will be a good option though and will have the screen resolution needed.

Yeah, Im sure they will have them, because the general public will want them. I would have 0 interest but thats me. I have yet to watch the one I got last year for Christmas.

I'd be curious if it'd have hdmi output included.

I think it's definitely going to take some time. I'd say late 2007.

Size vs resolution is not really an issue. There are LCDs under an inch that are full 1080 resolution. I would expect the first portables to be lower resolution than HDDVD, though. Even something odd, like current portable screens. (if you can actually find resolution specs on these, you see weird stuff like 350x650) Maybe DVD res, or something in the middle of nowhere. But with HDDVD compatibility.

I wouldn't even be surprised if Sony came out with portable BD first, since they think they are the king of the portable market. (note I didn't say I think that)

Panasonic announced this year that they would be including BD drives in their car entertainment systems.

Something like this would have been announced around CES in January - we might see some actual devices demoed at the upcoming CES show.