1. First Time Early Adopter

I spend loads of technology (much more than the wife approves of) but have never been an early adopter cause of high prices and the knowledge that I would get a much better deal if I waited out for a bit.  But thanks to HD DVD reaching an 'affordable price' so quickly I was able to get a HD DVD player at a very early stage and enjoy all the glorious benefits of high definition audio and video.  Once it was announced that PS3 would be incorporating Blu Ray I knew without a doubt that Blu Ray would win the format war.  But I had no quams buying a HD DVD player as Toshiba introduced some really affordable players with cutting edge technology.  I knew I could buy loads of movies in high definition and for movies that were Blu-Ray exclusive I could just buy on DVD and watch on my HD DVD player which doubles as an amazing upscaling technology. 

 I would like to thank Toshiba for their quality players which have allowed me to enjoy high definition so early on and very reasonable prices.  People argue that with a single format from the outset (Blu Ray) prices would have come crashing down anyway.  But ask yourself how many years DVD was out before you found it affordable. 

People also say competition amongst the Blu Ray manufacturers would have caused prices to come down quickly.  But where is the evidence of that.  In the UK the cheapest stand alone Blu Ray player is about £200 more expensive than the cheapest HD DVD player despite having incomplete technology, much less connections and features and inferior picture quality.  The other manufacturers are being slaughtered by PS3 and yet over a year after the PS3 was released it is still the cheapest Blu Ray player.  Even the PS3 which has seen a £125 price reduction in the UK has had nothing to do with the format war and everything to do with substantial price cuts being necessary to even remain remotely relevant in the console war.  If the Sony official had been right about people getting two jobs to buy a PS3 or 5 million buyers without any games then there would still be no Blu Ray player which is even remotely affordable.  And for many (including myself) a games console can never be my movie player.

 It will probably take about another 2 years before Blu Ray players of the same price as current HD DVD players match the technology.  Sony fans bang on and on about disc capacity without even considering the difference in hardware quality and features.  Personally I feel an item has to be worth what I pay for it and there is no Blu Ray player worth its price out right now other than the PS3 if you are interested in the games which I am not.

 2. Rip Off Britain

In the UK high definition discs cost twice as much as they do in the US.  Thanks to HD DVD being region free I have been able to buy all my HD DVDs from US sites at reasonable prices.  With Blu Ray I don't have that luxury.  I am aware that some movies are region free but researching which are and which aren't seems to much of a hassle.  I'm not even sure if it is a high percentage of Blu Ray discs that are region free and I'm pretty sure it isn't. 

With Blu Ray hardware likely to take a couple of years to catch up with current HD DVD players (pound for pound) combined with the fact I would have to buy Blu Ray discs in the UK for double price I will not be getting a Blu Ray player for a while.  With Warner going Blu Ray exclusive that means most of my movies will continue to be on DVD for a while. 

 A dual format in the true sense is not a good thing but it would have been nice if consumers were giving a choice as to which format they want with all movies being released on both formats with consumers buying which format of the movie they want.  Unfortunately we weren't given this choice and as a result of Sony trojan horsing blu ray into PS3 it is the format that has given us affordable and quality hardware that has lost out.

I won't mourne HD DVD, I'll continue to use it, as far as I'm concerned the only thing that has changed is that I'll soon need to get my Warner titles on Blu Ray instead of HD DVD.

To be honest, I don't watch many movies at all so the "Format war" had minimal to no effect on me in general. However I made and still make no plans to buy either as a stand alone, the only reason I have a single blu-ray disk is because they were freebies for my PS3 other than that I've no intention of buying them.

That being said I will say competing formats are generally a good thing as it keeps prices for everything in check though when one dies while the other is still fairly costly it doesn't bode well for further price drops.

I think HD dvd is wayyyy better than blu ray (I know it's not technically as good though). I don't think blu ray is winning I think people are just trying to push it's success's more than HD dvd

Actually, at CES there was already lower model Blu-ray players being announced starting at $199, never mind two years.

And with Profile 1.1 already out and BD Live coming out soon, all the hardware and specs will be even.

I haven't got into the next-gen format yet. I'm still using DVD's and using Xbox Live Marketplace to watch the latest movies.

I have Blu-ray because it's already pre-installed on the PS3. So if Blu-ray wins, I can already take full advantage of the feature.

It's apparent you got your HD DVD player close to launch when they were roughly the same price as a ps3, at least here in the US. In this case, how was the player by itself "reasonably priced" yet the player/games console was not?

I will mourn its passing. For my money it was or at least should of been the consumers choice. Unfortunately for the reasons outlined above this never happened and we are now forced to accept Blu Ray. I am still not convinced that the prices on Blu Ray will come down quick enough for the medium to take off sufficiently.

I am unlikely to ever buy a Blu Ray player unless it really does replace the humble DVD. I have already purchased a large amount of movies via the Ether or watch them upscaled.

The war has only just begun and I am not sure if the Trojan horse can beat DVD before it loses the battle to other mediums, I did believe that HD DVD had that potential had it been allowed to play the field and judging by the number of stand alone players plenty of other folks thought so to.

The PS3 for me is the same as a spammer you send out enough adverts for cheap viagra and enough people buy to make it worth the spammers while.