i think the heart of your question is, "if price were not an issue would i prefer the "technically superiour" blu-ray format"?
I put "technically superiour" in quotes cause as far as i'm concerned these are equvilant formats. Throw all the numbers you want at me but put the same movie on the same TV and I cannot visually tell a difference. I use stereo speakers so I couldn't care less about 7.1 tru HD sound.
The most important issues for me when choosing a prefered format...
1. price
2. content (i.e. which movie is exclusive to which format)
3. viability (even $100 for a player and ~$30 a disc is too much if the format dies)
HD-DVD is winning on price, as far as i care they are tied on content, neither is very viable to me yet.
my winner - upscaled dvd. best price, best content, best viability, and acceptable technical specifications.
