true, but how i wish one HD format would just die out. 

Have you read this part from Michael Bay

"What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth."

Thats a scary thought.

Though I cant see Digital downloads doing well unless they make a new codec that would play 1080p videos from 100mb of data and sell the videos really cheap....

scratch that, it would still be pretty hard for the average movie lover to play the movie on his/her Big screen.

In due time, I think HD DVD will die. Blu-Ray is just... Better...

"Better" is questionable ...

The main thing Blu-Ray has going for it is capacity while HD-DVD is far more affordable; if you want to take price out of the equation wouldn't a 1-Terabyte Hard-Drive be the "Best" if Blu-Ray is "Better"?

The fact is that this format war will become far more interesting when HD-DVD players are less than $100 and the cheapest Blu-Ray player is still the PS3 at $300 or $400.

Far more affordable? More affordable, yes, but far more affordable? Hardly.

You can get the Samsung BD-P1400 for $370 at many retailers now, while the cheapest HD DVD standalone, the Toshiba A-3, is around $230.

People seem to be under the impression that Blu-Ray will always be expensive. Blu-Ray standalone players have come down almost $700 in only a year. By Holiday '08, Blu-Ray players will be well under $200.

HD DVD is only more affordable right now, and that only matters to the 20% of the population that owns an HDTV right now, and even then, far less than that 20% are considering adopting HDM right now.

In the end price means nothing, as current DVD pricing will eventually be the norm for both formats, should they stick around long enough. And they will probably be pretty damn close to those prices before even 50% of the nation thinks about adopting one format or the other.

Also, even HD DVD's current price advantage is debatable, as many HD DVD movies are more expensive than their Blu-Ray counteparts. Dual format Warner titles often cost $5 more on HD DVD, as they come on a combo disc, and other Blu-Ray studios like Disney and Sony occasionally have buy one get one free deals, something that the HD DVD side rarely does. What do you want, cheaper players or cheaper movies?

In the end, Blu-Ray's capacity and bitrates win out for me since, in the end, price will be a moot point. Did you know that all of the extras on the Blu-Ray version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix are in HD, yet they're only in SD on HD DVD? Not to mention, the Blu-Ray version has an extra 45 min. A&E special on the disc. Capacity matters, a lot.

 Ha ha!  Nice

I wish one format would win. I'm always amazed at the amount of people that want High Definition to die out, like they will no longer be able to buy DVDs. I want to be able to have the option to watch my films in 1080p if I want to, and if someone else is fine with 480 i/p - then fine. They don't need to force me to not enjoy my movies in 1080p.

It would be nice if one wins, although it did drive prices down pretty quickly so I can have a PS3 and a Toshiba HD DVD player. DVD players took alot longer to come down in price than BD / HD DVD players.

 Sorry for the double post.  Do you have a link?  That's alot bigger than I was expecting in Japan.  It wouldn't surprise me because Japan is usually the first to buy into consumer technology.  

 Blu-Ray has 17% of the recorder market in Japan, noth the entire market.  It's really popular over there for data back up.  Blu-Ray has 17%, DVD 80%, and HD DVD a meager 3%.

 Thanks for clarification.  Blu-ray recorders have been there since 2004, I believe.  I saw them on display on stores when I was there in Japan in 2005.  They were about $2500 at the time, but there is a definite niche culture of technophiles there.

Unlikely.  Maybe watching paint dry. But I've noticed that the Sony fans on this site are obsessed with it.  I guess it helps keep their minds off the console war where things are not looking too good for Sony.  I bet you if Sony was format neutral there would hardly be any posts about the format war.  But cause Sony is chief blu-ray backer blu-ray is all of a sudden the greatest thing since sliced bread (not sure why that's the saying as I don't think sliced bread is that great).