If you keep cussing like that you deserve to get banned.

If you're saying people will check out the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player when it hits $300, I think you're completely wrong; even if Sony becomes desperate the PS3 will not be $300 until 2009 and Blu-Ray players will (probably) be readily available at $100-$150. As a videogame machine it is possible that people would become interested at $300 but only if Sony actually starts selling more systems to encourage developers to produce more games.

DVD sales aren't in decline. It barely passed VHS last year or the year before. It will be the standard for at least another five years, probably longer.

And people who haven't commited to a format aren't "scared to put your money where your mouth is". We're careful consumers who don't want to support a format that will die in the next 36 months.

And what idiot said that DVD wouldn't supplant VHS? VHS was over 15 years old when DVD released. We were far overdue for a format update and DVD was welcomed in record time, far faster than almost any analyst predicted. I don't see that happening with either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. 

Oh, and here's proof that DVD player sales are not in decline:

Wow lots of tempers flaring here. Pretty intense discussions. Sometimes it does seem a bit childish, like I used to when I was 16. Anyways, the way I see it the format war should be looked broadly. Yes Blu-ray may be killing HD in Europe (or anywhere else as I see), but that is because you are looking at the wrong data. Basically the movie industry (with the exception of the porn industry of course) supports Blu-ray- I stress the basically part because obviously there are some that promote HD exclusively- and the whole computer industry is behind HD. So the format war is more of Movies vs Computers than of Sony vs Toshiba. Obviously when you look at the movie sales of Blu-ray and compare them with HD, yes blu-ray will kill HD. And it will continue to until HD-DVD roms come. Then it will be a landslide, because although not everyone has a blu-ray or HD player, they will definitely need a ROM to copy there Office 2010. It really is too premature to discuss the results now and only take into account the number of Blu-ray players sold vs HD. On a personal note, I would rather sony win this war than toshiba. Toshiba won the war last time (VHS vs Betamax) but although everyone says sony is not ethical, somehow I find it ethical that they have not tried to use the porn industry like toshiba did last time (and is trying to do this time). With all respect to everyone who buys/rents porn, I'd rather have the whole industry just move to online downloading.

Do any of you have any idea how long it took DVD to become mainstream? Why would you expect anything different for these HD formats?

I really doubt that HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will ever reach the speedy adoption rate of DVD.

DVD didn't require people to buy an entirely new home theatre to achieve quality results with the format. 

seems you guys were pretty quick to ban blue...w/e though.  

Blu Ray beating out HD-DVD (or vice versa) doesn't mean it'll necessarily be the new home standard. Am I the only one that feels like they're not competing for the next DVD so much as they are for the next Laser Disc?

I very much get that feeling. I think it's too much, too soon. If one (or both) of these formats are still around in five years and aren't on the verge of being replaced by a superior format, one might win.

Personally, I doubt it will happen. I think something better will roll around in five years and both will be out the door.