Or just wait another 3-4 years until this ridicolous war is decided and then buy either one.

For me its blu-ray all the way, because i own a PS3 and Jack Sparrow is owned by Sony.

I went with HD DVD because I own a 360 and I got a sweet deal from Best Buy. I wasn't planning on getting into the fray for a while - and I won't buy a PS3 until the price hits $250 (used ok) and there are more games. However, when I saw a 9 HD DVD deal (9 free movies) for buying a $179 player, I jumped on it.

Also, it boils down to movies. I wanted Transformers, The Matrix and a few others only available on HD DVD. And - the others, on BR, can be had overseas (I think it goes both ways - a U.S. BR title will appear on HD DVD outside of the U.S. sometimes). Plus, there's no region code, when means a foreign HD DVD will play on my player.

True, this war sucks, but I do know unless it was advantageous for me, I wouldn't have entered when I did ...

^^^agree with madskillz. Bought my xbox HD DVD for the same reasons. It's all in which movies you want atm. I prefer the choices for HD DVD and was a good deal atm, so I went that route.

Does your TV support 1080p? Many HD sets don't.

I would definitely say HD-DVD - based on price. Pick up one of those cheap players, and get as many free titles as you can.

If you don't care about price, choose based on which movies you really want. Pick your favourite 2-3 movies (if not more) that are available in HD, and choose which ever player supports more of them.

Transformers is all I really care about in HD at the moment - but I won't be picking anything up, until players come down to a reasonable price here in Ozland.
...

Like madskillz says - for $179US, getting a player plus NINE movies - is just too sweet. Basically, the player is effectively FREE (at $20/movie).

(EDIT - only works if you have a 360... do any free movies come with those $199 players in Walmart?) 

another break down of current issues and trends:

Similar number of 'exclusive' studios so there's no real way of deciphering which is best on that issue, however, there are romours afoot that suggest Warner is going exclusive blu-ray since sales of their movies on blu ray are far better than HDDVD. also see quote below:

"Five consumer electronics companies - Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Philips - and five movie studios - Gaumont, Columbia Tristar, Walt Disney, Pathé, and Warner Home Video - have come together to promote the Blu-ray format in France. Together, they will act as a unified voice to convince consumers of the benefits of Blu-ray.
They have set a goal to get 600,000 units (stand-alone players and PS3s) in French homes by year end, capturing 90% of the high definition player market. As for software sales, Blu-ray currently holds over 60% of the market in France, and if their player sales goals are achieved, that figure is expected to rise to 80%."


Blu ray is more expensive for the player, but the discs cost the same. and according to http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/ the average price of Blu-ray is cheaper.

you can get dedicated players now for the same price as the PS3 with free disks.

you can get the HDDVD add on for the 360, but together is more expensive than the PS3 alone (and i believe, far uglier!).

Blu Ray Disks are larger. they can fit everything onto one disc, and larger discs are in development. this is an important aspect of Blu-ray, it doesn't matter what size disk you use, your player can play it. not the case on HDDVD where the majority can only take up to a certain size (therefore the consumer released movie disk size will be limited).

Disk size has caused problems already for HD DVD, even at the start of the Format War - HDDVD are already having to release movies+extras on multiple disks, and not enough information for High Definition can be incuded on one disc - for Transformers, they were limited in the quality of sound for the movie - not a really a problem unless you own top of the range audio equipment, but if it's a problem now, imagine what that will be like in 5 years time.... see link: http://www.n4g.com/News-74839.aspx

Finally, sales of discs. The PS3 may not be selling massively for the console industry, but it has MASSIVELY helped the format war. there are 5 million blu ray players out there, all those console gamers now buying blu-ray disks is causing a stir. blu ray sales already outstrip HDDVD sales: http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/

In the USA Blockbuster (US's largest video rental company) have already gone exclusive on Blu Ray due to lack of demand and high prices for HDDVDs, and in the UK, it's hard to find HD DVD anywhere but the big retail stores. where HDDVDs are available, they are usually limited in comparison to the range of Blu Rays available.

your best bet is dual format, but thats a lot of money to spend, especially if one of the formats dies off...

 Actually, you can use the HD DVD drive on your PC as well. XP and Vista have the drivers. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to soon.

 Soon the size of the disk will not matter HD DVD's will have 51g on them.  The sound for Transformers got rave reviews on HD DVD.  

With the PS3 coming with a Blu-Ray drive by default its future as a gaming and movie format is pretty much guaranteed (Sony is also an important movie producer).

Technically Blu-Ray disc provides more data per layer and allows for higher bitrates. Default scratch resistance is also a major long term pro. A dual player would also be an option, these are basically Blu-Ray drives offering HD DVD backwards compatibility like they offer DVD backwards compatibility.

@Omac

yes, i know they are in the final development stage for much larger HD-DVDs, but these will not be for movies on general release. this is because the cheaper end HD-DVD players and drives cannot play them due to the multiple layers of information. in theory HD-DVDs can match Blu Rays for memory, however it's the hardware players that will need to play them.

this is partly due to the HD-DVD alliance aim to reduce the costs as low as possible as early as possible to sell as many stand alone systems as possible. this led to the release of systems which are not 'future proof'. the question then remains, do HD-DVD then start to develop movies on larger capacity disks that cannot be played on the cheaper consoles, or do they stick with the smaller capacity disks. if the former, then those who purchased an 'xbox type HD-DVD player' or a cheap end stand alone player will need to updgrade.