It's a given that the Paramount deal is only temporary. What company in their right mind would sign a PERMANENT exclusivity contract in a war that could easily go either way? The contract is probably set up so that after 18 months Paramount can then decide whether to stick with HD DVD if it's starting to win, go neutral if neither side is going anywhere, or go Blu exclusive if it Blu's lead has grown.

Okay, I stand corrected on the source, but I do also call libellule acting as though buying exclusivity isn't done on the blu-ray camp. 

 Except they weren't really fighting for Sparta, they were fighting to defend Greece. At the time, there was a spartan festival, so most of the troops were celebrating, after that, even with a complete defeat at thermopylae, they would have been able to defend Sparta themselves, as they could have held a line at the isthmus of Corinth. So basically, the most famous line of the film is rubbish, but it still had to be said

Glad I sided with Blu Ray a few months ago...

lol, guess I'll get to keep my 14 little blu ray disks ;)

They WERE fighting to defend Sparta in particular, because though they had no great liking for the Athenians, the Spartans had no navy, and the Persian navy was like 4 times the size of the Athenian one. So basically both Athens and Sparta knew they had no chance of beating the Persians one on one, and they teamed up. The two people everyone should know about involved in this are the Athenian commander Themistocles, and of course Leonidas. (incidentally, Leonidas was not the last one to die, he was killed by arrows about halfway through the final day, and the Persians were under orders to take his body/head as a prize, but the remaining Spartans fought so hard to protect it that the Persians wouldn't go near the last like 50 guys, so they called the archers up and buried the whole lot of them with arrows)

Also, Sparta throwing the messengers into a pit is historically accurate, but it should be said that the Athenians threw the messengers sent to THEM into a well instead of a pit.

On topic, once I get an HDTV I will be buying every movie from then on on Blu Ray.  

""""Okay, I stand corrected on the source, but I do also call libellule acting as though buying exclusivity isn't done on the blu-ray camp. """"

==> we dont know if it is done.
I think you dont have to pay when you sell well.
Nintendo didnt pay Capcom to make Monster Hunter 3 exclusive the Wii. They just show their sales numbers in Japan compared to the PS3 and it is ok.

I decided to stop by my local BB this afternoon after work, and the weirdest thing... They were completely out of BR Spiderman 3's. I asked the sales monkey if they just didn't get the disks, and he told me they had about 100 of them and they all sold out within the first couple hours of being open.

Looks like Spiderman 3 may knock off the Transformers for sales.

It was this comment: "of course, Microsoft can still buy a 18 month exckusivity if they want."

You basically implied that only that side does such a thing. You honestly think Sony didn't make deals with studios to support blu-ray? Disney actually co-developed the programming for HD-DVD, but then switched sides. You think there was no incentive to do that?

Of you think Sony might not be in talks with Warner about this apparent move?

I think that Warner Bros, if they're to choose sides at all, will wait with decision atleast after this holiday season. There are much interesting things happening with format wars, sales of PS3 are nowhere near expected, many that bought it don't use it to play BR movies, and Toshiba's HD-DVD player for $200 can even the format wars in months to come...

 I started doing that once I got my ps3, knowing that one day I'd get an HDTV. We finally got the HDTV over the weekend, and now I have this nice catalog of HD movies already built up waiting to be watched. :D

And don't believe what people tell you. Upscaling has NOTHING on native HD films.