By good, I mean for consumers. I, like most, were really worried that this format war would cause severe pain for consumers. It may still in the long run, but for right now, I think its been good for consumers for 2 main reasons: 1) Competition: I doubt we'd have seen a high def standalone player for under $100 this soon. I would guess it would have taken till 2009 for that to happen if only one format had been chosen. The pressure of a competing format caused Toshiba to slash their prices. This in turn may cause the same to happen to Blu-ray. 2) Standard DVD Support: If we only had a single high def format. I believe the studios would have started to push for phasing out of standard DVDs. It would happen slowly, maybe over 5+ years, but it would happen. I think now we are assured of this not happening because it would be disasterous PR for the camp that did it. So for now I've got my $98 HD-DVD player that looks amazing for HD-DVDs and looks great for upscaling standard DVDs. This will last me until I can get a Blu-ray DVD player for $100 or less. With one format, I doubt I'd have a high def player at this point.

I grabbed the HD-DVD player as well. It's awesome -- it has a very awesome DAC also (the kind you'd find in a $150 dedicated audiophile CD player).  I guess at the original MSRP of $500, Toshiba figured they could afford to put a lot of high end components in this unit.

The format war is good for consumers from a price standpoint, but bad for consumers from a "I want to see whatever movie I can on my format" standpoint. I believe more studios will release for both formats when their current contract expires (Disney seems obvious). Contracts were easy to forge now because everyone knew adoption would be very, very slow.

When the HD formats make up 10% of total DVD sales, much less even approach 1% of total sales, the studios will be far more interested in releasing in all formats than taking cash to release in a single format. Much of what has been going on thus far has been posturing to garner the initial market share to convince others of the impending victory. There is no impending victory.

1) Prices might not fall as fast as they are now, but they would fall (especially in time for Christmas).

2) You are just flat out wrong there. If more people had HD TV's that might be true, but the HD saturation isn't anywhere near high enough to start phasing out DVD's yet.

Also, here's the largest reason it absolutely sucks and even if your two reasons weren't crap this one would still outweigh: unless you buy into both formats you're always going to be missing out on movies. As long as there's a split in the studios everyone who buys into an HD format and doesn't have both will be screwed.

I still watch TV shows in standard def if they're good shows.  Given, the *vast* majority of shows and sports that I watch are HD (I have ~70 HD channels right now), but I'll go back to standard def to watch something if I need to.  And those instances aren't even wide screen!

DVD vs HD-DVD or BD is much less significant.  DVD with a good upscaling DVD player or a TV with a good upscaling chip looks very good.  The high def formats on my 1080p 50" set look better primarily in color.  The sharpness of the high def formats is more often limited by the camera equipment, lenses, etc than it is the resolution and quality of encoding.  Many movies literally soften lenses on purpose, and this is more obvious with HD formats than with DVD.  But it means the gap between visual quality is significantly less.

The biggest advantage of the HD formats right now is the surround sound.  It's clearer, is more spacious, and is just generally better.

So while I'm happy to get HD-DVDs when I can, I'm also perfectly fine with getting standard def DVDs, especially for things like comedies.  I may have paid $98 not only for the ability to watch HD-DVDs, but also to get a damn good standard def DVD player.  I don't feel too bad about ~70% of releases being in HD-DVD.

That said, as the high def formats become popular enough to make a significant positive impact on anyone's bottom line (probably ~2 years away yet) we'll see a lot of studios releasing for both formats.

 2. your correct on that and thats why price of player doesnt matter right yet. Yes $99 is cheap and will push HD-DVD sales but only to people who own an HDTV. Sony has more then enough time to get Blu-ray's price down and the final format running (1.2)

"unless you buy into both formats you're always going to be missing out on movies. As long as there's a split in the studios everyone who buys into an HD format and doesn't have both will be screwed."

Agreed. I can't "futureproof" my HDTV because I might pick the wrong player. Until the format is unified Customers Lose.

I forgot to add one more negative: one side will lose. What does that mean? Well lets pretend HD-DVD is going to lose (just random pick) and you have your nice HD-DVD player with a decent collection of HD-DVD's. If you ever want to watch those you're going to have to re-buy those movies or you're going to have to keep a legacy player around. Either way you choose you have a 50% chance of being in a lose-lose situation. -edit- And BigFatJ, I have no idea what you're trying to argue with against me. I completely agree that a upscaler will make things look nicer but that doesn't change the fact you're still missing out on movie releases if you pick a side and that most people don't have a 50" HD TV.

 Or until the studios stop participating in the format war and release content on both formats. Given that the two formats are running at a consistant 60/40 split, this may eventually happen as content providers get sick of missing out on about half the userbase.

Even then, you'll probably find some smaller releases can't be bothered to release on both formats. 

 Also, the user would continue to be inconvenienced by needing to be absolutely sure that they're buying their content in the correct format for their player. Don't impulse buy that movie, it's Blu-Ray and your player at home is HD-DVD.

That was why I said it might take 5+ years.  I think HDTV saturation will be quite high in 5 years.  I doubt you'll even be able to buy a new SDTV at that point.

As for prices, I don't think they'd even be near where they are now.  Especially if blu-ray had been chosen as the format, I doubt you'd see a standalone player in even the $400 range.   Which would mean I wouldn't be enjoying the HD content I am now for a few years yet.

I think if this recent fire sale spurs enough HD-DVD sales, blu-ray players will have to follow suite and get into the $200 price range fast.

I guess my point is that the format war has gotten me, as a consumer, into high def DVDs much faster then would otherwise be the case.  And I consider that a good thing.

I also don't think it eventually has to be one or the other.  I saw a new LG dual player for $600 at circuit city earlier this week.  It might not be long before the dual players make the whole thing irrelevant.