if the people can make a nuke and blow japan to all hell twice then some1 can design a HD/Blu Ray DVD Player

I think as was said that they should bring out players that play both formats... I think the DVD Hardware companies should engage both sides amd find out what makes the new technology tick and make a player that plays both and then they can fight by themselves and the new technology can go ahead without any trouble.... I find it a joke that there is 2 formats already and i even dont like how there is dual layer Vs Single Layer DVD's now but u see the consumer smartened up and made software that can read and compress the media to a level that is still great and cheaper... so i reckon the same will happen here... both blu ray and HD will come out and a person will come out with the software to transfer and convert between both formats :) I say bring it on...

Looks like VHS and BetaMax all over again.

VHS vs. BetaMax except one small difference. PCs. Like (above)said, PCs/innernet change the game as people will just convert formats.

Porn will be the true decider.

Well, bye bye to both

I knew good and well a single format wasn't going to happen, but there was hope. Now there's not hope, but a long await ahead of me. Yet, it's like voting. If nobody votes, nobody's going to win.

Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, bah who needs em, Dual Layer DVD is more than enough.

Everyone keeps saying this is like VHS vs. Betamax. But it is not - it is VERY different.

With VHS and Betamax, there was no possibility of a dual format machine - the two formats were physically different in a way that made it impossible for one machine two handle both formats without having two complete tape transport systems. With Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, a player can still have one loading tray, and then have the internals necessary to play both formats.

A Blu-Ray HD-DVD dual format player is very possible. A dual-format VHS Betamax machine was next to impossible.

- Bob

IMHO, avoid both of them (toshiba and sony) and support the vendor that delivers a dual format unit. And maybe in the mean time, we create software that will easily allow transfer from one format to the other.

I have a huge DVD collection. I am not about to toss it for the HD format even though I have a kick ass HD tv.

Doesnt it seem too soon for a new format anyway?

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Doesnt it seem too soon for a new format anyway?

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Good point, it took DVD along time to become standard (it was introduced i think in late 96, early 97) and only recently, last couple of years, has it really took off.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will take along time to penetrate the market, so i dont think we will be throwing out our DVD players any time soon.

hm, i have a HDTV-set and testing out some microsoft-wmv-samples it's not hard to notice the difference with standard dvd... No pixelcorrection necessary if viewed on 1080p or even 1080i.
If u view it on a standard tv the quality might be even worse than standard dvd because the video- and audiosignal need to be converted. Waste of money in that case.
But i'll be happily looking forward to a multiformat player :-)

I agree that this is NOT another VHS vs. Betamax marketing war. As was said, both formats share the same physical characteristics, and could be played in the same transport mechanism. I see this much more like the current DVD +R vs. -R format war. It didn't take long for everyone to start making players and burners that could handle either.

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it took DVD along time to become standard (it was introduced i think in late 96, early 97) and only recently, last couple of years, has it really took off.
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I disagree, DVD's have been massive for atleast 5yrs now, I would say they have only started to "kill off" vhs in the past couple of years since dvd recorders became cheap enough.

To say that it will be more like the dvd +/- R thing is a little too simplistic. I think it'll be a little more complicated than that. There's far less issue of rights management on blank dvds than on video dvds. Companies will be looking at which format will be able to bring in the most profit, just like any gaming company. There's reasons why you still see the majority of pc games on cd. Until there is a dual player, and virtually all players that are sold are dual players, it's going to be pretty cut-throat scenario. Neither company, from my knowledge, has said that they will be supporting the other's format on their player too. (Not a very wise way to go if you want to penetrate your video player in the market and dominate that particuliar segment, if you ask me, but that's not what they care about-) Then you get into royalties...

In any case, if such a disc player that supports both formats holds the majority of the market, it won't be "choose your flavor" of disc format; more likely, formats just won't "matter" anymore because stuff by sony and the like will be released on BD, and people backing HD will release it on their format. It's already been shown that dvds that take advantage of the disc space can come out cleaner both on and around the screen (ex. superbit movies). That's one of the main reasons I like BDs.

I think the most cost effective for the consumer will win. That was one of the reasons VHS won over sony's betamax. Sony's Mini disk same problem too much money as compaired to the compact disk players.

I refuse to give up hope. The format war is silly, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the involved parties actually secretly agree, and that they're only pretending there will be a format war to keep the idea in the media for a long time. It's all marketing, and when they "decide" to join forces, we won't be able to resist eagerly jumping to support the sole blue laser format (whatever they decide to name it).