Blockbuster goes Blu-ray, HD DVD=beta?,

I think you're right, Johnnyb53. It just strikes me as odd that Sony would not extend themselves to be first to market with a Blu-ray camcorder. You could argue that they're letting Hitachi test the waters of the market, but there's something to be said for the bragging rights that come from debuting an industry "first" and the Sony of old would have gone after that.

I had some bloggery about this, as you can imagine

As it stands, I don't have a clear picture of which way the wind is blowing, but my sense is that the teeter totter is tipping in Blu-ray's favor overall. But who knows?

Well a few comments. Asia and Europe are very important. If you all have followed the news lately, Blu ray is under investigation by a European Commission regarding their marketing techniques( ie bribery; pressure tactics) as European movie studios are adopting HD_DVD over Blu Ray for Hi Def movies due to more than one factor. The rest of the world just doesnt through money and influence around like SOny and it is causing very strong resentment.

The reason why Sony doesnt reduce pricing further is they can't do so very easily, as they lose money as it is every time a PS3 is sold. Huge losses that, frankly, are not sustainable.

As far as Walmart and Sams--yes they carry both for now--but HD-DVD has been licensed to Chinese manufacturers and 199 players for HD-DVD will arrive in time for Christmas it seems. Becuase of the mounting losses for Blu Ray and Sony- HD-DVD only needs a stalemate to win, not a victory.

As Hi Def DVD adoption rate increases ( its miniscule now) eventually everyone is gonna have to make movies in both formats in the US as far as Major Studios. Right now, Standard Def DVDs still rule, ad they are quite acceptable to most folks ( me included, although the 1080P stuff is quite incredible if you have the FP, display and player).

It is gonna be a long one, but since HD_DVD can sell players and Titles at lower pricepoints without sustaining the same level losses as Blu Ray, they should win out.

Also, Blu Ray machines need a lot of memory to do those interactive features as well as an ethernet connection. The players dont have it right now, Tosh stuff does, and as those differences come to mean something, it will only widen the gap in offereings or price or both.

And HD DVD is already putting out DVD/HD DVD dual-layer disks, so they're already up on the curve where a single SKU-per-title is concerned.

Still...the difference in studio support in the US (Sony/Comumbia/MGM/UA/Disney/Fox/Warner/Paramount for Blu-ray vs. Universal/Warner/Paramount for HD DVD), and the difference in the number of player manufacturers per format (also in favor of Blu-ray) is pretty intimidating.

My only comment is that all of those companies are competing with each other. I do think that cheap chinese HD-DVD players coming out this fall ( which the AP confirmed last week) seals the deal, because you get a greater bandwidth of buyers. Right now, the masses are locked out because Blu Ray players are all at a higher price point.

If the total volume of hi def titles goes up as far as sales, at some point all studios must follow suit just to go after the sales. Right now, the numbers of Hi Def disks sold is just too small to be significant.

With over 250k discs sold of the movie 300 in the first week not counting Wallmart ect sales as well as many reported shortages of the Blu-ray version, and 163k of these being on Blu-ray, its plain to see were this is headed with exclusive titles like Spiderman 1/2/3, Pirates of the Carribean 3, National Treasure, Closec Encounters, Ratatouille, Cars, Pixar Shorts, Kill Bill 1/2 and Pulp Fiction ect ect coming out for the holiday season as Blu-ray exclusive.
The first year best sales for dvd in a week was 100k so Blu-ray has already beat that despite 300 being a dual release in this so called war.
I believe that the Holiday software sales percentages will be very telling and expect Blu-ray to take 80-90% of the sales between their exclusives, and all dual format releases which will be at least a 2-1 advatage for Blu-ray in disc sales.

Seeings how this is first and foremost an audio board,its very interesting that Blu-ray has HD audio as in uncompressed PCM, DD-THD or DTS-MA on over 90% of its format specific releases and hd dvd has less than 10% of its format specific releases with actual HD audio.

When Warner releases the 18 or so titles on Blu-ray that they have been putting off for picture in picture interactivity, hd dvd will have less than 5% of its format specific releases with actual HD audio.
Which is something most here would have a real use for with all the higher end speakers and gear.