Gotta look at all the past formats, and I must say that QUALITY has ALWAYS taken a back seat too convenience, cost, profit, etc!!!
Again, look at Betamax and look at CD(16bit/44 was a major step down in sonics, minus some backround noise here and there, and we're still using 16/44 standard for music at the local music stores, some 25 years later!!!!)
Heck, laser disc was an improvment over vhs easlily, and it never went beyond videophile niche market.
I think here, people will again go with whatever markets the convenience, or mass distribution, with the most titles and accessability, etc.
Really, we will NOT SEE a mass exodus to hd dvd like we did with original DVD a few years back! I garantee it! Why? Because with DVd you had the convenience, the improvment in audio/video quality, and we can already record on em now.
So just cause we got more dvd extras and some better vid or audio improvments, doesn't mean that much in tems of sales, profitability, marketability, consumer mass acceptance, IMO.
I mean, we had superior(by a mile!) SACD and DVDA audio discs out for years now, that have flopped and basically all but died a quick death mostly. We also had DVHS with superior HD definition video, and that died too.
We already got DVD now, that we can even record on. So what's some improvments in video/audio gunna do so much in terms of exciting the world?...I say not much.
Don't get me wrong, I am as thrilled as the next audiophile/video guy. But I think it will really come down to who can sell their product the most easily, and convince the public that theirs is the way to go, and that it's all going "their" way! Could be wrong. I just don't think product superiority has ever made a difference to the public at large when it came down to it. Heck, we got Bose outselling everyone by a ton! That should say something right there...