Blu Ray over/under $

BTW- CNET is not a good source of info. I watached their live broadcasts from CES and the reporters really dont have a handle on consumer electronics. From your involvment at avsforum.com, you should know this. The Toshiba players I saw at CES werent taped up blah blah blah. It really isnt as you are desrcribing it. The release date is March 2006 by press announcement. Previous delays were due to several factors including a coming together on certain standards which you are likely unaware of. In fact, the only difference now between the two camps is the physical media based on these newly agreed upon standards, forced by HPs threat to include support for HD-DVD unless certain consitions of standards were met by Blu ray. The game is not quite out what you make it to be Mr Ears. But hey-March is just around the corner....

Personally do not think Blu Ray vs HD-DVD format war will be lengthy and difficult as some make it out to be: Blu Ray will be the clear winner. Not necessarily due to quality etc but industry movement & dynamics. Blu Ray has all the big consumer elec companies behind it Sony, Masushita, Samsung, LG etc plus DELL, HP etc as well as from the content companies. HD DVD has a weak consortium led by Toshiba who has its own structural problems as a company. The only way HD DVD becomes the big winner is if a) X Box 360 gets HUGE lead over all other next generation game consoles (highly unlikely) and simulataneously Microsoft and Intel stay away and continue to not support Blu Ray. I doubt it.

Microsoft doesn't want to support Blu-Ray because it is competion for the X-box. The new Play Station will be a Blu-Ray player.

Some kid just jammed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into my vcr any help would be appreciated

I dont mind a litle friendly banter over the whole Bluray/HD-DVD thingee- so I'll play devils advocate.

1. People will want to buy DVDs of the movies they want to see. If the Blockbuster hits ( if there are any) in 2006 come from HD-DVD aligned studios, people will buy the player that will display it, assuming they are even interested in hi def DVDs at all or even care or understand.

2. The Blu Ray players start at 2x the price of HD-DVD players , and most that I saw were at 1800 bucks. ( yes I saw one player at 1000._) There are MANY more blu ray manufacturers of players, and many more mouths to feed as well. The Blu Ray disks cost per disc, despite a few off the mark quotes, are definetly more expensive to produce and will sell at a higher price point than HD-DVDs, at least intially. Or someone is gonna take a loss. Average American Will not go with the more expensive option. It doesnt work that way on the whole, and online forum members who may be more tech savvy and interested in blu-ray capabilities and features are a pimple on the larger scale of reality.

3. HD-DVD can be stamped on the B side with a standard def DVD. HUGE advantage. That means I can buy an HD-DVD today and be ready for tomorrow. While still be cool with my current equipment. this is a BIG deal.

I think there are definite bucks in XBOX and PS3 ( I am still freaked by that PS# demo-you had to see the thing)- but I do believe that fundamentally its about movie titles and what consumers want to rent and buy. It is NOT a 90/10 split with regards to title availability.

4. Microsoft has been clear that they won't support blu-ray. And When the most ubiqutous operating system in the world ( like it or not) decides something like this, it obviates a whole lot of other players in the game as far as their affected markets.