HIGH DEF DVD...WHATS THE LATEST NEWS?

Toshiba HD-DVD is out.

see http://www.greathometheater.com/hd-dvd.html

Sony announced this week that Blu-ray will be backward compatible.

Ahh.....hd dvd is not out yet...maybe by the end of the month though. read this http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6312824.html

Dawgbyte, of coures Blu Ray is backward compatible with dvd and cd, and with dvd it offers up scaling of sd dvd to 1080p instead of 1080i.

Ears - If you recall correctly Blu Ray was not originally backward compatible with existing DVD's. The Panasonic technology was, however. Sony hearing the gasps and outrage from existing DVD owners finally jumped on board to make their technology backward compatible. This was only announced officially last week, so to say "of course Blu Ray is bacward compatible" fails to hit the mark.

I recall speculation and FUD from the other camp about all kinds of things that turned out to be false...but the Sony player had cd/dvd printed right on it at CES....and some of the more A/V related boards have had the basic specs on several of the first players for quite some time now.
What do you mean by Panasonic technology...as there 100% Blu Ray only with there support...like about everyone else thats commited to a format is.?

The only major change thats been discussed recently, is the Samsung player changing from being only 1080i like the hd dvd players are, to 1080p at the last minute, making all Blu Ray players including the upcoming PS3....1080P.

Sony did just say in the past week that all of there movies would play 1080 HD via component which is big news for owners who don't have an HDCP/HDMI/HDTV.