Blu Ray over/under $

The writing is far from being on the wall for all of the reasons I have enumerated, but time will tell. I only hope that ONE of the two formats makes it as far as DVD titles. The DVD rental market is very important in this. If BlockBuster and Netflix, for example, elect not to purchase Hi Def DVD titles in the volume they would need to satisfy customers, for example, hi def DVDs for the rental market won't make it. This is only one example of some significant scenarios that could easily torpedo the Hi Def DVD. Blu-Ray cost for players and disks right now is a guarnteed loser. But that could change.

I bought a DVD player at Sears for 32 dollars about a month ago for a back up CD player in one of my casual listening systems. But it plays DVDs just fine. 32 dollars vs 1800 or 1000. Last year, new vinyl outsold SACD and DVD-A combined. Let's see what happens.... ( BTW- niether side will do well at the beginning of release dates for sure)

Agree with that Rysa4...early on it ain't gonna be pretty.

Again, I think people aren't gunna be doing a mass exodus to HD DVD or other here, like the industry hopes! It won't be even 1/3 of what the DVD rush was years ago, I garantee it!
People already have the convenience of the Disc. The quality jump won't make most do nothin by enlarge. And at high prices, they definitely won't do a thing!
BAsically, WHEN HD replaces Standard dvd player/disc pricing, and that's all you can buy is hd dvd players, then people will start buying into the format. None sooner. And they certainly won't care what format is what, as long as they can play all the discs. So, I be you'll see universal players at the very least coming in a couple few years if these people can't sort out their format problems. Cause they won't be selling a ton of anything regardless.
For most, the novelty of DVD is nothing new. They already have that. A quality upgrade never moved the public from one format to another. It has always been more about convenience and content over quality for buyers! That's the truth.

Mr F-Lamb- I am wondering if you have ever seen an HD-DVD/Blu Ray DVD next to a standard DVD on decent displays?

I know you wont believe me, but there isnt a very big difference. I can only assure you that I can see some difference, but not that much. Now on the 65 inch 1080P Panasonic Plasma, may be the difference will be more apparent-

but it is hard to sell folks on something that is more expensive ( understatement) for not much of a perceived difference. When do you think Hd-DVD/Blu Ray players will hit 100 dollars ( or 32 dollars for that matter?) And lets see what a bluray disc costs-or even if BB will rent them at the same price.

With eight major studios now supporting Blu Ray only, along with the usual millions of Ps3 sales in the U.S putting more Blu Ray players in U.S. homes than all other players from either format combined, you can pretty much stick a fork in it.
M/S seems to be the only big backer of HD, and if not for M/S, Toshiba and Sony would most likely have come to an agreement long ago, and there would be none of this happening.
Toshiba has now announced making PC BD drives also...so there smart enough to hedge there bets at least.

The studios love Blu Rays tighter security and know the Ps3 is sure to be a hit as usual, so there not likely to change there stance.

At this point it would take a huge miracle for hd dvd to even last past 07....and 500.00 players that are limited to 1080i and only 2 channel lossless audio are not even close to enough. to compete against a 1080p PS3,as well as not having studio support from
MGM
Columbia Tri Srar
Disney
Pixar
Lions Gate
Miramax
Fox
Sony Pictures