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

For sure. In the case of the iPod, the accessory market is critical for retailers because the dealer markup on iPod is <10%. But I digress.

07-05-07: Shadorne
Currently they need to sell two HD-DVD players for each Blu-Ray player to make the same net....although a lot of profit comes from selling the "super duper" expensive cables and other accesories...

Yeah. Unless you get a special edition DVD player from Costco or Sam's, hi-rez DVD players *never* come with the HDMI cable. Circuit City sells the 6' Belkin HT HDMI cable for around $100. You can get the identical cable in identical packaging at my local Sam's Club for $22.

The computer printers are the same way. Get a Lexmark printer for $99, but it doesn't come with a USB cable. USB cables at Circuit City and Best Buy are around $60, but you can pick up a 3-pack at Sam's for $15-20.

Actually there is more overall content available on HD-DVD than Blu Ray- there is almost no adoption of Blu Ray among European studios, and none in Asia as well. Blu Ray is actually inferior technology; The disks are more difficult to author ( thats why there are so few game titles for Playstation three). Also, the generational steps of Blu Ray hardware is causing early obsolescence among early adopter Blu Ray player buyers. A very expensive waste for them. Blu Rays hunger for hard drives space and processing is a burden and factors directly into its higher cost than HD-DVD. Its not better- its just more expensive to build to do the same thing HD-DVD already does.

The lower production costs of HD-DVD players is the reason they cost less- nothing else. AS far as studio adoption--its a 60% vs 90% issue among American studios. Its more about which studios have the more popular movies- not who theoretically can make the most-- both sides have large catalogs and can produce mass numbers of Hi Def re-releases for years.

The lower production costs both for players and disks means HD_DVD will win this in the end, and the lack of any international support for Blu Ray to speak of seals the deal.

I am all for a bunch of dual-format players. That makes it easy---but it will be a bit too late before that becomes ubiquitous among offerings. Barring unforeseen change ( which could happen)- its HD-DVDs game to win come Christmas and the Walmart adoption of lower cost chinese made HD-DVD players. There are no blu ray licenses in China for Hardware-- and that dog dont bark-- as they say.

If you can't make electronic in CHina, then you cant compete on price, and you wont succeed in the mass market.

shadorne,
i work for best buy and they are close to even as far as how much it costs for the store...
thing is hd dvd players can sell for less because they can make more money with their discs because they cost so much less to make than a blu ray disc

blu ray has to make some profit because of the higher cost to produce the discs by selling their superior players for a higher price... :)

Blu-ray has a lot of potential, they haven't even finished hashing out the standards for it, but HD-DVD is pretty much fully available now. A HD-DVD player is a not too different from a standard DVD player. You can pick up a regular DVD player from China in Target for $30 these days. CD was audio only so adding video took a bit more for the manufacturers' leap to DVD. Now with HD-DVD all that is needed to step from a reg. DVDP is a different laser and higher resolution. It isn't anywhere near the leap CDPs to DVDPs was. I remember 15 years ago when DVD players came with free movies too. It was hardly the signal of the end for DVD players. 25 years ago the Chinese CE manufacturing wasn't a force at all. Factor that into how long it took the CD technology to come down in price. I would also take into account that the CD paved the way for acceptance of the silver disc as a media. DVD didn't have to overcome that unknown media hurdle.

Someone somewhere else suggested that if HD-DVD gets down to $150 or less people will be buying them to up-convert all the standard DVDs they already own and can readily rent and they won't care if at $150 it loses the format war.