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

Its hard to know at this point. Target, Blockbuster, and Best Buy are lining up with Blu Ray. Walmart and Sams are with HD-DVD, and Netflix and Circuit City are neutral.

Blu Ray hardware is problematic in general and hasnt incorporated ethernet connectivity, unline HD-DVD players which have. Waterdowned PS3 dont have enough memory in the hard drive to truely pull off Blu Ray DVDs with interactive features. Blu Ray has the studio output in the US 90% vs 60% of all titles released. European and Asian studios largely produce HD-DVD disks but not blu ray.

In the end, I * think* HD-DVD will come ut on top due to its lower cost structure. But its going to be long and ugly it seems. Sony marketing is excellent actually I find. The equipment however, lags HD-DVD players in general, and changes are causing early obsolescence for early Blu Ray adopters ( poor folks).

Walmart and Sams are with HD-DVD,

My local Sam's Club carries both the Toshiba HD-D2 HD DVD player and the entry-level Sony Blu-ray. They also carry movie titles in both formats.

The battle lines are drawn. Hollywood bug studios team up with Sony, "the "Corporate" bad guys, and arm themselves with Ratatouille, POTC3 and Blade Runner Xmas Blu-ray releases. Meanwhile Jason Bourne with Sam and Walmart must find a way to fight back with their "Bourne Ultimatum" which also releases at Xmas.

It will be interesting to see if Bourne can find a way to win the format battle, against all odds!

I taught Toshiba people in an executive program about a month ago. They worried about HD DVD losing grounds to Blu-ray. I live in Asia and increase in sales of high resolution formats has been even slower than that of US market.

The real battle ground is in the US and what is happening in Asia and Europe won't decide the eventual winner.

Although I think HD DVD is better executed technology at the moment (by small margin), my prediction is that Blu-ray will eventually win the battle.

The prediction is based on the fact that major electronics companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and Pioneer are backing Blu-ray. This gives huge advantage in displays at electronics stores such as Best Buy. Also, Blu-ray has more exclusive titles than HD DVD.

HD DVD's advantage is low production cost of hardware and software. This advantage is reflected in low cost of HD DVD players. If Blu-ray camp reduces the cost of Blu-ray players in line with HD DVD players, this advantage will go away. I am a little surprised that Sony and other companies have not done this so far.

I admit to being startled that Hitachi is launching the first two Blu-ray camcorders this fall. I remember when Sony was the king of the camcorder, and I'm surprised that they weren't first to market with a Blu-ray Handycam.