If it were cheaper then why isn’t the buck passed onto the customer then? If it doesn’t then it’s a moot point. If HD DVD wanted to win they would have ensured their disc were cheaper all the time.

Also even if it’s cheaper why would studio’s stick around if they sell less units? Case in point 300 was outsold 3:1 by Blu Ray so Warner Br. going to look at that and consider they’re selling a 200% more Blu ray so, they end up making more $$$

Plus you know what? Those HD/DVD combo disc are actually MORE expensive then a single layer Blu Ray, because the manufacturing of them processes a lot of defective disc to do the combo.

As for your other misinformed comments, Blu rays are 25 gb for single layer and 50 gb for dual NOT 60 gb. The web enabled thing and other HD DVD format picture in picture can be done on Blu Ray as well, they just need a firmware update.

Make fun of the extra space all you want, but, it saves the companies money. Just look at Harry Potter Blu ray vs. HD from Warner Br. The Blu ray has extra’s in 1080 and what NINE audio tracks with 5.1 (And like 10 subtitle languages) while HD only have extra’s in 480 and THREE audio tracks and 3 subtitle tracks. Warner only has to press one Blu Ray Disc and can have it ready for the whole viewing world while they’ll have to localize HD DVD to how many countries?

Uhh…. WTF? You pointed out yourself that it took 5 years for DVD to get off the ground and mention that players are expensive. But back at that time what DVD players were $800-1000 or something?

Blu Ray and HD players have come down much more quickly, less than half of what they cost in only ONE year. Also there are Blu Ray players coming out at by the end of the year at about $200. Sony has even mentioned that prices for much of their stuff have come DOWN, they’re now making $20 on each PS3.

Like Maximus mentioned as well there are multiple companies making Blu Ray players so expect competition and cheaper companent costs to drop prices. HD camp only has Toshiba making players and they can only keep the prices down artificially for so long. They’re eating the losses on the players and recent tumbling prices of Flash Media is costing them tons of money too.

Also you forget, HD TV’s are increasing penetration into the U.S. market, so yeah people will want HD players. In fact many of the Deals right now throw in Blu Ray players for free, so again your logic sucks.

In fact having DVD in the name actually ISN’T a good idea at all. Every place I’ve gone to that sells HD-DVD have taken returned disc because they don’t play in standard DVD players.

Don’t think people are actually stupid enough to know the difference? I thought so too, till yesterday I was in a store picking up a DVD and the people standing next to me, one guy says “Man this whole HD DVD thing sucks man, I bought one of those things and it didn’t even play in my player at all”. Wow.

http://www.beachaudio.com/Smartdisk/95531-p-125615.html?utm_campaign=froogle&utm_content=AD_ID&utm_term=95531&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=froogle&GTKW=95531&GCID=C12585x003

$21.99 (US)

As for all this jabber about HD DVD vs Blu-ray and which one is dead and which one is not, think about this, if HD DVD dies, HD will follow soon after, with a starting pricing point of around $350-400 at retail prices Blu-ray has no chance in hell of beating the pricing of up-converters, which have a larger amount of content than Blu-ray will probably ever see. Where as if Blu-ray dies HD DVD will be near a selling point where HD can make a penetration into the DVD market, and since it is carrying the DVD brand name it also will attract older people who tend to shy away from technology they have never heard of, thus the reason why it took 5 years for DVD to over take VHS, and it took VHS nearly the same amount of time to catch on. Face it, HD is dead if HD DVD does die, because Sony and Philips wont drop the price of their technology if there is no competition, and people wont buy a $400 player for a format which hasn’t proven it’s self and has competition from a format which paved the way for high quality home video. In the end something with DVD in its name will win, and Blu-ray will die a nitch market.

Right hardware sales are up? So then shouldn’t the software disc sales rise as well? If not then it’s nothing more than a glorified upconverted DVD player.

Also, you seem to think that it would have made a difference if Warner did stay, but, seriously what reason did they have too? Look at one of their top movies last year 300. The HD DVD had exclusive extra’s yet it still was outsold 3:1. They also have exclusive Matrix DVD’s did it sell well? NOPE.

As someone else point out there has NEVER been a single HD-DVD/Blu Ray release of a movie that HD outsold the Blu Ray. The ONE, yeah, that’s right one exception was Planet Earth and that’s NOT a movie even. That’s right from the sources. Don’t believe it? Go google it and read it from Warner bros. themselves.

Also, yeah, don’t make fun of PS3 fanboys because they weren’t included in hardware sales by HD DVD camp purposely. And like I said before hardware sales don’t mean shit if the HD DVD sales aren’t there to begin with. HD DVD claims that there’s more disc sales from their players then Blu Ray well not according to the worldwide sales where every region Blu Ray beats HD DVD.

Also those gamers you make fun of are also more tech savvy so uh yeah they helped to choose the winner.

BTW I see the HD A20 is being discounted to under $120.
Amazing value for a great 1080/24 player which also upscales & plays SD DVD very very well.

(…….and the only reason some of the console kids can make claims about the high $ ‘value’ of the gaming sector is not because they are out in huge numbers but because they are the ones constantly being gouged @ $60+ a time for the latest games.)

BTW “name calling” is not going to help win over people. No need to call someone an idiot if all they wanna do is enjoy movies, regardless of format. You should be thankful this competition has forced prices to come down faster than when DVD started.

HD DVD hardware sales have recovered strongly.

Blu-ray is still stuck in the kids game console niche.

Shame you PS3 fanboys can’t/won’t accept this.

(and no the gaming market does not have the numbers on the true general a/v mass-market; don’t be so f**king stupid.
How many games consoles do you mum & dad and your grandparents have eh?)