I definately agree. Who cares which side "wins". Both are just discs that are storage mediums for the content. I don't know why there are always fanboys liking one company versus another, even if one has a crummier product. An example I can think of is basically everyone from my hometown loves Arctic Cat for snowmobiles and Honda for ATVs/dirtbikes/motorcycles. Even if another company comes out with a better quality vehicle with better features for less, they would still go with one of the two aforementioned companies. Why? They are all stuck on the one kind of vehicle. Same with these fanboys.

Same thing goes with a lot of people. Some people really like Sony, so they instantly think Blue-Ray is better. Others think HD-DVD is the way to go. I really, really hope that companies start to go out and make players that can playback BOTH disc formats in larger frequency. This way, when Joe Avergage goes to the store to pick up a new movie, he doesn't have to worry about which format he needs. He just picks up a movie without worrying if it is Blue Ray or HD-DVD. Nobody would notice the difference which disc is inside the player. The content on both discs is usually nearly identical anyway. And with 51 gig HD-DVDs coming out soon, they can both hold nearly the same amount of data anyway. The only difference now is what it says on the case.

(Yeah, I've heard about 200 Gig blue Ray discs, but I wonder if those will be compatible with all the current players, otherwise....)

so they can be updated too the newest firmware...this is older model hd-dvds and newer ones...thats why there are 3 versions of blu-ray and older players dont have the capability too upgrade. here is a page that helped me too understand why hd-dvd is better.

http://www.news.com/8301-10...

Actually the world usually follows suit on what America does, at least in terms of movie formates. But thats mostly because we have the largest movie sector in the world. That of course being Hollywood.

i can`t believe you just compared.

+/- to Bluray/HdDVD.

i`ll never forget that.
In so many ways, that`s classic.

you kind of have a point

you just need to know your media history to see this is a similar situation to when the +/- format war from several years ago. You had this great divide between media makers as well as pc hardware makers. Both sides claiming their format was the better of the two.

Each side had pros and cons and yet there were a few risky "middle of the road" makers that went with adopting both formats and eventually it ended up like it is now. You cant buy just a + or - burner anymore and the cost of making media is the same and the quality is pretty much the same (depending on what you are using it for).

Point is that companies that once sided solely on one side saw they would lose out on the bigger picture of things if they stayed where they were. By adopting the middle ground approach it showed the consumers that even the companies that make the hardware and media can agree that the consumer IS the bigger picture. Sony, who once was a staple behind the + format makes - media as well. The same can be said about companies that only made - as they make + media too.

A compromise will be reached in the form of the multiformat players. You may think now that it is to far away for them to be cost effective but just like burners in their day, the cost comes down and the features go up. So to add the little refractor (??) needed to bend the blu beam just right to make it play both formats will get cheaper too.

A good example of a compromise will be samsung which from day one, has been a blu-backer, has made a multiformat player. If they can do it and bring the cost down then so can many other makers. The only company that would really hold out for total dominance would be Sony as they are a chief role in the format and technology. One key factor to more companies making multiformat players is the slow process for the newer bluray profile.

I get the feeling more hardware makers are waiting for all the bluray profiles to be finalized then it will be on par with hddvd and make multiformat players even easier to build considering there will be more similarities than differences between the technology.

maybe bay was banking on the promise of the ps3 being the trojan horse for the blu format? I think I read that originally sony and toshiba were working on this together until ms came into the picture with wanting to support the project only if they used the .net code for the HDi layer in the media. Sony being a big open source backer didnt want to use that and in turn went their own way and convinced other supportes that using java was better and that blu would have a higher capacity per layer. Not only that but by using the popular playstation branding they were able to sway many of the big studios into thinking this would be the second coming or something like that.

$$$ is where the studios see things. They think..hmm sony has a name for themself in the console business and if we were to back them then that means that their customer base would be a return on the studios investment.

The real twist in all of this is that bluray really isnt that technically superior to the hddvd format. Capacity is all it has going for it on a per layer situation. Guess what...so do hard drive makers. Western digital, maxtor, seagate all make drives similar to each other and have differences in the capacity per layer and yet they seem to coexist alright. PC makers use whatever drive they can get at the best price so it isnt a matter of which drive is better more so than which drive is cheaper for their needs.

I'll bet if hddvd adopted java instead of the .net it uses for the hdi layer then the format wouldnt be viewed as anything other than another choice in what capacity the studio wants to use for their content. Sort of like buying blank media. Do you use T-120 or T-160 or T-180? How about single or dl? mini or std size.

If it came down to both formats using the same software then the studios would be more apt to embrace both and make content for both seeing as the tech is pretty much the same all that is keeping them apart is the language barrier.

You two give me hope for intelligent conversation on this web cite.
@Green
The answer to your question is quite obvious. The roles would just be reversed. As in "Blu Ray is dead" and "HD is the superior formate", all that crap that gets posted.

Personally speaking I don't care if its Blu or Red, all I care about is what I can get for the cheapest amount. That so happens to be HD, if it was BR you can bet that I would support BR instead. But most people on this site see on Sony and ignore all the rest.