Of course if DR does will all the Blu-Ray fans will tthen scream with horror when the regional coding jackboots go on by the studios with no way of bypassing it.. We will then be at the mercy of local distributers to charge what they like and delay movies as long as they like. We have already seen this back in 1998 when DVDs first came out. Titanic NZ$75 US$15

Rumours of HD DVDs demise have been exaggerated. It's recently been reported it's outselling Blu-Ray everywhere but the US where it's closer.

Why do some of you say Thank God at the thought of Blu-Ray winning? Don't you want to be able to use your media content over a home network etc? HD DVD will let you do this, with mandatory managed copy, where as Blu-Ray is designed to NOT let you do anything with your content except play it on your Blu-Ray player. With the extra copy protections and no support for mandatory managed copy BR is designed by the film companies for the film companies so as to stop you using networks, hard drives etc.. BR have their heads in the last decade.

I was in Harrods (London)the other day and HD DVD is being sold off at knock down prices whereas Blu-Ray is subject to their more modest normal sale prices. Clearly they are selling off whatever stock they have as soon as possible. If HD DVD is not already dead by Christmas the holiday season will kill it off once and for all.

HD-DVD was DOA... MS should have never put its weight behind it to revive it... Only did it in a vein attempt to harm Sony... and Toshiba should be ashamed of itself for letting itself be used.

HD-DVD never had a chance. Slightly cheaper players, that can only do 720p??? Big whoop. Blu Ray (ALL BLU RAY) do 1080p, its required.... So you go out buy a cheap HD-DVD hook it up to your expensive 1080p, and find out it doesn't support it... great.

HD-DVD player is an expensive doorstop going forward.

Better graphics, more storage, more support, more content.... and the price differencial between players continues to drop.

HD-DVD is and was DOA. There never should have been a format war, but MS thought reviving HD-DVD would help them battle sony's PS3 so they helped revive it from the dead.. now a lot of hardware manufacturers are going to be fire saling HD-DVD players.. hell even the HD-DVD add on for the 360 is already at fire sale price just to dump them.

Its over, stick a fork in HD-DVD its done, thank god.

the format war was over months ago:

http://www.dvddossier.com/2007/04/hell_freezes_ov.html

Chris, what Brian failed to mention is that $499 is the price you can now buy the 60GB PS3 for in the US (hence $499 US dollars).

Brian, where can you get a PS3 for $499? I've just checked Gameplanet and DSE and they're both selling them for $1199. However, even if you're right, $499 for a PS3 is still twice as much as the $249 I spent on my HD DVD drive. Sure, there are software costs too, but it's still less than $499 all up.

Face it everyone. HD DVD never had against Blu Ray. The format war was only here in the US. In Asia, Europe and Australia most people don't even know what the heck HD DVD is.

Chris, I'm in the same boat as yourself. I've gone HD-DVD and I've found that there is still plenty of titles to choose from.

Hopefully the selection of HD-DVD movies will remain fairly consistent untill the muti-format players drop in price.

It's surprising considering Microsoft seems to back the HD-DVD format with their X-Box 360's. Will we now see a Blu-Ray add on unit?

I'm sorry Chris but your HD DVD player will be obsolete once Pirates of Caribbean 3 and Spiderman 3 comes out exclusively for the Blu Ray media. With PS3's now at $499 and Blockbusters support for the format, it's time for HD DVD to throw in the towel.

Naturally, this gets posted one day after I buy an HD DVD drive. I still believe that the cheaper format will win once the technology goes into the mainstream: The early adopters might buy the "better" product but general consumers will often go for whatever's cheapest.

I see that Universal are starting to release hybrid movies that play on both regular DVD players and HD DVD players. If people can buy movies now and get "free upgrades" to HD DVD, then that helps the format too.