Funny, so far the only way I've invested in either format is by getting the blu-ray disc of Blade Runner. I don't even have an HDTV! It's just that I already have the old dvd and the 2006 remaster, which I picked up knowing full well that it would likely be included in the '07 set. When the final cut was released I took the bus up to NY to see it on opening night and then saw it twice more when it opened in DC. Several factors led to me getting it on bd. The biggest is probably that the documentaries would all be on regular dvd's that I could, y'know, actually watch. Those were the only things in the set I was really dying to see anyway since I've already seen the original version (letterboxed on that scifi channel broadcast back in June of 2000, wish I'd taped it!) and of course the 1992 and 2007 versions. Also, between those three versions I kinda feel like I've already seen the international version, so I'm not really dying to watch that either. I can wait to watch the workprint. I didn't find out about discs 2 and 4 being regular dvd's until I read a review of the set, and then WB announced their plan for blu-ray exclusivity. I'd already been hoping for various reasons that it would be the format they'd go with anyway. That, coupled with the fact that I'd have to shell out for the briefcase just to get all five discs on regular dvd, plus the fact that I already have both of the old releases made it a no brainer to get it on either hddvd or blu-ray and not regular dvd.

anyway, here's my perspective on the whole thing:

If VC-1 is as good as a whole lot of people are saying it is, it won't go away for a while (if at all) as long as blu-ray is still around as a format. Microsoft will continue making royalties off of sales of bd's using that codec. Toshiba is screwed, yes, but let's not forget that blu-ray players are backward compatible with dvd and so toshiba will keep making some sort of royalty off the sales of bd players. Time Warner must've not really ever had much faith in hddvd since they've been format neutral for just about as long as blu-ray's been on the market. Maybe the aforementioned standard dvd royalties coupled with whatever deal they signed with the BDA made it that much easier to just drop hddvd altogether. WB probably also looked at the really big picture and saw hddvd exclusivity as prolonging the race and keeping either format from really taking off, though who is to say what would've happened had they not sided with blu-ray?

One thing I said several months ago is that once one of these formats wins and becomes the new standard, it'll be all we ever really need. I still stand by that because just as vhs, beta and laserdisc were the first analog tv formats, hddvd and blu-ray are the first hdtv formats. I'm convinced that the reason there even was a format race in the first place is because these companies realize hi-def is the future of television. I mean, how soon are we going to see televisions produced in a large quantity that have a resolution greater than 1080p? We're finally beyond NTSC and PAL which means we can watch movies at 24 frames per second just as they are in the theater. From what I've read here and there, people used to watch 16mm prints of movies on a projector at home. It would seem we finally have in these new formats the television equivalent of that.