Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will require a new player to play the new discs. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will play standard DVD discs. Thing is just about everyone with a digital television will see a reason for upgrading. People don't like bought and payed for movies looking worse then there TV shows. HD-DVD is definutly the best of the two new formats. While supporters of Blu-Ray always point out the fact that HD-DVD has a capacity of 30 gigabits while Blu-Ray has a capacity of up to 54 gigabits. HD-DVD uses VC-9 and MPEG-4. Blu-Ray still uses MPEG-2. With MPEG-4 compression a 30 gigabit HD-DVD holds 30% more information then a 54 gigabit Blu-Ray.