I wonder if some of the Blu-Ray manufacturers will also put out HD-DVD decks. Pioneer officially backs DVD-R, but they put out burners that do both - and +R/RW DVD's and +R DL. They will also put out writers that do all of those and -R DL in the coming months.

I really torn on the whole thing and will have to wait for one clear winner as others have said. I like Blu-Ray for the manufacturers involved. I really don't care about the touted extra space because that comes at a price. For one, it is more expensive to manufacture Blu-Ray discs. Secondly, Blu-Ray discs put the data layer much closer to the surface which causes their discs to be a lot more susceptible to disc errors caused from scratches. TDK is supposed to be fixing that problem with a special polymer, but I don't know all of the details. I believe they sell current blanks with that polymer at 3 times the cost of regular blanks.

I like HD-DVD because it is the official standard set by the DVD Forum of which Pioneer and many others are a part of. It is also cheaper to produce because it existing DVD making machinery can be used to manufacture the HD-DVD discs. I know HD-DVD has less space, but it is just a durable as current DVD since the data layer is at the same depth. Also, are Blu-Ray discs going to fully utilize all of that extra space or are they just going to pad the discs with dummy material?

As for Disney, they have signed a non-exclusive deal with Blu-Ray. They will probably be releasing titles on both formats to maximize profits.

We also have to wait to see what the other studios like Image, Anchor Bay, and the Anime companies go with. They may be smaller than the majors, but they do put out a lot of content. Anime has really taken off in the US and far more titles are available on DVD than there ever were on VHS.

I think they should just work out their differences and come out with players that play both. I can't guess how each will utilize their disc space, but if you start seeing movies on Blu-Ray that only use 15-20Gb of space, that really didn't need that 50Gb of space and could have easily been put on HD-DVD. If they utilize more space for the film than HD-DVD can, then I see it as a clear advantage. I also don't mind it if HD-DVD would have to use a second disc for extras if they utilize all of the space on the first disc for the feature film. Lastly, I think if both worked together, Blu-Ray would be great for TV shows and HD-DVD for movies. But again, it depends on how each is going to utilize their disc space since both formats will use the same compression codecs. DVD wouldn't have been nearly as successful had their been two formats available. I really don't count DIVX since that didn't have any clear advantages over DVD in terms of quality and content.

Patrick