EDIT
"People will buy players for what they can actually rent and in many places, HD-DVD's are NOT available for rent."

All of you seem to forget that the larger group of movie consumers don't buy anything. They rent, and they are limited to what they local rental place has. I know you'd all like to think that netflix and online rental and downloads are the big thing but that's because you are all part of it. The vast majority of the world still locally rents what they don't see in the theater. Now, what can they rent? Welll, if they live in a smaller town the only game in that town (in the US) will be Blockbuster and what do they rent, that's right Blu-Ray. People will buy players for what they can actually rent and in many place, HD-DVD's are available for rent. Change that and you will still have a war, otherwise we are headed for a winner sooner than most think.

No, Michael, I'm not still watching VHS, but I've only had a DVD player for a few years because of prices. I already have the ability to use my PC to watch DVD quality movies on my television and had been doing so for some time until prices for DVD players came down to a point where I'd pay for one. I don't mind paying a bit more for PC parts because a computer can be used for much more than just movies or games, so the money spent there is justifiable for me. In fact, I make money using my PC, so it really pays for itself. A DVD player or game console, on the other hand, is purely for entertainment. I have several choices for entertainment and won't spend outrageous amounts of cash for the latest game console or highest-definition movie player when I already have a multi-function tool that will do both of those and more in the form of my PC.

Making sound, well thought out financial decisions is probably the main reason why I don't owe anyone any money, have two cars that are paid for and a home that's been paid for several years ago. I'm not the "average American" who keeps credit cards with a balance, buys outside my ability to do so at the moment or has to impress anyone else with my "toys" (automobiles, games, phones, etc.). Killing time watching overpriced movies on overpriced players whose only selling point is I can more easily see the pores of someone's face is not my idea of a worthwhile investment.

And, yes, if standard DVD players were still over $100 I would not own one to this day. If you think something's wrong with that, that's your right, but I'd think something was wrong with your priorities if you consider it all that important. I'm all for anyone spending their money on whatever floats their proverbial boat, but the simple fact of the matter is if nobody bought into this format war it would have been over long ago.

Yeah Michael your right Blu-ray players are more expencive then a HD-DVD player, but the big factor here is the PS3 which a lot of people have bought, and they are not going to go out and buy a HD-DVD player when they already have a Blu-ray

I'll be damned if I'm going to buy into either format while two exist. Even after (if) one format wins or another comes along to kill the others, I'm not spending a cent until the players get well below $100.

You want people to adopt your product and/or format? Sell it at a decent (read: low, low, LOW) price instead of trying to milk the consumer for every last cent.

It sure sounds as if everyone is already writing Toshiba off when they still have the full support from both Paramount and Universal - two extremely large studios with tons of content yet to be released in either format. If I were Toshiba, Universal or Paramount right now I would be gearing up TONS of new titles to absolutely flood the market with titles priced as aggressively as they have done with the players. Stimulate the market and get the consumer pipeline going at a much faster rate than it is moving now. What do they possibly have to lose by going with such a strategy? Nothing much at all in my opinion. They would show their current customer base that they still believe and support them and will reap the benefits of creating a happy and satisfied customer base. Most HD-DVD customers now are so pissed at Sony and Warner that they will do anything to prove that Warner made a dumb move by going Blu. If current HD suppliers can issue both new and catalog titles at the same list price as their respective DVD versions instead of where they are right now, there would be a mass exodus to HD from DVD. Blu could not and would not do the same, its been proven already from their stand alone player strategy.

Let's face it - as important as this is to us early adopters, the HD market is a mere fraction of the total DVD market. Most consumers see no real reason to move to this superior format mostly because it is so much more expensive to commit to than DVD. With an aggressive pricing strategy by HD-DVD supporters and continued support of its already lower priced players, HD-DVD stands to grow much faster than Blu can or will. Call me naive if you want but trust me, Toshiba still has a lot of room to go before the fat lady sings. They knew when they stood up to Sony in the first place that they were in for a long and bloody battle but their customer base is a loyal one and for the most part, they are more than willing to dig in and fight for what they want as well.

mike, $99 hd-dvd players were only available for a short time because toshiba was willing to lose $100 per player to help boost the format. i was even tempted to buy one, but thought better because i was wary to spend the money on a format where the disks were still being outsold by the competitor.

again, like i said, i didnt care who won....just as long as one was picked so those of us on the sidelines can jump into the game. but from everything that ive read, the u.s. market was where the disks were the closest in sales. blu-way was outselling hd-dvd by a large margin in the rest of the world, so to me it makes more sense for warner to back blu-ray (from a worldwide corporate point of view). i just call that economics 101.

warner has actually come out and said they were not paid $500 million...that amount was just a rumor. but if they were, so what....toshiba paid off paramount. its business. and also, i highly doubt that disney will switch sides...with apple backing blu ray and steve jobs being on the disney board, disney seems to be more on the blu-ray bandwagon than sony.

it looks like i'll buy a blu ray player now. im one of the fortunate ones where spending a few extra bucks wont kill me, i just want to make sure i spend it on the winning side. after reading about a dozen or so articles on this subject now and all of them practically declaring hd-dvd dead. i think it is safe to say ive made the right decision....but i do feel bad for those who bought the hd-dvd player. maybe they should have waited out the format war too.

Well me and my PS3 are vary happy about this!
And you can nitpick at the "Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray" quote, but at least where iam Blu-ray is seriously outselling HD-DVD, and if it is like that a lot of places, they yes Consumers have chosen Blu-ray.. Dont be mad at Sony becaus your stuck with the player that lost.. think in 10 years it will be a collectible like the Betamax

"Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray"

Bullshit hype from a company that's "clearly" had a payoff. I'm sticking to Torrents thankyou very much.

Wink, Blue ray was outselling HD DVD 2:1 this spring and summer and Warners movie 300 was 66 to 34 when it came out to over 1 million ps3 players and about 200k hd dvd players...then at the end of nov hd dvd was over 750k to around 3 million ps3 and the harry p only sold 55% to 45% in favor of blue ray...cause more people are buying hd dvd then are buying blue ray.

Fact is Sony bought Warner for 500 million or there is another rumor that warner tried to get fox to sell on hd dvd and when they refused warner decided only way it would end is if they went blue.

But I'm here to say that I bought my hd dvd for $99 and I didn't have a up converting player at the time. Now that I do I won't buy a blue ray player tell they are $50.

If warner had went HD DVD a lot more middle class would have bought $179 players then will buy $399 (ps3 only 2.0 capable player on market).

This might end the stalemate with HD DVD but blue ray is a long way from beating regular dvd's upconverted.

And if HD DVD can get disney to go neutral the game is still on.