This does kinda piss me off!

[SHayes]

I saw this this morning while peeking around IGN.com and in their "Gear" section they have a really nice section called HDTV Q&A. I saw this posted and was like "WOW how could you be so uninformed..."

"So our DVD player is almost dead and so today me and my mom went out pricing DVD players. DVD players are starting to become a little outdated and with HD-DVD and Blu-ray players dropping down in price there seems to be no point.

I know a lot about HD-DVD players and I know that at least most of them are backwards compatible, but I wasn't sure if Blu-ray was.

The choice I'm having a problem with is deciding which one to get, because right now it's fairly tough, because no one format has a complete library of DVDs. So right now we're just using our old DVD player, but I'm wondering which one do you think I should get a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player, because it would suck if I got a Blu-ray and then HD-DVD's ended up being the basic format. So I was just wondering which one do you think will win out in the end and if it's worth buying at this point right now?

Charles

Hey Charles,

That's the big question on everyone's mind these days. We get a lot of Blu-ray or HD-DVD questions, and honestly, if I could say for sure what's going to happen I'd be making some really aggressive investments. At the moment though, warring factions of PR and fans of each format will use any scrap of good or bad news to attack the other, which makes it hard to get a sense of what's really going on.

I do think that all sides will agree that this holiday season will be rather influential in the futures of the formats. HD-DVD players will be available as low as $199, which is a solid advantage over Blu-ray. If people flock to the format thanks to its lower hardware pricing HD-DVD will have scored a major win, which will probably result in both formats surviving for several years to come. Even if HD-DVD gains only modestly, I think both will be around for years. If, however, HD-DVD is thought to have bombed, like being outsold dramatically by Blu-ray despite the price advantage, we could see some relatively swift reactions by studios pulling back HD-DVD support. There's also the possibility that neither format will sell well (in the scale of things), which will lead to all the pundits saying physical media will not be the distribution method for HD films in future, and what we really need to wait for is better digital distribution and faster internet connections.

I think the most likely outcome will be good, but not explosive HD-DVD sales compared to Blu-ray, which will mean the format war will continue pretty much as it exists now with no decisive resolution for years. As such, in choosing a player, I'd weigh hardware costs against the libraries (is, or will, your favorite movie be exclusive to one format?). Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players will play regular DVDs. Almost all will also up-scale regular DVDs to make them look somewhat better.

I've already got both HD-DVD and Blu-ray players (Xbox 360 add-on and PS3). Were I trying to decide right now on a replacement to a dying DVD player, I'd probably get the first $199 HD-DVD player I could find (or the Xbox 360 add-on for $179). At that price you get a taste of next-gen movies and an up-scaling player for your old DVDs, which is nice and cost efficient (9 months ago you could spend the same money on just an up-scaling player). Sure HD-DVD might lose, but it's not like losing $199 is the end of the world, and chances are there won't be a resolution to the war for quite a while. Spend the cash you save on the cheaper hardware on some nice new HD movies and you'll probably be pretty happy.

-Gerry"

So the best format out there is HD-DUD because its cheaper, WTF?