HD DVD better than Blu - HOW?

[kjack]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

1) Cost of entry the most obvious

True, but this has had a detrimental effect on the number of companies willing to make HD DVD players due to the low margins already. At my count, more China companies are becoming involved in BD players than HD DVD. BTW, knowing how Walmart likes to remove everyone's profit but theirs, their selling price is probably close to the player cost.

2) Every player is capable of conecting to the internet to recieve fw updates and web enabled content

Double-edged sword. How many average users will hook up their player to the internet, especially if it's not wireless? HD DVD burdens every player with this cost, while BD lets users decide if they want to pay for the additional feature or not.

3) Required DD+ & TrueHD decoding in player. (although only 2ch is required all but the 360 can and do decode TrueHD 5.1)

While not mandatory, most BD players will (and do) support decoding of the new audio codecs. For someone wanting to build a really low cost player, the new audio codecs are optional. Again, it's up to the consumer to decide if that is important to them from the BD viewpoint.

4)PiP available on all players from day 1

HD DVD had the advantage here by not going with SoC solutions day 1. Disadvantage is the continual redesign, and changing suppliers, each generation to lower cost.