BR vs HD DVD Showdown

[ra1024]

I'm still astounded that with BR having superior disc capacity and bitrate than any of the enthusiasts would be so in favor of HD DVD. I don't understand how a true enthusiast would favor equipment with lesser capabilities. It seems their only counter to this is to argue that HD DVD's bitrate and capacity are "enough" for HD content and the additional capacity BR has doesn't show any noticable difference.

It seems that this would be easy to confirm or dispute with a simple encoding challenge of a difficult or detailed scene. I've seen hints of this sort of challenge but I've never heard of it actually taking place. Is there any reason this sort of challenge hasn't been done?

It would be great to settle this once and for all and either acknowledge that HD DVD is acceptable or determine that it is not "transparent to the master". My gut feeling is that Amir/MS would decline to participate but if that happenned, at least BR could always use that as evidence they know their format is inferior. Whether they participate and lose or refuse to participate, the end result would be the same. Does anyone know if this has happenned and if not, why it hasn't?