Is HD-DVD dead in the water?

[Rimmer]

Now that the Blu-ray group has confirmed support for next generation codecs in Blu-ray players, the one area where HD-DVD had a clear advantage is gone.

It will be the studios that decide which format to use for pre-recorded content, but Blu-ray has so much support that it's hard to see the HD-DVD format ever getting off the ground. What then for the DVD Forum?

From the recording point of view, next generation codecs will help to extend the life of Blu-ray even further. No doubt MPEG-2 will be used for home recordings until the cost of MPEG-4 AVC/VC-1 consumer encoding chipsets comes down; when it does, manufacturers will be able to sell these new recorders as a next generation product.