Would High Def been better off if HD-DVD would have won?

[thomasward00]

This isn't a flame as I just bought my first Blu Ray player last night and never owned an HD-DVD player, just an observation.. I think if HD-DVD would have won the format war that by now it would have had more market penetration because of the players being priced lower and the lower cost for manufacturers to combine the production of DVD HD-DVD, as opposed to blu ray... From looking at the selection at several movie and electronic stores, as well as blockbuster, Blu Ray is still a niche product and will stay that way for at least another few years, it will get bigger, but won't explode like DVD, the cost gap is just too high for the majority of consumers, add to that the constant firmware upgrades, although not difficult for me to understand, it certainly will be for Grandma or most soccer moms, DVD never had these growing pains. Sony or whoever controls things needs to decide on a standard, stop at that standard and upgrade all older players to that standard and call it a day... Un needed confusion kills marketshare and adoption, problems that I think HD-DVD would have had an easier time with over the long haul, success is not about being 5 or 10% better, it's about mainstream market penetration and I don't see that happening for at least a few years with Blu Ray...

These opinions are from a brand new Blu Ray owner, I LOVE the quality of the picture, but I don't love the selection and most of all the prices of players and media.