hmmm...out of sudden..so many people say that they dont really like transformers....but I have to admit that I do like spiderman, because it is a fact, and will not lie to myself because it is not available in HD-DVD..and I always believe that those HD-DVD and BD will be co-exist for longer time than what we expected, and unlike few people, I will not jump to my chair and yell that one format will be dead just because of the number of studio support...

'NUFF SAID

Hehe. I'm happy to see this. A more intense format war is better for the people who do not run out and buy the latest and greatest. Price wars will continue longer, and we'll see better players for cheaper even faster.

RM199? My friend bought one for RM89, and it  got a usb port and support divx. I think more than 5 years to get this kind of price. I remembered I bought my first dvd player for RM1500 (at that time there a no Capt Jack Sparrow, bought most of my movies from amazon.com) and I never regret it.

Let's be frank about this. We all want the format war to end. The faster the movie industry choses a singular format to release the movies in HD, the better it is for the consumer, since we can move forward with developing more into that singular format, and driving the price down through mass adoption.

The thing here is, exclusivity announcements like these, delays this singular format adoption, prolonging the war. Consumers are then forced to either wait even longer while more and more movies are being released on different formats, hoping that those movies will still be available when the "nuclear fallout" from the war settles and a singular format emerges. Those who had chosen a side (or two sides) had to face the fact that they either have to settle for movies exclusive to their chosen format, or in the case of those who embraces the two formats, having to invest further in 2 players to get their movie fixes. This very reason is why there are still many Joe/Jane.Q.Public still squatting on the fence seeing how this is going to end.

Bear in mind that when i posted that paragaraph above, it applies to both the HD-DVD and BDA consortium. What consumers want, im sure, although the truth is hard to swallow, is one format to live, and the other die  a quiet death. Unless players for both formats drops down to ridiculously cheap prices, i dont see the general masses buying two players for two formats. Face it, although we pat ourselves around the bac saying that both formats can live side by side together, this utopian scenario will not happen. I mean, this is not the console war folks, where 3 consoles can live side by side, feeding on their own piece of the videogaming pie. Historically, in the home video format, the general masses CHOOSES only ONE and only ONE format, not two or three. As much as anyone hates to hear this , be it from a Blu-ray or HD-DVD  fan, One shal live, and one shall fall, as to quote Mr.Optimus himself. Then, and only then, can the industry moves forward with improving that surviving singular format with more features and capabilities. Until that happens, we will continue to see these exclusivity deals being thrown around, and feces being sling about between the two competing camps.

The only other way i see how two formats can live side by side with each other is, to destroy the studio exclusivity, and let all studios produce their movies on both the Hd-DVD and Blu-ray format, and let the consumer shoose which format their would rather buy. But this is impossible pipe-dreamish to think off, since if this happens, these movie studios would have to pay royalty and publishing fees to both the BDA AND the HD-DVD group for producing on their medium. No movie studio wants to chalk up losses by doing this, which is why we will continue seeing studios choosing sides until something happens to either kill one format and let the other live, or unifies it.

am i the only person here who didnt give a rats anus about HD wars? my tv sucked.. it can only go up to 480p............ original HD and BD are way outta my reach. im just glad DVDs are cheap these days. although i wish SPEEDY would stock more classic movies!