Sony hasn't had much luck with it's formats before now (betamax, minidisk) but I think their inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PS3 will be crucial. If everyone already has a device that runs Blu-Ray DVDs, where's the incentive to go out and buy another device? I know plenty of people who don't even own a standalone DVD player, choosing instead to use their PS2.

Two points - HDTVs need to be commonplace before people will move to the next gen of DVDs.

The inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PS3 will jack the price up to such a point that will blunt its sales.

What's the "need" for HDTV? Sure you'll benefit from the increased picture, but you can benefit from the additional storage space without it. More content.

Also why do you say the price will be jacked up with the Blu-Ray inclusion? Sony aren't going to bump up the price and cause a drop in sales. What makes you say that?

Hmmm... I don't know Richard. The majority of DVD's released to day don't use the available storage on traditional DVD disks. The few that do just package a second disk.

I don't think we're going to see anymore "content" on these new disk than we do already.

I'm slowly developing the opinion (although I'm not quite there yet), that this whole new generation DVD thing is a huge money and most importantly CONTROL grab buy these companies and studios.

Meh... I may change my mind on that... but so far I haven't seen a compelling reasons why my DVD's should be made obsolete.

I am dead set on purchasing a Playstation 3 so thats all there is to this story for me.

Just a correction to what was posted:

Microsoft and Intel, sometimes called Wintel, have both officially, as of 2 weeks ago, put their support in with HD-DVD, for what it's worth.

The uses aren't just for movies John, and in other mediums the DVD's are used to the max - games for example. There are some movies that have utilised the full storage of the DVD, I have a few myself.

Imagine TV Series on one disc.

I'm with thesecretsafe too, I'll be buying a PS3 so I'll have Blu-Ray in the house and it will be a DVD Player off the shelf.

Zicron - not a correction, update. The date on the article source is some time ago. Thanks for that though. Wonder if that means we might expect HD in the XBox 360? I also wonder if that was an informed decision, or just to go against Sony and PS?

Well, it IS a money control grab. Since HDTV isn't common place, forcing everyone into the next step is an expense for nearly everyone and a HUGE, and I mean HUGE, gain for those controlling it. You wouldn't force the public to stop using gas-powered cars starting tomorrow, because hybrid or electric cars aren't common-place... Oh... but since this is "Just" dvds we're talking about, and it's "Only" a few hundred rather than a few thousand, then what's the big deal? The big deal is being forced to give a fat-cat CEO my cash when he doesn't need it and when I don't need his product.

Of course, the people making these decisions are just regular assholes like you and me, and you can be damn sure that if you had a way of frustrating the public, but also get 2 billion dollars out of it, you'd do it. The average person does not care what TV I own - but the average person would suddenly be interested if it involved getting some money.

The DVD format argument is pointless. Since we have no say in the matter, we're left to watching billionaires decide how much money we're going to be spending on them.

John is correct -a good portion of DVDs out there don't use the full availability on a regular DVD as it is. Though yes, I could understand using a little more space so dual layers aren't needed anymore.. but that would only take you up to 9.5 gigs max. And unless every film is going to be released on a 4-disc box set like LOTR, we don't need a 100 gig dvd. Argument stayed for a 45gig dvd if you want to talk about tv series on dvd - even then, only make up a fraction in comparison to the number of movies available on dvd.

- Oh sure, we might be able to use a 100gig GAME --someday- I won't deny that, but video games have exponential amounts of growing room over a single stream of video 2 hours long.

I'm not gonna even touch the 'backwards compatitlbe' argument because it's so f*cking lame it pisses me off. Whatever I can play my dvds on gets my money - And I've already got it.

BluRay uses a different and hence more expensive laser, hence the economies of scales of current DVD players are lost. Early estimates say the BluRay drive in the P3 will add an extra $100 to it's cost.

Here is a link that provides some further info on the cost of BluRay.

It will come down but like DVDs, early adopters will pay the price.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/607/607139p2.html

There are multiple format players out there already, that's not a problem. Some of them play HD and BR and some are backwards compatible.

Fraction or not there is content that can stretch a DVD now, movies, games or TV series, and there will be content that will stretch the new format come time.

For the forced move, see move to video, see move to DVD, see the current situation I talked about in the Audio Edition, the UK being forced to digital TV.

I'm not arguing for it, I just think that there's a huge negative swing of opinion when things aren't that negative.

DVD hold 9 gigs if it is duel layer

HD-DVD hold 20 reg and 50 if duel layer

Blue RAy holds 50 gigs reg and 100+ if duel layer

if u buy a BR to days that about $1000 so considering PS3 has this and a cell there is no way in hell iam getting one

I had an interview recently with a manager at a Best Buy (the job market here sucks) and I told him that I keep up to date with the latest technology and that I may have to some day replace all my dvd's with Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD. He said he never heard of it LOL. Do retailers know what's going on? I guess I pissed him off knowing more than he did. So I didn't get the job, even when there were 90 openings.

With both Paramount and WArner now supporting Blu-Ray a major blow has been dealt to HD-DVD. As of now the only exclusive movie-company they have on their side is Universal, while Blu-Ray has Sony/MGM, 20th Century Fox and Buena Vista exclusivley