HD DVD war is getting interesting....

[Dr Mordrid]

XBOX 360 will get HD-DVD as an option and initially the standalone decks will cost 1/3 to 1/4 as much as Blue Ray;

http://redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15204&hed=HD-DVD%26nbsp%3bvs+Blu-ray+War%26nbsp%3bStill+On

Best Buy, Amazon.com and others are already taking HD-DVD preorders.

My bet is that HD-DVD will get enough support to force deck makers to support both standards, and prices will drop much faster than previously estimated.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nowhere]

Hmmm...those HD-DVD stnadalone decks will cost more than PS3. And in this case you have pretty nifty gaming machine as a bonus... (doesn't there exist an opinion that PS2 helped promote DVD?)
And we all know how externall upgrades to consoles work (Sega)

[Mehen]

As of late I've noticed the industry leaning towards HD-DVD...

[GT98]

Hmmm...those HD-DVD stnadalone decks will cost more than PS3. And in this case you have pretty nifty gaming machine as a bonus... (doesn't there exist an opinion that PS2 helped promote DVD?)
And we all know how externall upgrades to consoles work (Sega)

Well if MS can price the HD-DVD player for $200 bucks or so, it would be worth it, well at least for the owners of Xbox 360 and their is media support for it.

As for the PS3, Sony said they would have something at CES, and they don't have jackshit there PS3 wise.

Then consider that the PS3 will most likely wind up a Holiday release, that leaves the door open for HD-DVD to fill in and I'd be willing to be that stand alone HD DVD players will be under $300 bucks by the time the PS3 is in full effect in US and Europe, say next Spring.

[Wombat]

Well if MS can price the HD-DVD player for $200 bucks or so, it would be worth it, well at least for the owners of Xbox 360 and their is media support for it.

As for the PS3, Sony said they would have something at CES, and they don't have jackshit there PS3 wise.

Meanwhile at CES, the HD-DVD demo failed miserably.

Plus, releasing HD-DVD as an add-on is pretty worthless. Like the PS2 hard drive, if not all customers have it, almost nobody will design games to use it.

[schmosef]

Word is that the HD-DVD drive for 360 will be for movies only.

Games will still be on DVD9 format discs. There's some suggestion that it might be ok to have dual format releases for games but I don't think it's possible because Microsoft won't certify a game that makes the hard drive a required accessory and development of two different resource management systems (one for DVD9 and one for HD-DVD) would be very expensive. If they can't cache major resources to the hard drive it's going to be very difficult to ensure that a game on DVD9 has all the resources that it may need on each disc.

Sony says that the PS3 will be released in spring '06. The president of EA's comment on Sony's plan: "Given their current progress... that's impossible."

[KvHagedorn]

I heard from a major manufacturer that we will have Blu-Ray disc players to sell in the spring (home theater components).

[Mehen]

Sweet - then we can play all those awesome HD movies

http://theinquirer.net/?article=28837

[Dr Mordrid]

Yeah....and the first mainstream BR discs announced were League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Fantastic Four and Ice Age

Who in hell's making these decisions?

Dr. Mordrid

[Marshmallowman]

Well there seems to be a few other BD's now

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2665&p=14