I've got to say, Sony seems to have gone bat-shit, Britney Spears style crazy...

How about they take a look in the mirror? I am losing all my faith, and the Xbox 360 is looking more appealing every day, even though I have always been a PS purist.

BetaMax being pwned by VHS - now they think it's payback time.

You should have kept the original title (it's in the RSS feed) .. All Your Base Are Belong to Us.

I really would hate to see Sony's format win, since they control a decent part of the movie (MPAA) and music industry (RIAA). With Blu-Ray I can pretty much see some hardcore rootkits and crazy DRM going on these discs if they do win the format war.

Screw Sony's format. Buy HD-DVD or become a pirate.

It's a pirate's life for me.

So Blu-Ray players will be $20 in three years? Because it wasn't until DVD players were $20 that my parents replaced their VHS players with them......

I can see Blu-ray winning out over HD DVD as it has the studio support and better storage.
However DVD just beat VHS in sales not long ago, I don't see either Blu-ray or HD DVD being market leader for a very long time.

Ok everyone want to kill BlueRay.. Just repeat this sentence to at least one person a day and BlueRay will die in America.

BlueRay is Gay, HD all the way.

I'm the only one who doesn't agree with anyone here?

I just bought a PS3 this past weekend and am completely in love with it. Other than the no rumble aspect (which will hopefully be fixed soon), it's an INCREDIBLE machine. Why am I talking about it here? Because it's the cheapest Blue-Ray player you can buy.

Have you seen how amazing Blue-Ray looks in person on a 1080p screen? If not, don't comment. It's FAR superior to dvd.

Stop hating. It's badass I swear. Don't let the editors here sway your opinion.

Go Sony, Go Sony

Blue-ray all the way. Everyone take a pee on HD DVD! (and your macs while you're at it :)

PS3 and Apple, toys for people with more money than brains.

you go college boys, in no time the true techs will rule your world.

I'll say it...

"All your Tech are belong to us!"

"Have you seen how amazing Blue-Ray looks in person on a 1080p screen? If not, don't comment. It's FAR superior to dvd."

Why yes I have. And I think HD-DVD does just as good a job, and it's cheaper. Much cheaper for consumers AND manufacturers.
But my upscaling DVD player looks pretty darn good, too - not as good, but good enough for the money. I'm glad you have enough excess cash to spend on PS3s and such, but most people don't. A PS2 (or a Wii) and a upscaling DVD player is much cheaper for most, and that will win the day - until costs come waaaaay down.
And then HD-DVD will still win.

@Neight:
You do realize that HD-DVD also supports 1080p, and yields the same quality video, right? And its already a given that both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD are superior to original DVD, but claiming you will take over DVD in three years is a bit nearsighted - it took a LONG time to replace VHS, and VHS cassettes were horrible.

Neight, I don't really care if your PS3 can part the waters and make you float while you play it all while cooking burgers for dinner and preparing margarita cocktails.

The fact is that there is no way Blu-ray is going to replace DVD in three years, no matter what this "plan" is and much less if they are banking on the PS3 to do so. It may be cheaper for being a console and a Blu-ray player, but the problem is that the mainstream market - those with DVD players to be replaced - is NOT interested in game console.

As bignaz2k says, it took many more years for DVD to replace VHS and the later's quality was abysmal compared to the former. The difference between DVD and HD (in both HD DVD and Blu-ray flavors) is big, no doubt, but I doubt most people will really give a damn about being able to count Hellen Mirren's nostril hairs in the Queen. I am sure they add to the character, but not that much.

Myself, I'll stick to DVDs and my Marantz projector with Faroudja processors for upscaling; then jump directly into HD downloads when they come. Adam made that point recently in a TV interview and I agree with him. The Blu-ray association may find in three years that their plans have been crushed by Internet HD downloads.

The format war will be long. And Sony pulling out the arrogance card agian that may cost them. The PS3 is helping Blu-ray, but it won't be Blu-ray's savior that is needed for them to win. The first format with a good movie selection and a price range between $150-$200 will get my money. And the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on doesn't count.

I currently own an HD-DVD player and I love it. But in all honesty i really don't care which format wins. They both look and sound great. Even though HD-DVD has some video advantages and BD has better audio. The only thing that is hurting everyone is the format war. It's hurting consumers because everyone is scared to take a plunge and that in turn is hurting company profits on both sides of the battle.

The only way Sony could think to pull this off is if they gave everyone in the united states (and world-wide) a FREE Blu-Ray Player (like out of a cereal box or something) as well as a score of FREE movies to replace your DVD collection... They'd also have to send a rep to every little ole grandma's house to set up a Blu-Ray player and make it mind-numbingly simple to use...

Not gonna happen!

I needed another reason to hate Sony today...thank you....

Betamax was technically superior to VHS also. I should know, I used Betamax players for years, and stubbornly held out until my beloved SL-HF1000 took a lightning hit. It was not technical superiority that won the day for VHS, it was "economics". Beta machines and tapes were expensive, and not universally carried. VHS was everywhere, and smart licensing deals kept the prices of the base units well within consumer affordability. The same things will dictate the winner in the HD wars. The videophile elite can only buy so many units....

At CES Sony announced a $600 Blu-ray player by this summer, they also said they will have a $300 Blu-ray player by the end of this year. At this rate I can see a $100 or less blu-ray player in 3 years and I can also see it beating out HD DVD before then (based on industry support only). But I cant see it replacing good ole DVD that soon, but then again who knows, the Bluray group might start a price war and sell bluray players at $90, its been done before.

I want HD-DVD to win because Blu-ray has region coding. That alone is reason enough to hate it. Let me know when I can buy a region-free Blu-ray player and I'll consider it.

Honestly, it doesn't matter how you feel about Sony as a company. Doesn't matter if HD-DVD and Blu Ray are of similar quality, or even if HD-DVD is a little better. Blu Ray may not overtake DVD within 3 years, but all indications are pointing to HD-DVD being wiped out sooner than anyone expected. Customers ARE picking Blu Ray, and more will hop on board as the snowball gathers steam down the hill.

has sony ever won a format war? i don't count cd since there was no real competitor and ms since only sony products use it.

Why is anyone surprised at this statement? It would be economic suicide to be less than totally upbeat. Anything else screams "wait and see" at potential customers.

If it's a critical part of their business strategy, then they should begin selling the PS3 for $200. That might actually make this plot viable.

@ grandaardvark
Yes Sony has gone Britney Crazy, but its more like Britney when Sony Crazy. Phil Harrison shaved first.

I don't really understand fanboyism, why root for a company? They are all faceless corporations who want to separate you from your money. Whether or not you think the PS3 is a big steaming pile or the greatest thing since Slushees, the business plan for getting it adopted as the next standard for fully owned high definition media is bullet proof. The only way HD-DVD had a chance would have been to have it forced on us in the xbox 360, but that would have delayed it a year and then it would cost the exact same as the PS3, and the PS base is way to large to win that fight straight up.

Just looking purely at numbers HD-DVD doesn't have a chance to beat blu-ray, the snowball is picking up steam. However if you keep looking at numbers, blu-ray has no chance to EVER catch DVD's if the prices stay near where they are. If blu-ray players get down to the $100 range in the next year, and HDTV adoption rates stay on the exponential growth curve they are currently on (when was the last time you even saw a CRT in a store), then Sony could actually pull it off (taking over the dvd market). But truly it would require a $150-200 PS3 and $100 stand alone Blu-ray players.

Blu-Ray will win because it just sounds cooler

HD DVD has too many syllables; Blu-ray FTW!

I think HD-DVD's biggest competitor is its namesake. In terms of HD movies Blu-ray will be most successful, but how successful remains to be seen.

The real point here is neither HD-DVD nor Blue-ray can replace DVD untill you see a significant switch to HDTV. Sony may be betting on the fact that in 2009 analog goes bye-bye so people will upgrade to HDTV and by this point, due to using their secret magic powers, Blue-ray will dominate the market. In all logical sense, 2009 happens and people as a whole will start to move at a much more accelerated rate toward HDTV. However, think of yourself as someone who knows nothing really about anything we are talking about here.

Sales rep: "I see you are interested in an HDTV. Would you consider purchasing a new DVD player that plays movies in HD?"
Spooked old foegy: "Well, what do you have to offer?"
Sales rep: "There are two different kinds, HD-DVD or Blue-Ray."
Spooked old foegy: "WTH is Blue-ray? Some kind of space laser?"
Sales rep: "Uh...no sir its..."
Spooked old foegy: "Now I'm buying an HDTV so I should probably get an HD-DVD."
Sales rep: "Well both are HD sir."Spooked old foegy: "TURN DOWN THAT DANG MUSIC!"

And Scene.

The point is that once people start to grasp that TV is moving to digital and then HD Digital they are going to go with things they recognize. Blue-Ray looks like it has an up hill battle.

More likely:
"Within three years it will just be DVD"

Bluray is the way to go. HD-DVD is a thing of the past. Sony is King.

Why would I buy an HD-DVD player, when I could buy a Blue Ray player...that also happens to be a PlayStation 3?