@Gannon and other HD-DVD apologists
Wish folks would stop fooling themselves over this. HD-DVD is dead. It's bleedin' demised. Shuttled off this mortal coil. It is a dead fortmat. (apologies to Monty Python for the horribly remembered para-phrase - it's a pun, geddit?)
Seriously though, HD-DVD died with this announcement. PS3 is a Blu-Ray player as well as a games console and sold 1.2 million in the US between November 23 and December 31 (according to Sony). Even knocking that down to an even million to be charitable to Toshiba, it should be noted that Toshiba recently mad a big play that it's *to date* sales in the US are only a million. In other words more PS3s were sold over a 6 week period than HD-DVD players since their inception. This doesn't even mention the hundred's of thousands of stand alone Blu-Ray players that have sold.
Then Warner points out that the annual consumer spend on Blu-Ray movies last year was 60% higher than HD-DVD. Not bad considering HD-DVD had at least a 6 month lead in the market.
Yeah, it sure sounds like there is no reason to conclude that HD-DVD is a dead format....</sarcasm>
Blu-Ray is a better format technically. It has higher data and video bitrates as well as larger disc capacity. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are invested with DRM, to say one is worse than the other is to engage in willful stupidity. Of the two formats Blu-Ray is actually the more open and less proprietary of the two (by far). But, hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a good argument shall we?