Buy a membership at Sam's Club, buy a hddvd and if hddvd loses in a year or two return it. Doesn't Sam's return policy allow this?

AV_Integrated... you wanted to stay out of this battle. But I could always read between your lines!!! Even though it seemed HD DVD jumped out to the early lead since they came out first and they came out cheaper... you always seemed to be hinting that Blu Ray was gonna come out the winner. And, boy, the crushing blows were certainly a lot swifter than probably any of us thought!! Now we just need these blu ray players to come down in price!!

Quote (OldDawg on Feb 19, 2008 9:17 PM): AV_Integrated... you wanted to stay out of this battle. But I could always read between your lines!!! Even though it seemed HD DVD jumped out to the early lead since they came out first and they came out cheaper... you always seemed to be hinting that Blu Ray was gonna come out the winner. And, boy, the crushing blows were certainly a lot swifter than probably any of us thought!! Now we just need these blu ray players to come down in price!!

Let's be clear, I am very well versed on both sides of the arguement and I own both an A2 and a PS3, but it was very much up in the air what Warner would do, and when they did make a decision, things were over for HD DVD. Up to that point, they put forth a very valiant effort, and I sure don't feel cheated for the rentals I have enjoyed on HD DVD.

Yet, the idea of this site having people bicker about the format war just turns my stomach. Sites like this, and Audioholics have been steering fairly clear of the fanboy debates that have plagued AVS Forums.

Yet, flat out truth: I've been 'moonlighting' over at www.highdefdigest.com as a moderator there for about a year. My original screen name there was HD-DED. I was clearly on one side of the fence... yet you can read from my prior posts how I do feel that HD DVD was a very good solution as well.

It's just... well, in the real world you gotta have a lot more than a good idea and one or two really strong supporters when there is competition. This entire format war was decided when consumers started buying Blu-ray players, despite their higher cost, over the Toshiba HD DVD players. When 2007 ended, and Blu-ray had basically levelled the playing field, after being outsold much of the year, and still had players that cost twice as much I believe it was very motivational for WB.

Don't get me wrong - WB did get a paycheck of some sort to go BD exclusive. But, odds are excellent that HD DVD also put a similar offer on the table for WB exclusivity. WB was the one that made the decision, and in about a month, it proved to be the keystone to the crash of HD DVD.

So, clearly, I'm not suprised. But, if anyone says HD DVD lost because it 'sucked' or that it 'deserved it'... they are wrong.

HD DVD was top notch. It always was, and always will be. Yet, Toshiba simply didn't gather the forces together for a unified front the way the BDA did. In the history of consumer electronics, I can't think of a single format with so much diversified support that went on to lose a format war... or really to not succeed as a format.

That last part is the biggest one of all...

The format war is over! Now the format war begins.

BD vs. DVD

I expect this one won't be over in under 2 years.