Originally Posted by Nightshade
I will wait until there is a decided format leader and it is standardized. Price will be way too high at the beginning anyways so they can all go suck a big one for all I care.
Exactly. There isn't going to be a big old format war again like in tape days. Before VHS/BetaMAX, there was no way to home record video. Now, there's piles of alternatives that can tide the common consumer until it's all over. Only the early adopters stand to get burned, but if they can and are willing to drop 500-800 for a player, then they probably won't be a butt-hurt as the common citizen when their format doesn't fly.
I'm still voting for Blu-Ray because it's technologically more robust, less rushed to the market, has the greatest scalability, and I really like Panasonic (aka Matsushita) equipment.