HD, it's gonna be a while
 

For a time I was optimistic that HD would take off fast in the consumer market (fast being in 5 years.) But with this looming format war, and the fact that both sides (Sony and Toshiba) don't want to come up with a universal format, I'm not too convinced that HD will be another DVD revolution. Maybe if companies come out with backward compatible players...but how expensive would that be? And to top it all off, the HD sets on display at stores like Walmart really don't look all that great. Things are not looking good for the HD consumer market, IMO.

Well, as far as attracting a market goes, I think HD DVD has got a better chance. The HD DVD players are backwards compatible.

They've also patented a disc that's HD DVD on one side, and DVD on the other so that today's consumers can start buying for their next collection and enjoy the movies without having to immediately buy a new player.

BOTH HD&BR players will be backwards compatible no matter what. it's written into the spex, i believe. so the problem isn't backwards compatibility, the problem is which PHYSICAL format. both sides have similar SOFTWARE formats. it's now all about the PHYSICAL format itself.