of new formats, the copmparison is valid.
Anyway: Given that HD-DVD is currently loosing market-share, I predict that HD-DVD will be as useful to the end-user as DVD-RAM: It'll be present, but nobody will ever use it.
And the simple fact remains, that supporting both HD-DVD and BluRay is a nightmare, since the standards are spanning books, and have very little in common (besides the form factor, which is not the deciding factor, or we'd still be using casettes, instead of CDs), making support expensive in terms of software development as well as in hardware. No matter how low the prices fall, it won't be economically viable to support a multi-format burner.
And as I said, HD-DVD is loosing market share. It is loosing mind-share. And given that consumers care more about quantity than quality, we won't see multi-format readers for long, and much less multi-format burners any time soon.
My prediction is, that Paramount and Universal will drop HD-DVD support within the year. And with that, HD-DVD will be dead in the water, the existance of multi-format readers nonewithstanding.
Oh, and it is quite likely that the HD backlog could be re-published on the other HD format. The music industry transferred it's entire catalogue to CD, even though it had been published on LP. As long as it makes business sense, it will happen. |
