Many ppl have been quoting expense and production costs as 1 of the main criteria to determine whether it will be BD or HD and often look at the player as being the key to a home entertainments system.

Yet most ppl seem to be overlooking a more important part to this, what happens to their existing collection of DVDs. I don't have space in my house to accomodate an LD player, DVD player, BD player and HDDVD player. I have a sizable DVD collection already and would ideally like a player to replace my existing DVD player whilst allowing me to play all my existing DVDs. AFAIK HDDVD does this, however I also like the extra capacity offered by BD discs, and should a RW option ever become available I can see this making a great multipurpose device allowing system backups to be made for securing data and files from my PC.

In terms of the film industry, clearly their main concerns will not be centred around costs of implementation or the costs of change or even over quality, their main concerns will be over digital rights managment and prevention of highly lucrative piracy syndicates leading to a loss of revenue. If that means that end users have to put up with 2 players 1 for standard DVDs and one for an alternative high definition player then so be it. Once the high def standard has been set there will most likely be a changeover process where DVDs slowly get phased out in much the same way that vinyl was until only a few enthusiasts will stay with the older format.