From a technology standpoint, I really don't understand why HDDVD and blueray were even necessary. With h.264 and other excellent mpeg4 codecs available, HD content could been compressed to fit on a dual-layer DVD.

I'm all for bigger and more advanced storage mediums, but only when they're ready for primetime. HD was poised to explode 2 years ago as the first HD sets got into consumer's homes, and yet standard DVDs are still all that's generally available. The sluggish cable industry beat them to the punch!

I think the movie industry missed an opportunity to put out cheap new players (DVD laser + a new chip for decoding HD mpeg4 content) and have HD movies be the premiere reason to own a ...

From a technology standpoint, I really don't understand why HDDVD and blueray were even necessary. With h.264 and other excellent mpeg4 codecs available, HD content could been compressed to fit on a dual-layer DVD.

I'm all for bigger and more advanced storage mediums, but only when they're ready for primetime. HD was poised to explode 2 years ago as the first HD sets got into consumer's homes, and yet standard DVDs are still all that's generally available. The sluggish cable industry beat them to the punch!

I think the movie industry missed an opportunity to put out cheap new players (DVD laser + a new chip for decoding HD mpeg4 content) and have HD movies be the premiere reason to own a HDTV for the past 2 years. Instead they've been asleep at the wheel, worrying about competing standards, DRM, and developing new laser technology.