Don't forget old style DVDs, because they are going to be around for quite some time, and I'm perfectly happy with what I have for now. So, sit back, relax and wait it out. The prices will eventually get down to acceptable levels again.

I think the pessimism about BD player prices is unfounded. Now that the format war is over, lesser known brands will start licensing to produce BD players, confident they won't be wasting the investment on a dead format. The more companies producing players, the greater the availability of lower-cost players. Look what happened to VCR prices once VHS became the de facto format, and JVC started licensing everybody and their brother to make VHS VCR's.

I disagree! Blu-Ray is a very good technology. It is also a very complex machine. This is why the profiles are changing and newer machines will be able to support features that first generation machines don't. It is not true that many disks don't work in all Blu-Ray machines. On some of the newer disks there may be features that are not supported by first generation machines, like picture-in-picture, or multi track audio. This is the price early adopter always pay. HD DVD used a red laser that has been around forever, it was hardly cutting edge. It did produce a great picture, as good as Blu-Ray, but its theoretical limit was virtually reached at launch. I think over all it is a mute point. A progressive scan DVD produces a picture that most people are pleased with, and the instant downloads are going to grow in the next couple years.

Currently Netflix offers instant watch movies and the quality is really good. It is not HD, but the ability to watch movies instantly as much as you like for the low price of $20 is just too convenient. I watch them on my media center PC, but they are also releasing a plug-in for the xbox 360 and PS3 soon. This will bring the ability to watch movies instantly to millions of homes.

Over all a PS3 is the best deal for HD viewing. You can stream home videos to it from your PC, use it as your Blu-Ray player, Watch movies from Netflix, and it's a great game machine. If they come up with a Blue-Ray drive add-on for the 360 and that's your gig it will offer all the above. My 360 is a little too loud to watch a movie on, but the games are great.

"Your Movie Collectionf Will Play in Your Player".

What exactly is a Collectionf? I don't think I have one, but may need to start getting one.

Just a couple of corrections. HD DVD does not use a red laser, it too uses the Blue laser diode that Blu-Ray uses.
Also, for those of you thinking that Blu-Ray will drop in price like VHS did when Beta went out the door are mistaken. Beta was a Sony technology, it failed because their licensing to third party manufacturers was too expensive. VHS was very open for manufacturing at low prices passing the savings to consumers.
Like with Beta, Blu-Ray is a Sony technology, and the licensing for it too is up there like it was for Beta. Why do you guys think that Blu-Ray players are still expensive? And with no competition now, it will very likely stay like that for the remainder of the year.
I praise Blu-Ray (Yes, it's spelled Blu, not Blue). But I really wish that both Toshiba and Sony would of set their pride aside when they had the chance and developed a new format that would of been compatible with both HD DVD and Blu-Ray but introduce something even greater for less.

80% of all TVs manufactured today are high-def. But 80% of all TVs owned today are not. I think the marketplace is missing the big picture. Our economy is headed toward inflation (or worse) and Joe/Suzy Consumer are perfectly happy with what they've got (standard def). I doubt if they're waiting for their economic stimulus checks to arrive in May to take the high-def plunge. For the middle-class (or poorer) family who happen to be the mainstay of our consumer base, this high-def format war is seen as a joke. It's like trying to decide whether you should sell ice in blocks or ice in cubes to a consumer base that has no freezer to put them in.

Me??? I'm sticking with standard def for the LONG foreseeable future ... unless of course high-def TV prices drop by 80% or better. And if they do, THEN and ONLY THEN will I start fidgeting over the format of a DVD player.

Sorry to disagree. Yes, 80% of consumers currently own standard def TVs, but these will soon start to phase out from the market. By soon I mean the next couple of years, probably even as soon as mid 2009. True that consumers won't rush out and buy an HDTV right away, but prices on these are dropping considerably. A lot of people don't realize that there are HDTVs that are not LCD or Plasma. There are plenty of CRT (Tube) HDTVs that are very very close to Standar Def prices.

As to the downloadable media. I don't want to watch movies on my PC, and I don't want to connect my PC to my livingroom. My PC stays in my office (In this case my room). I want to sit on my couch and relax when watching a movie, not sit for over an hour and stare at my 17" computer monitor. Until the industry releases a multi media PC that costs less than a Blu-Ray player that will connect to my HDTV and not be a wasted resource, there's no point. Downloadable movies are great for when you are on the go, or if that's your beef, good for you. But most people out there wouldn't enjoy a downloaded movie unless they have their PC already connected to their livingroom TV, and I know how anoying it is to disconect your PC to reconect it out in the living room just to watch a movie. Given up on that a long time ago.

DVD will eventualy go as VHS has. Some people were upset and some even refused to buy a DVD player when these were first introduce. I remeber when my cousin worked at Blockbuster, people would complaint because VHS was being phased out and they still refused to buy a DVD player. The funny thing is that this was at a time when you could start finding DVD players for under 50 bucks. That was not being smart, it was just being stuborn.

As to the fear that it will get to the point where Blu-Ray players won't play your older media just won't happen. Sony can't afford to alienate the consumer market in that manner. Backwards compatibility is the key to success here, and DRM won't prevent you from playing older Blu-Ray movies in newer machines. I will not be surprised if early next year Sony releases a Blu-Ray / HD DVD player combo to gain the market on all the current HD DVD owners that are holding a grudge. And if they make it affordable, that might just increase their revenue allowing for newer players to be released for a lot less.

Blu-Ray will eventualy phase Standard DVDs out just like DVD did to VHS. And until PC manufaturers release a set top box that only allows download for movies from Netflix and maybe even soon Blockbuster, consumers will continue to move forward in picture quality. Just remeber, Apple TV has not been a success as of yet. It has premise, but it's been around long enough to where it should of taken off by leaps and bounds. Consumers are just not that interested on buying something like that when they can just buy a Mac Mini for a little bit more.