Chris, you ask, "If cost to the consumer will be roughly equivalent and copyprotection/digital rights will be the same, why would a consumer chose HD-DVD over Bluray?"

Well you are too smart not to know the answer to the question you ask. Consumers would choose HD-DVD over Blu-Ray because it was available first and because it has the movies they want to see.

Chris, why don't you understand that the average person does not build his own subs, have expensive Meridian gear, and follow every twist and turn of a future, as in NOT HERE, RIGHT NOW, hi-rez video format? Enthusiast don't set the agenda for consumer electronics companies, the average future buyer does.

If the studios are split 50/50 for their preference of either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, then logically, what business that you know of which has 50% of future industry support would give that up and throw in the towel in a bid to help consumers and avoid a format "war"? I sure can't think of any. A brief digression: Why do folks call it a "war" anyway? It is just healthy marketplace competition between two differing standards. We don't call Ford, GM, and Chrysler's competition for auto sales and "auto war". So why do we call the SAC/DVD-A or HD-DVD/Blu-Ray competitions "wars"?

You fail to acknowledge my point (not that you really have to, but ignoring it makes your repetitive comments less persuasive), that once the first Blu-Ray discs are printed and in stores, that the player specification side of the hardware is essentially frozen, locked in. Sure, the recording size can and will improve, but there is no way in this world that retailers are going to stock a 25GB version of the Spiderman hi-rez disc and 100GB version of the same title. This is fundamentally different from retailers stocking a regular version of a DVD title and a Superbit version because both of these titles will play on the SAME DVD player. The 100GB player will be able to play both the 100GB and 25GB discs, but the 25GB will have no clue what to do with the 100GB disc. Retailers will not sell a disc for which they have to explain to consumers that it may or may not work in their hi-rez player that they just purchased for $400+. They don't want the headaches or the customer dissatisfaction. So, future recording size increases for Blu-Ray are great for time-shifters and archivers, but have little to no effect on the value of a Blu-Ray machines as hi-rez disc PLAYERS.

Regarding the notion of playing with semantics when you referred to Dolby Digital Lossless (which now includes Meridian MLP) as being the same as DVD-Audio and DVD-Audio 2 (which you made up and does not exist) and the mention of mandatory support of DVD-Audio on Blu-Ray, language matters and you have to always take care with what you say and how you say it. Yes, you knew what you were saying and so did John Kotches and I. However, other thread readers who are not well versed in the minutiae may not understand that you were making stuff up. They may not understand the difference between a compression algorithm and a disc format. If someone where to do a Google search on DVD-Audio 2 and came across your entry (not that I have tried this), he might honestly, but mistakenly believe that such a thing exists. More to the point he might erroneously equate a waning format like DVD-A with Blu-Ray, which might negatively affect how he perceives Blu-Ray. So please be careful how you say what you say, so as not to unintentionally spread unverifiable rumors that can confuse the discourse and muddy the playing field.

Sorry for the ad hominem, but the pressure was too great.

Damon