Thanks for the link - looks hopeful.

What is not so hopeful so far, is what is likely to be on offer. Here is one report:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=17afdf0a918292d890b6fe45d88ad526&threadid=516682

HD video is likely to have an uphill battle to be accepted anyway for the reasons -

1. Reports suggest that many who have bought into HD sets on the basis of stunning pictures in the store have felt cheated when they cannot duplicate them in their home -> black mark against HD

2. HD DVD will be initially expensive

3. Not a large proportion of the population have large enough screeens to see much advantage over SD DVD and many are uncritical of video quality in the first place

4. Many have already amassed quite a selection of DVDs and are unlikely to want to duplicate

5. Commercial pressure is limiting bandwidth (and so availability of HD) so SD is the revenue raiser in broadcasting -> less interest/knowlege about HD video

So, present the public with 2 hi-rez DVD formats and, IMO, they will stay away in droves.

The situation here in Australia is that there is not much genuine HD being broadcast. A SD PAL digital signal can be very impressive and we are very pleased with the video quality here via a Barco VSE40 quadrupler -> Barco 808s projector -> 96" screen, with Meridian manged audio of course :-) So, I'm losing interest in HD TV full stop. Let them come out with 2 hi-rez DVD formats and I'll lose interest completely.

Sadly, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion it is not all about giving the consumers a higher quality video (which, without a huge investment in promotion they will not know they want), it is about copy protection, royalties and a better control over consumers with more effective (for them) regional coding. This "better" regional coding could be enough to turn me away even if only one format.

Apologies if I've said some of this before & am repeating the cry of others, but the industry does appear a bit thick at times. I posted awhile ago on the AVS forum that instead of cheering on Bluray, the guys there should lobby for one format. This did not go down well with accusations of negativity etc dominating responses. My difficulty with such hip=hip hooraying to Sony et al about Bluray is that those companies put on their blinkers and extrapolate the AVS views to be that of the general population.

Sad

John