HD DVD vs Blu-Ray vs DVD who is the real winner?

The consumer of course. The real question is who the big loser. And that my friend happens to also be the consumer.

This is my twisted take.

A standard DVD disc or DVD-5 (5GB) can fit most movies less of course those special extras. A DVD-10 (10GB) can and does fit all the movie you wish but you have to flip the disc sometime to see the final part.

HD DVD headed by bigtime software giantor Microsoft is the next best thing out there. Manufacturers can use the existing manufacturing equipment to produce a disc that can store up to 30 GB of data. Not bad considering you can now run those high-falouting games on X-Box 360 with surreal sound and realistic almost life-like graphics.

Blu-ray is the darling of Disney and Universal. You can hold up to 50 GB of data. But this is supported by another evil empire aka Sony Electronics who also holds the golden basket of all console games -- Playstation.

So who is to win? Well I was asked this by one of my direct reports the past week and this is what I told her.

"Hold onto your regular DVD, because you really don't want to see the pimples on some starlet on your HD screen assuming of course you have an HD screen to see the pimples on her .... er... face."

This is my take. The consumer cannot fully enjoy what these two new formats (HD DVD and Blu-ray) have to offer if you don't have the proper tools to view it with. It the simple plain, honest truth. That means surround sound 6.1 and a slamming kick-ass HD Flat Screen. The problem with that is who can afford the $2000+ it takes to get a decent HD screen (btw that is 42 inch) to actually see the pimples on her... face. Much less have the surround sound system to hear them squash those pimples? And for that matter do you necessarily want to see those pimples? So until the price of equipment can go down low enough for everyone to enjoy it, they say the sweet spot is around $299/system sans HD screen, don't touch it.

BUT and this is the rub here. Say you decide to upgrade. Guess what. Your DVD from the old format may not play in the newer players. So that means you get the dubious honor of restocking your library.

Me, I prefer to wait. Wait until it's as cheap as those 3 movies for $20 you can get from Blockbuster used and the playing unit is under $150.