Bigjohn,
There were two good articles in the USA TODAY this week; I believe the Tuesday and Wednesday editions. Both are on the second page of the Money section, (if I remember correctly.) This is what I can remember from both articles. Don’t quote me on any of this; I have slept since I read them. Here is the link –
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-12-01-dvd-qanda_x.htm
Short version (typed this before I looked for the link)
Both increase video and audio compression on the disk X 5. A disc would be able to hold 15 Gig of data on a single layer and there will be dual layer disc available. The players will be able to read both the new DVD and current DVD formats, players will cost between $995 and $2000.
HD-DVD (made by Toshiba) is mainly supported by the movie industry (NBC Universal, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount etc.)
Blue-Ray (made by Sony) is supported by the computer industry (Dell, Hewlett-Packard and of course Sony pictures). (None of the computer manufactures have supported HD-DVD to date.)
What all this means for the consumer in the near future? Basically, NADA, don’t expect to see the new players for another 12 months. Both parties are just creating a bunch of hype since there is some type of convention in January in which they will display these two formats.
Del
