"Your DVD player from eight years ago STILL PLAYS EVERY FEATURE OF EVERY DVD MADE TODAY!" - Xyzzy

Not so, old DVD players often don't support the interactive menu system on newer DVDs but they will play the main movie just fine. The same goes for Blu-ray.

Please do your research before spouting off misinformation.

Furthermore, HD-DVD's low price is actually prohibitive for other companies looking to enter the HD scene. If Toshiba is already selling players at a loss there is no incentive for companies to produce HD-DVD players. Hence why the HD-DVD player market is dominated by a single company (Toshiba) whereas I can by a Blu-ray player from Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, LG, Sharp, and more.

The format war will be decided by the big industries and the movie studios, not by HD-DVD and Blu-ray fanboys spouting off useless garbage on the web. Watch current market trends, make an educated choice, and hope for the best. Or you could wait it out and hope for a clear winner by the holiday season but where's the fun in that?

Xyzzy, wake up and smell the roses. Maybe you should actually read the article next time instead of reading the headline and skipping straight to comment box.

For starters, Drawbaugh isn't stating that the iPod or the old Core 2 Duo is obsolete, in fact he states just the opposite: "most of the time these devices are JUST AS USEFUL as they were when they were released -- and certainly still 'in use.'"

Now let's look at your accusation: "Old BD players from 2006, on the other hand, will not be able to play all of the VIDEO that's on the disks."

For the record that statement is completely incorrect. As stated clearly in the article (had you bothered to read it), "In October, when the BD Profile 1.1 is mandated by the BDA, all the current players will be every bit as useful as they are today."

As you stated, with VCRs "they added wireless remotes, but that has no effect on the VIDEO part of it." Similarly, DVD players "do video upscaling better and have progressive scan, but they still play the VIDEO part of it the same." And most importantly, new Blu-ray players may add picture-in-picture and other extras but the VIDEO part of it will remain the same.

One more time for those of you who like to skip over stuff (Xyzzy, I'm talking to you): old Blu-ray players WILL PLAY new Blu-ray movies. You may not get all the fancy extras, but the player will do exactly what it was designed to do when you bought it.

You're complaining because the piece of hardware you bought in 2006 doesn't have the same features as the one I bought a month ago? And (*gasp*) Sony didn't tell you ahead of time that they would be releasing a newer model?

Wake up! Your technology will always be replaced by bigger and better things, but this will always be the case. If you perpetually hold out for a newer model you'll be waiting a looong time.

Don't be an idiot. DivX has many legal uses including (but not limited to) backing up your DVDs under fair use. As for piracy, XviD is far more prevalent than DivX, and most HD releases today are in (sic) H.264.