also, I do have to say that a format war isn't really good for the consumer. If you're asking for competition, then let the competition reign in companies, not formats. having a lot of formats only confuses the average consumer. This also means that I'll need to have two hi def players just so I can watch all the movies I love since one movie isn't available in another format. Yes, one solution to this dilemma is to buy a dual-format player. But the fundamental flaw to that is 1) it'll always be more expensive than a stand-alone player, and 2) how would that be any different to having a universal standard? I'd rather have a universal standard than having to shuffle to two competing formats.
The FUD of having one winner in the format war (like lack of economies of scale, etc) is really just that, FUD. There would still be companies competing for our mighty peso, with one manufacturer touting their BD player as better than the other, etc. (people seem to forget that BD <> Sony) THIS competition will also bring down prices, much like what happened to DVD. Yes, prices won't go down overnight as it took like 2-3 years for DVD to go down to well-accepted prices. Frankly, though, prolonging the format war will not bring down the price any faster. It's like a military protracted war. You can only maintain it to a certain degree, after which the cost will take its toll to dangerous levels. Do you honestly think that Toshiba and the BDA will keep jacking down prices to a point that it's dirt-cheap for long? Sorry, that's not how corporations do it. Toshiba didn't bring down the HD DVD prices because it wants to do philanthropic services to the consumer. It's a marketing ploy, an investment that if it pulled off, will bring tons and tons of money to Toshiba. And in a true business fashion, you do not expect to keep pouring out investment without a reasonable and strong ROI. Sadly, prolonging the format war is not a solid way of obtaining that.