Facts and figures from the high-definition DVD wars

The New York Times this morning published an interesting article describing the battle over next-generation DVD formats:What if nobody wins the high-definition DVD format wars? That increasingly looks to be the situation for the next-generation DVD technology, which is available to consumers in two incompatible formats.Here are some facts and figures from the article:Consumers will have purchased a combined 1 million Blu-Ray and HD DVD players by the end of 2007. Of these, 578,000 are HD DVD, while 370,000 Blu-Ray players have sold. This doesn't include the Blu-Ray-equipped PlayStation 3, however: Sony will have sold 3.4 million PS3s by the end of 2007. Microsoft meanwhile, has sold 300,000 HD DVD drive add-ons for the Xbox 360 as well.Both formats offer about 400 movies. There are 90,000 DVDs offered on Netflix.Studios in the HD DVD camp: Dreamworks, Paramount, Universal, Weinstein, Warner Bros.Studios in the Blu-Ray camp: Columbia, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, Miramax, New Line, Sony, Warner Bros.Percentage of HDTV buyers who expect to purchase a high-definition DVD player by early 2008: 11Least expensive 1080i HD DVD player: $200Least expensive 1080p HD DVD player: $250Least expensive 1080p Blu-Ray player: $280Price of a combo unit from LG: $1000Number of HD DVD-equipped notebook computers that will sell by the end of 2008: 5 millionBlu-Ray owners are purchasing twice as many HD discs as are HD DVD drive owners.Formats offered at Blockbuster and Netflix: Both. ("Of Blockbuster’s 5,000 physical stores, 250 offer both high-definition DVD formats, while 1,450 rent only Blu-ray; the rest offer none. The company emphasizes Blu-ray because 70 percent of its rentals are for that format.")We finally upgraded to a 1080p HDTV a few months ago and I immediately plugged in a Blu-Ray-equipped PS3 and HD DVD-based Xbox 360 to compare the two formats. Neither has an audio or video advantage from what I can tell, but both are significantly better than any DVD- or digital download mo