I'm surprised more people are supportive of HD-DVD
I sat on the fence for a long time before finally getting into this format war. I bought an HD-A2 on November 2nd (the pre-black friday sales) and don't regret it one bit, not even now since the Warner decision. I've bought 41 movies in that time as well to help support the format.
My thoughts before the format war: I just wanted the stupid format war to be over and somebody win so that I could invest into a player and movies once again (I stopped buying any SD-DVDs when I first found out about the 2 competing formats about a year and a half ago). I honestly wanted HD-DVD to win overall, but if Blu-Ray won then oh well, I'd have to buy a Blu-Ray player and would have. Since entering this war, my view has since changed. I'll never support Blu-Ray, ever. I will buy every HD-DVD I want and whatever I can't get on HD-DVD I will have to look into other ways of getting them (SD, VOD, etc).
I used to think the 2 formats were near equal in many respects and they are, but where they are different is what makes me want HD-DVD to succeed.
Blu-Ray profiles... How many people know all about the Blu-Ray profiles? Will it affect you? WTH are Blu-Ray profiles?
Profile spec 1.0 = Can not and will not EVER play the 1.1 or 2.0 features. 1.1 and 2.0 Blu-Ray movies will still work on 1.0 players, but you will not be able to use the 1.1 or 2.0 features on the disc (they are invisible to 1.0 decks)
Profile spec 1.1 = This profile was only JUST released recently. Some of the players on the market are now 1.1. The profile 1.1 spec includes the addition of PiP (Picture in Picture). PiP sounds kind of stupid when you think about it with a movie, but here is how it works: You can watch 300 for instance with the directors commentary in PiP (as opposed to Voice over like SD-DVD has) and you can see how the stunts and other things were done in the small PiP and see how it comes out in the movie on the bigger pic. And this is also supposed to be the Blu-Ray complete spec. 2.0 is basically an optional spec.
Profile spec 2.0 = This profile was only just pre-viewed at CES 2008 (about a week or two ago). There are currently NO 2.0 players on the market yet. IIRC they are supposed to arrive in the Spring-Summer. This 2.0 profile includes the addition of web enabled interactive features. Basically with this you can download trailers, deleted scenes, and other things that go with the film. Many neat features can come out of the web interactivity, for instance the 5th Harry Potter movie you can do a community screening. A community screening is where you have 2 (or more) people hooked to an internet connection with their HD-DVD players and one user is the host and has control over the movie, the host can play, pause, etc the movie. The big thing with this feature is that the users in the community screening can talk to each other while watching the movie. This works whether your friend is 10 miles or half the world away.
Most all current StandAlone players (this doesn't include the PS3) on the market are 1.0 profile. The 1.0 players will never be able to be upgraded to 1.1 (not sure but it might be due to requiring 2 video decoders). So anyone that owns a 1.0 Blu-Ray player will never use the 1.1 or 2.0 features on that players. Same with 1.1 players, they will never be able to be upgraded to 2.0 spec. And as I said above, there are not even ANY 2.0 spec players on the market now. The ONLY player on the market right now that can be upgraded to 2.0 is the PS3. So if you want a Blu-Ray player that will do everything that Blu-Ray can ever do (at least according to 2.0 being the last spec) you can either buy a PS3 for $400 or wait 3-6 months for a 2.0 player to come out with an unknown price ATM.
EVERY HD-DVD player did and does all the above features (PiP and Web Enabled Interactivity) from day one. I only paid $100 for my player and it does all of those featues. As above, the only Blu-Ray player on the current market that will do all those features is the PS3 for $400. Currently the cheapest 1.1 player out (and not quite out yet) will be the Funai NB500 series for about $300. The first 2.0 player to hit market will doubtfully be under $500 for some time as well.
HD-DVD was far cheaper and with more features to boot. It was far closer to mass market adoption than Blu-Ray ever was. HD-DVD was a finished product out the door, Blu-Ray has only spent the past year and a half catching up. The winning HDM (High-Def Media) is supposed to be the format to replace DVD and should be mass market adopted, I just don't see most people spending that kind of money on a Blu-Ray player, sure they will come down in price, but will people even care about HDM anymore by that time (could be at least a year or two before we see even one Blu-Ray player for $100 or less).
Also HD-DVD is region free, Blu-Ray is not, which is also another huge reason I went with HD-DVD. I can import titles that I can't get here. For instance Crank is Blu-Ray exclusive here, there is a German release I can get, same for the Resident Evils and several other movies. I have found close to 50 titles already that I want to import whenever I can afford it. Also some of these titles aren't released here at all (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Das Perfume, etc).
Not trying to sway anyone to either format, do your research though and pick the one you feel deserves to win. And just remember that the format you do pick could be the ONLY format movies are released in in a few years from now. So many people are in a hurry to get the war over that nobody even cares what's left when the dust settles.
I will still continue to buy HD-DVDs and will never go Blu-Ray. Soon I'll even pickup a second HD-DVD player to have as a spare/backup for when my original dies. I'd still like to see HD-DVD to make a comeback, but consumer confidence (not mine, lol) is just way to low to be able to comeback IMO.