I find it amusing, sad, incredible and simply a bit of a headscratcher that the companies involved in giving birth to the next generation of the DVD format are about to repeat history. The silly, relatively recent history that is the VHS vs Betamax format war. On the other hand, they could very well be aware of it and are thinking that their product is superior and will prevail in the long run. Unfortunately, for us consumers, this just means that we will end up having to swap out equipment a few times before the dust settles. Perhaps this is the price we pay for technological improvements. I would really like to see the companies just get together and agree to put out a common standard for the sake of consumers. Luckily, there is one glimmer of hope in the form of Toshiba, who would like to see a unified format for DVDs. The reality is that this may not happen and Samsung has as much admitted to this as they are mulling over a potential DVD player that supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.