So long as there's a format war going between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, I'm going to sit it out as will quite a few other consumers. No sense in committing to one format versus the other, when there's a very real possibility of one format disappearing from the market within the first few years.

When VHS reigned, I barely purchased any movies because VHS was primarily a pan & scan format, tapes would wear out, the soundtracks were limited to two-channel, and there were no other features that enhanced their collectability. Laserdisc addressed those shortcomings, but the players and discs were expensive and cumbersome to use. DVD addressed all of VHS's shortcomings and has the added advantage of ubiquity, low cost, convenience, and better multichannel audio implementation. My current DVD collection is closing in on 300 titles, and the only justification for repurchasing any of them would be if my future video and audio systems allow for Blu-ray/HD-DVD's improvements to make a difference.

The benefit to HD will depend on the display. The bigger the display, the more noticeable the benefit. And on the audio front, DTS-HD and DD+ will be the new audio formats, but it remains to be seen if the audio tracks included on the actual release discs will take advantage of the higher resolution, potential for additional audio tracks, and lossless capability that these formats offer. But, like I said at the outset, so long as we got two formats in the market with no means of resolving between them (i.e. a universal player), then I'll stick with DVD.