More DVD Confusion

The traditional media seems to be swallowing the press releases of DVD manufacturers whole this week. First, they decided that even though people had rejected Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, that for some reason they would love to pay even more for a DVD that contained both. Now, the same thing is happening with DVD players. Consumers hate confusion (I know I do) and they've wisely stayed away from both formats, even with players costing $600 to $1000 (not a ton for a new generation of player). But if they don't like those, why would they pay $1200 for a DVD player that plays BOTH HD-DVD and Blu-Ray? They don't want both formats. They want neither, frankly. They're perfectly happy with DVDs right now and unless you pay $1500 for a flat panel TV that's 1080p compatible and THEN buy a player for say $800 and THEN buy a new DVD format for $30 to $40 (double what standard DVDs cost) you won't see any difference. You can't just do one of these things, the way you could buy DVDs and see a massive improvement even on your old TV. Nope, you've got to do them all. Meanwhile, DVDs are a massively profitable category, with $24 billion spent on sales and rentals of DVDs and the ever-shrinking VHS every year for the past three years. That's more than two and a half times the money spent at the box office and it doesn't include overseas, cable, vidoe on deman, satellite and so on. Overall, movies are generating almost $50 billion a year.