Sony Electronics will ship a new stand-alone Blu-ray Disc player this summer for $600, which is the same price as Sony Computer Electronics America's PlayStation 3--a next generation videogame console that uses BR-D as its primary player for both games and movies. Right now, PS3 is the cheapest option for anyone looking to upgrade to th next generation DVD players. Sony has a $1,000 BR-D player out there that launched last year. But even when you factor in the release of the cheaper BR-D player this summer, PS3, which also is expected to get some type of price cut this year, is still the best way to upgrade.

Granted, I don't know many people who are complaining about DVDs not looking good enough. But the BR-D movies do look a lot better. And the 50GB movies, like the free "Talladega Nights" that shipped with the first 500,000 PS3s in North America, offer a lot of cool extras not possible on standard DVDs (which hold 4.7 GB). And then there's the games. Right now, Xbox 360 games are fine on the standard DVD-9, but moving forward, I expect many Xbox 360 games to require multiple discs. Sony should be able to make epics on one BR-D because of the large storage capacity. One thing that always kept me away from those old laser discs, at least the early ones, was having to flip discs over. I'm also not a fan of that for games.

Having not learned anything from the BetaMax/VHS battle, the other option for movie viewers comes through HD-DVD (which maxes out at 15GB). Players are about $500 for this competing next-gen DVD, although Xbox 360 owners can buy an add-on for $200 and watch "King Kong," which is a free pack-in. Studios like Warner Bros. release movies like "The Departed" on HD-DVD/DVD combo discs, with one version on each side. This allows for someone who's going to upgrade later to do so and still watch the current DVDs. It should be noted that both competing formats allow older DVDs to play on them.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, LG had a dual HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Disc player on display and since then Samsung said it would also release one later this year. No pricing was announced, but this is likely an expensive way to hedge your bets. BR-D has the backing of all of the Hollywood studios except for Universal Pictures, which backs HD-DVD. Some studios, like Warner Bros., support both formats. But the cheapest way to get in on either format is still through videogames--whether you make the $600 plunge with PS3 or the $200 plunge (assuming you already own the $400 Xbox 360) with Microsoft.