But can you honestly tell the difference between a really good upscaling DVD player hooked to an HDTV with really good video processing and standard HD-DVD at 720p? At 1080p I'd believe it. But 720p? I doubt it. And if you can, you must have a very large television and must be sitting very close to it.
IMO, there's a "good enough" level of visual quality that exists at this point in time. Sure, the sharpness of 1080p is a major improvement over NTSC, but over 720p? You would really have to look to notice it. For casual TV watching, it's not noticable. If you're a serious home theater junkie, then by all means.
Also, the winner of the upcoming battle will most likely be the format that can deliver movies in volume at the lower price. For movie watching, I don't think people will care that HD-DVD holds 20GB less, so long as it's cheaper. The reverse also applies. As much as I'd like for Blu-ray to succeed, if only due to archival, backup, and data storage purposes, the cheaper media and players will win out.
Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski,
Z ziemi włoskiej do Polski,
Za twoim przewodem
Złączym się z narodem.