A new report published by media researchers Screen Digest, "HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc and the future of home entertainment: a strategic analysis" is the first major study to look at the background to the current video format battle and to assess the potential outcomes.
Broadly speaking, Screen Digest believes that there are 4 possible outcomes to the format battle:
1 The HD DVD format achieves a dominant market position and supporters of the Blu-ray Disc format switch their allegiance to that format.
2 The Blu-ray Disc format achieves a dominant market position and supporters of the HD DVD format switch their allegiance to that format.
3 Neither format achieves a 'knock-out' position of market dominance and both coexist until combi-format solutions become cost-effective and eventually dominate, mirroring the current market for recordable DVDs
4 Both formats 'lose' in the sense that neither is successful enough to achieve mass consumer adoption, resulting in a situation comparable to that of the battle between 'next generation' audio formats SACD and DVD Audio.
Ben Keen, Screen Digest Chief Analyst states: "Given the vested interests on either side, we believe that the most likely outcome at present is scenario 3, i.e. that the two formats will coexist until they give way to affordable dual-format solutions but none of the other three scenarios can be completely ruled out. Overall though, the net result of the format war and the publicity it has generated will be to dampen consumer appetite for the whole high definition disc category."
Graham Sharpless, author of the report comments: "The success of DVD was due to a single format that offered better quality and greater convenience than the VHS format that it replaced. This time both formats support similar features. Blu-ray discs offer capacities of up to 50 GB compared with HD DVD's 30 GB. But Blu-ray is a revolutionary format that is more difficult and expensive to produce than HD DVD discs, which can be produced using modified DVD equipment."
By 2010, Screen Digest believes that just under 1/3 of total spending on buying video discs in the three key regions of US, Japan and Europe will be generated by sales of high definition formats - $11bn out of a total spend of $39bn.
Screen Digest predicts that few households will opt to replace their existing DVD libraries. Instead, market value growth will come primarily from the premium prices charged for the new formats. This could mean that by 2010 total revenues from packaged media will be 15-20 per cent higher than would have been the case without hi-def.
Who better to help defend the 
NASA and the Air Force have formed an aeronautics research partnership that builds upon and expands on the longstanding relationship between the two organizations.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne signed a memorandum of understanding Aug. 7 during a Pentagon ceremony.
On Friday evening, August 11, Arianespace placed two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit: the JCSAT-10 communications satellite for Japanese operator JSAT Corporation, and the Syracuse 3B military communications satellite for the French Ministry of Defense.
Ariane 5 is the only commercial launcher in service capable of simultaneously launching two payloads.
An electronic nose, the cybernose, will be developed following a $4 million collaboration, announced today.
The collaboration will see researchers from Monash University, the Australian National University and CSIRO's Food Futures National Research Flagship trying to understand how simple animals such as worms and insects make sense of smells.
Commercial vendors and individual consumers can now look forward to being able to legally create certain types of protected DVDs, the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) announced. Under rule changes now in the works, commercial vendors could create protected DVDs on kiosks and in small custom runs. Individual consumers could legally record a variety of selected content. Both would require special blank DVD discs that will use the Content Scramble System (CSS) for encryption and will be compatible with the millions of existing DVD players in the marketplace today.