That's where it gets really funny... There is this concept of the "analog hole" that exists in the minds of Hollywood powers-that-be - it's a fear of granting access to the high resolution analog signal. (Yep, analog, not digital. Where four or five years ago they were adamant about restricting DVD-Audio and SACD to the analog domain exclusively, they're now trying to restrict Blu-ray and HD-DVD to the digital domain.) That's why the copy protection for Blu-ray and HD-DVD includes a software flag that restricts analog output to 540p when the flag is included - depriving folks with analog HD sets of the true HD resolution for discs that the studios most want to protect.

On a similar note, I saw the other day that the late March launch for HD-DVD had been pushed back a month or two because AACS (the encryption scheme used by both formats) hasn't agreed on a final standard. It seems there's some debate over the details Blu-ray's "BD+" - their ability to revise the encryption scheme at any later date if (when) the current encryption is cracked - and that has prevented the full standard from being officially completed, forcing both formats to wait. Until the standard is pinned down, neither software nor hardware can be released for manufacturing. It sounds like both formats may launch nearly simultaneously some time around May.