Blu-ray DVD in U.S. Stores

The Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray DVD player is now (June 29, 2006) widely available in American retail stores, including Best Buy and Circuit City. It is selling for about $1000. Also, the stores already carry several movie titles on Blu-ray DVD, with many more coming soon. A rival and incompatible format, HD-DVD, has been on the market for about two months. Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD are formats that offer the possibility of a clearer image than standard DVD. However, the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player currently sells for around $500. It's widely expected that one of the two formats will ultimately drive the other out of the marketplace, but at this point it's difficult to predict how things will develop in the world of next-generation DVD.