I really do not know why people keep beating this dead horse. I am not going to say I am a fan of Sony, but technically speaking, HD DVD is close, but not at the limit of what red laser products are capable of.
At some point, they will have to switch to a laser based technology that can carry more bandwidth and has more head room for growth and blu ray, while slightly more expensive to implement in the beginning has dropped in price allot.
I do agree that the disc's are still pricey, but DVD's were that way too. The only reason HD DVD's prices got cut so much is they were already on their way out before they had a chance to do much.
I am looking for an 8 layer blu ray solution for my pc now because I want to record 16 hours of uncompressed HD video from my camcorder to a disc that can be played in a PS3 or other blu ray player.
But, that is still a few years down the road.