Every week seems to bring yet another price cut in the high-def DVD world. Late November brought us $99 HD DVD players (which quickly flew off the shelves), and now Blu-ray has dipped below the $300 mark, with one Samsung unit (pictured) selling for a mere $270 at Amazon, $230 off its $500 list price. Can a full-on battle for $199, often considered the "magic number" for consumer electronics, be far behind?

Hardware price drops are only part of the equation, as the studios are pulling no punches in this increasingly expensive battle: Some reports theorize that Warner Brothers may be dropping HD DVD support come January, while speculation continues as to whether Microsoft will integrate HD DVD into a forthcoming Xbox 360 (something it is utterly foolish not to have done with the 360 Elite). Dual-format players continue to arrive, but they simply make no sense: All of them cost far more than buying one of each type of stand-alone player.

But as Ars Technica notes, Joe Average is by and large still sitting this war out, unwilling to pick sides until a winner has been crowned and a single standard chosen. (I know I am.) What's rarely said is that it's not just a question of buying one new DVD player and some discs. I've got four optical disc players connected to TVs throughout my house, plus a portable DVD player for the kids and a half-dozen computers, each with a DVD drive. Upgrading everything to one format or the other would run into the thousands of dollars. What if I pick wrong?

Sure, I probably have more media requirements than other households, but think about your own circumstance. Siding with one format probably doesn't just mean ditching the single, lonely box in the living room... and that's why this war and its stakes are getting hotter than ever.

LINK: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle heats up as Christmas approaches