If you don't use the DVDs anymore, it might be best to get rid of them while you can. The movie studios and music companies make a lot of money by selling the same thing over and over again. You may have bought an LP, then a casette, then a CD (maybe even an eight track tape, a MD and an SACD or DVD-A), all of the same thing. Perhaps you have a VHS of a movie, which was then replaced with a DVD. So too, you can be sure that DVDs will be re-released in the "new and improved" format to boost sales of the back catalogue. Get rid of the DVDs while you can.
By the way, a DVD holds about 4.7 GB of data. A HD-DVD holds about 15 GB. A Blu-Ray disc holds about 25 GB. The new formats are therefore an improvement over DVD, but much more so for Blu-Ray. People who see both new formats side by side note that the Blu-Ray is far superior in picture quality, as it should be, since it holds more data. I hope that Blu-Ray wins the upcoming format war for this reason. HD-DVDs advantage is being first to market. However, it is so late that this advantage is being squandered. Also, Blu-Ray has a trojan horse advantage. The new Playstation 3, which is due for release before the Christmas shopping season, is supposed to be Blu-Ray capable. Given the dominance of this game console, that will be a huge advantage for the Blu-Ray camp as it will be in people's homes, unllike HD-DVD, which will necessitate buying a different disc player.
New HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will be backwards compatible with current DVDs. However, it is my understanding that current disc players cannot be realistically modified to play the new format. The two formats are also incompatible with each other, as we all know. However, Samsung, who are in the Blu-Ray camp, have announced that they plan to make a player that will play both new format of discs. This is very far sighted in my view, because consummers are likely to sit out the format war in fear of choosing the "losing" format player, as occurred with Beta and VHS. If a manufacturer makes a player that can play both, it will get a huge jump in the market as consumers will choose a player that allows them to hedge their bets on the winning format.
