Am I the only one shaking his head in wonderment about all the optical disc formats going around?

HD DVD

Blu-Ray

Now, you have the geniuses at the DVD Alliance certifying a new standard, the DVD+R Double-layer with a capacity of 8.5GB or thereabout.

What???

I think the problem with all the next-gen optical formats is that consumers are now are of their shortcomings, especially as it relates to DRM.

Purchased a DVD and mow your toddler has scratched it? You are supposed to bin it and purchase another copy. This is the restrictive policy of the DVD era.

Thanks to Microsoft and Intel for breaking with the mould as regards next-gen optical drives and requiring that any format requiring their blessing must have ' mandatory managed copy' functionality built in.