By "no format wars", I think he meant that there's nothing to motivate them into lowering prices. That's exactly why I hated seeing HD DVDs go away. Competition is a good thing. It motivates to make hardware better, and keep prices down. Stopping HD DVDs was really stupid, IMHO.
HD-DVD movies were just as expensive as the Blu-ray discs. The only time HD-DVD got "cheap" was when the format was officially killed and the movies were put on fire sale.
The biggest half-truth (or outright lie) being told by so many in this argument is the cost of DVD movies. The stories are always spun to make it sound like the standard price for DVDs is only $5 or $10. What a crock!
The folks quoting DVD to BD price comparisons need to try listing prices of NEW releases on DVD. Absolutely nothing debuting on DVD for the first time is hitting store shelves at single digit loss leader pricing.
Quantum of Solace is a pretty good example. The bare bones DVD cost roughly $20. Not $10 or $5 like many would like to believe. The 2-disc DVD of
Quantum of Solace was commanding $24-$26 depending on where you shopped. The Blu-ray version had everything from the 2-disc DVD, but with all the stuff in high definition. It carried a $29.99 price in stores like Wal-Mart, Sams, etc. but was introduced at a $25.99 (or even lower) sale price. Overall, it was common to see the
Quantum of Solace BD carrying only a $1-$2 price difference with its 2-disc DVD counterpart.
The only areas where price differences between Blu-ray and DVD are pretty huge is in the area of catalog titles. Even in that case, a lot of catalog movies on Blu-ray have been pushed well below the $20 level. There's even quite a few available for $15.