This is war is so dumb. I mean neither side is reinventing the wheel here. I'm going to tell you which side will win right now. However, gets the closest and fastest price match to a Standard DVD. I have a Upscale to 1080i and a PS3. And to me there is no difference. And I'm a tech wizard compared to those who bought a 98 dollar HDDVD player in Wal-Mart of all places. Since some studios are in one camp or another you both will lose because all camps are still in DVDs which you can no upscale fully. The only way to win is to compromise the technology get all camps involved and drive the price to the sky. That's what you should do.

I bought the $98 HD A2 from Walmart and am happy with it so far. I think the point the author made about getting a sub $100 upconverting DVD player with the HD DVD as a "bonus" is right on. I've been eying an Oppo for the last year. If I wanted only an upconverting player, and the best available, I would have purchased the Oppo. Now I have a moderately good upconverting player with HD DVD functionality built in. Although I prefer HD DVD over Blu Ray, I think Blu Ray has the edge right now for a few reasons. First, I went into Blockbuster to view their inventory of High-Def movies and to my chagrin, they only stocked Blu Ray movies. And second, until other vendors start mass producing the HD DVD players, there won't be mass appeal. When Onkyo comes out with theirs, that will help the "audiophile/videophile" segment of the market. We'll see what happens. Price is definitely the main factor .. for the players as well as the media.

I agree with you. Even with "shareware", "freeware" and free OS's, people didn't buy the hardware (PCs) en masse until they hit the sub $1000 mark. If Blu Ray players ever approach the price of HD DVD ones, they'll probably take the lead overall (units, movies and studio support). Of course, people forget that Betamax actually lasted in production from 1975 until 2002, so we might have two formats of HiDef Video for quite a while.

Crooksie Your little "tech wizard" comment implies you know so much more than the poor fools that took advantage of a killer deal at Walmart. I will put my tech experience up against yours any day.

I bought a Toshiba HD-A2 for $98.87 and I would do it again. I saw the HD-A2 for $299 a few weeks ago. I read a lot of comsumer reviews that said the HD-A2 was a great HD DVD player. In fact the HD-A2 was the best selling Hi-Def player at this major US retailer. I have been waiting for the cable companies, the movie companies, and the TV stations to deliver HD content to me. I have watched the Hi-Def format war closely. Inexpensive players will speed adoption. Only a small number of Sony fans think consumers should pay extra for Blu-Ray. PS3 was supposed to bring Sony a monopoly in Hi-Def DVD's too. Unfortunately, for Sony the PS3 has failed because of high prices and poor games. Now it comes down to how many stand alone players are out there? It seems obvious to me that the lower price of HD DVD makes it the logical choice to make the magic first million number. No I don't count the PS3 because it is intended for games and most people buy it for games. The PS3 is also much more expensive than an HD DVD player. The quality of HD DVD and Blu-Ray are identical. In fact HD DVD is better because it has a standard that all players must meet; instead of Blu-Ray's we will come out with new features that obsolete your early player. The only advantage Blu-Ray has is storage capacity. HD DVD can hold 4 hours of HD video per side so I am not worried about extra storage. Let's see $99-$399 for HD DVD, or $499 and up for Blu-Ray? Do the math.

I am an early adopter for HDTV. My 48" widescreen does 1080i which makes it a perfect match for the HD-A2. TV has always been interlaced which most viewers never complain about. Progressive scan is nice to have, but no were near the must have so many "experts" make it out to be. Again it is a $99 player do I really care? 1080P for my current television is a waste of money. It will be years from now before I upgrade my HDTV again. Oh yeah if you plan on watching HDTV you will always be watching 1080i because 1080i is the standard for HDTV. Most people would never notice the difference in video quality. 1080P is an afterthought capability for Hi-Def players. If 1080i is so terrible then why was it chosen for the new HDTV standard?

If HD DVDs cost about U$100(£50)in the UK-millions would be sold.

Would not automatically buy one. Despite-cheap enough to throw away:
1)Space required for HD equipment;
A)Cable- or Satelite box.
BC) Blu-ray and(&)HD DVD player
D)AVR(Audio,Video Receiver)

Further problems when available:-
1)Fully featured HDMI 1.3 products
2)Blu-ray & HD DVD(Toshiba RD-A103) recordable players - Any person interested in the next recording technologies should place, 'Toshiba Vardia' into for example the Google's browser and carryout searches:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GZHZ,GZHZ:2007-30,GZHZ:en&q=%27Toshiba+Vardia%27

http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2007/11/toshiba_launchi.html

http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/06/toshiba_rda1_co.html

http://www.hdtvorigin.com/hdtv/toshiba-vardia-rd-a600-and-rd-a300-hd-dvd-recorders-introduction/

3)HD Freeview Playback(Pause,rewind & forward play Live TV,One touch recording;set reminders & TV series e.g.soaps,TV Guide(EPG),record to hard disk drive(HDD) without having to find a space as with VHS/SVHS recorders & having to subscribe for HD)
4)Twin digital tuners-record 2 channels whilst watching a 3rd
5)Ability to upscale;TV,Cable,& Satelite,& not just DVDs to almost 1080p standard
6)HD sound,& wireless connectivity
7)1080i-Possible health problems-chosen because cheaper than 1080p
8)1080p superior than 1080i- E.g. quality of sound in slow and fast motion (skipping frames) -Maybe, 1080p Broadcast in 4/5 years
9)HD DVD superior than Blu-ray films

Message was edited by: Barrington - I have inserted a web page for people who are interested in HD DVD recordable players that we don't have access to in the west or at least in the UK. I have also changed the title, because some people are taking things out of context.

i have a 57" samsung dlp 1080p tv with blu-rays played on a ps3 and hd-dvds played on a xbox 360 add-on in my living room. in my kids room i have a 50" samsung dlp 1080i/720p. and the 57" 1080p looks a lot better. i bet your 48" hd set up looks great. but how much money do you have in it? i've got about $3000 with tv, ps3, and sound. and the ps3 does great with upconverting my dvds.