About 20 mins away. Unfortunately, I have a higher tax rate to deal with (about 3.8)

Who's arguing that it's not?

I'm not saying the 360 drive is a $200 HD DVD player. I'm saying it's an Xbox 360 with a $200 HD DVD drive, just as a PC with a $35 DVD burner is a PC with a $35 DVD burner. No one on this planet would say that they have a $835 DVD burner, just as no reasonable person would say that someone who already owns an Xbox 360 and picks up a $200 HD DVD drive has bought a $600 HD DVD player.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/incremental

I have no idea how much a pool costs, so I pulled that out of my ass. My house (1800 sq. ft. on a 1/3rd of an acre) was $127K in the suburbs of Greenville, SC.

Single Family: 443K

See what you started???

But yeah, I agree with you 100%. It's a $200 add-on to a $400 (or FREE if your uncle Chalie bought it for you) Xbox 360 player.

The best BD counter-argument, IMHO, is that you get a FREE BD player with the purchase of a $500 (or FREE if your aunt Sue buys it for you) PS3.

Has their been any numbers on how many units they will have at launch? Do you think these things will be tough to find at launch? I know you can pre-order at EB/GameStop, but I wanted to get at Best Buy with my $50+ in RZ coupons.

Yea screw this High Def stuff lets just change this forum into a Property Forum.

as soon as we would do that everyone will start fighting about which is better and why, a front yard or backyard.

In keeping with the "is it a $200 add-on or a $600 HD DVD player?" argument, Sony and Microsoft are apparently about to start going at it about this too.

I got a chuckle out of that pool price. You are off by at least an order of magnitude, unless it is a child's wading pool or something. $150K houses haven't existed here in many years, but one could still get a house for that price in the next county north, last I checked. Lots of places in the interior of the country still have reasonable house prices. I am surprised that your part of SC has such low house prices; I figured the whole East Coast was expensive.

Around here 3 to 5 acre lots are going for $250K to $500K (to put that in perspective, there was a vacant lot —think 50 x 100 feet or so— for sale in Telluride last year for a mere $1.45 million). I might make more on my house if I scraped off the house (which I built in 1999) and sold my lot vacant. It's nuts around here. But 25 miles north, house prices are still reasonable, albeit climbing rapidly.

Oh well. Back to the high def disc wars...

I have a feeling this perception only applies to Blu-ray/HD DVD products because the analogies are easy to understand and don't require any argument.

Here's another one to demonstrate:

What if you bought a $300 BD drive and a $300 HD DVD drive for your 2 year old PC (which cost $1000). Does that mean you just bought a $1300 HD DVD player and a $1300 BD player?

An above ground 28 foot round pool with a 7 foot deep section (dug out) would cost you about $2-3k installed.

A 14x24 vinyl lined inground pool can be had (installed) for around $8k. Fiberglass is similar...

It goes crazy when you start getting into cement pools, of course.

Had a friend who bought an 8 acre tract in a rural area for $14k in NC.

!

Yes - according to Josh, that would be a $2,600 hybrid player!

$1600 Hybrid Player, but yes. Of course, depreciation of the original investment would lower that price. But yes, your investment in that player would be $1600.

This isn't rocket science folks, general business accounting.

So, the premium bundle Xbox 360 is required for the HD-DVD add-on? Is that why everyone is using the $400 price tag?

Here in Boston that's about half the price of a studio condo in a crack neighborhood.

What online stores are selling the Samsung BD player for $600? I'm assuming it's widely available at that price, since it's being quoted here so often. Just post the link, I may pick one up at that price.

Jesus Christ!

We're not doing general business accounting, though.

http://www.secondact.biz/product/BDP1000RB

Its a factory refurb from an authorized Samsung dealer. But you can get them new in box on Ebay for the same price or less.

Fair enough. Of course, I have no pity on people who end up financially in trouble because they don't run their personal finances like a business. To each their own.

Condescending comment removed.

There's no reason to accuse people of financial irresponsibility and incompetence because they look at a $200 HD DVD add-on as being a $200 HD DVD add-on.

So you were deliberately comparing the common available price of a new Toshiba with the price of a refurb Samsung?

I searched around and it looks like a good price for the Samsung BluRay is around $750 delivered, which is $350 more than the Toshiba HD-DVD.

I did nothing of the sort. You need to chill out.

It was an implication rather than an accusation, but in context, what other way is there to interpret what you wrote?

I've gone ahead and restored your comment since you stand by it, though.

Josh, why stop there?

The $200 HD DVD player requires a $400 Xbox 360 so you claim that it's a $600 player. But it requires an HDTV ($600; let's say we're gonna be cheap) to be able to view the movie, so now it's a $1,200 player. But you need a house to view the TV in, so now it's a $151,200 HD DVD player (I think we've established the $150k). Oh, wait, you still need an audio system, and electricity bill, and a plush sofa, and ...

... or we can just call it what it is: a $200 HD DVD player add-on to the Xbox 360.