Sony's unit is rebranded with Pioneer parts, I think. Someone over at AVS has mentioned this before.

Yeah...pretty sweet. Was also already discussed here

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....light=recorder

AFAIK, that is a rumor that has not yet been confirmed. But from what I've heard of the Pioneer, it doesn't make the movies with bad transfers look any better, either.

The HD-A1 is a US model only. It isn't available in Japan, just the HD-XA1.

Rumor (avs) has it that Target will start stocking HD DVD and BD discs starting 10/8. They will apparently be watching sales figures to see if they should keep stocking them.

Well, I'm not going to Target to buy HD DVDs unless they have significantly lower prices than Amazon.

Uhh...target's prices (currently) ARE Amazon's.

New around here, are ya?

Will Target allow me to apply all those wonderful Amazon discounts?

I just don't like going into Target if I don't have to.

Only on Target.com.

Target store prices have no relation to Amazon or Target.com prices.

Well I was in Bestbuy yesterday, and they had one in stock. I had the HD-DVD player in my "cart" and was headed up to the checkout, but didnt pull the trigger. The first time I ever had pre-buyer's remorse, but the weakness is getting worse. I really hope the Xbox 360 add-on comes out soon. Dont know how much longer I can hold out.

Oh yeah? I think you and I need to hang out a couple of times this week. That'll take care of that.

I'll walk you to the best buy and hold your hand. I promise everything will be ok after it's all over. OR...we'll go to the continental website. That should be easier for the wife to swallow.

Do you have a Netflix account? Put some HD DVDs you want to see in your queue, buy the HD-A1 from Best Buy, and if you don't like it (or just get buyer's remorse again), return it within 30 days. Just make sure they don't charge a restocking fee.

That's not the issue. He's seen mine already several times.

I'd say you were please, right Justin?


Oh and aside from that, here's some food for thought.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2003413,00.asp

Will Sony Ever Be Sony Again?
08.14.06
The company used to have an innovative soul—back in the day.

Popped into my local Best Buy today, which they re-organized for about the fifty billionth time in the past few years. Anyway, aside from it looking pretty damn good, they had a nice HD DVD setup in the home theater section. I was quite happy to see it getting decent treatment. Perhaps I didn't look enough, but I couldn't find anything related to Blu-Ray, with the exception of some movies in a small aisle display case.

Definitely pleased, and one will be mine, but I feel I should still hold out a while longer (plus I didnt have a 10% off coupon either). It wasnt Leslie (the wife) this time...It was me. In fact she said that she was going to go to the store next week and pick it up for me because I wouldnt shut-up about not buying it, and she was serious .

I still don't understand why a single store doesn't have a display, a unit, and the software titles all in one centralized location.

crazy thing is, they are selling out like pancakes without all that. I think if they got their production ramped up, added some more titles, they would do that. Advertise I mean. Right now, it might be more harm then good if they did a bunch of advertising and didn't have any product. That would actually steer people away.

For the first time in a month, a Blu-Ray title has outsold an HD-DVD title and a Blu-Ray product has cracked the top 1000 of its category. The title in question is Silent Hill, a day-and-date release with DVD. The DVD is selling well at #20 and the Blu-Ray edition has the same price: $16.99 (or less with Amazon's 10% discount). We saw how much a low price can help sales: the peak for HD-DVD sales was when Sleepy Hollow was priced at $14.95.

Earlier Blu-Ray day-and-date sales weren't as high for RV and Benchwarmers: the former couldn't crack the top 2000 and Benchwarmers is doing especially poorly, being among Amazon's worst selling discs on the format.

On the hardware side, sales trend lines indicate Toshiba's A1 is slowly selling less and less compared to other electronics; it's sales rank is dropping by about 4 places per day. This is so minor that the A1 is likely to remain in the third band of sales rank (the top 1000). Other HD-DVD hardware, the Toshiba HD-XA1 and the RCA HDV5000, are moderately increasing their sales, bettering their rank by an average of about 150 per day. Blu-Ray hardware is not faring as well, with the Samsung sales rank slipping about 100 per day and Sony's an average of 400 per day. No hardware outside of Toshiba's A1 has cracked the top 1000.

Of course you can't read too much into this: it's only one retailer, but it is one of the largest online retailers and has a very large, broad customer base. The only clear data we have so far tells us this: neither HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray are selling well, although HD-DVD is selling slightly better. Until we see both formats selling within the top 1000 consistently, we shouldn't celebrate so much.

I highly doubt ANY of us would be celebrating if both were selling within the top 1000 consistently.

I'll take just one, please.

Ugh, not this argument again. Let's be clear:

Best Outcomes
1. Best format wins.
2. Both formats win.
3. Neither format wins.

Unless you're a nihilist, I think you'd have to agree that it's better to have #2 than #3.

Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

I don't know if this has been talked about yet, but man, those Disney BD covers are awful. I thought Universal's were a bit strange with the white areas on the top and bottom, but these are much worse. The Great Raid in particular looks awkward, with the title pushed over to the left side:

If both formats win, neither format "wins."

There is only one.

And unless you're blind, there's no reason to hope that BD wins. I seriously don't get why anyone would want BOTH to win. #3 can't happen because HD DVD is already out AND it puts out quality that is unsurpassed. In that respect, it's already won.

OK, rank these options in order of your preference:

• Blu-Ray wins 90% marketshare, DVD gets 9%, HD-DVD disappears.
  
• HD-DVD wins 90% marketshare, DVD gets 9%, Blu-Ray disappears.
  
• DVD gets 90% marketshare, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray split the other 9%, then disappear.
  
• HD-DVD and Blu-Ray split 90% marketshare, DVD gets the remaining 9%, then disappears.
  

Sony's what, now?