I agree. A month from now it will be very hard to find a A1. If you want a A1, you better pick one up now.

Also, I don't think that the A2 will drop a lot in price. It *MIGHT* come down to A1 prices ($399) but that is pure speculation.

It's already been stated that the Continental deal will be in effect for the newer models but, again, unless you want to spend the money for the higher priced Toshiba, the A1 is a better model.

Unless you're using the VGA cable (which some displays may allow 1080p to pasas through), I can't see how 1080p over component will help anyone, just like on the $499 PS3. What displays accept 1080p over component?

You can get a refurbed XA1 right now at Overstock for $453.41 shipped using their 15% off coupon. Thought some of you might be interested. I think I'll be holding out for the 360 HD-DVD drive and run it through VGA to my Westinghouse 42".

Except that Overstock will probably send you a Fisher tape deck by mistake. Or maybe a picture of dogs playing poker.

The first allocation of HD-A2's is scheduled for the last week of October or the very beginning of November.

The XA2 will be available the last week of December or the first week of January.

Two clarifications for those considering these:

1) If a person has or buys a receiver with HDMI input, the 5.1 analog outs of the HD-A1 are of little value (HDMI will pass the same high quality sound as the 5.1 analogs)

2) 1080p/60 output of the new HD-XA2 is of little or no value to anyone who has a display that will accept 1080i. This is widely understood to be a marketing move to counter the Blu-ray claims that their 1080p is twice as good as the original Toshiba 1080i outputs. When deinterlacing is performed within the display device, the original 1080p image information from the HD-DVD disk is fully restored. The discussion is beyond the scope of this thread, but can be thoroughly understood by checking the AVS forums for HD-DVD players. Also, HDMI 1.3 is only required if someone prefers to have their receiver decode the HD audio formats instead of the player.

In my setup, the only potentially useful feature that the A2 (and all other current/announced HD-DVD players) lacks is a pure passthrough of the 1080p/24 source data from the HD-DVD disks.

When I try to pre-order the HD-A2 DVD player from Amazon, the expected ship date is December 15. Is this a waiting list type of purchase or does Amazon not have an actual release date?

I swear to god Amazon doesn't know what they're doing with HD DVD.

Wasn't that supposed to be the date for the XA2?

Thanks for the input, I made some changes.

I think it was October and November respectively. Who knows what Amazon means, dates change all the time, and not just for HDDVD.

There's another player that people are questioning over at AVS: HD-A2W

no one knows what it is.

Walmart's 2nd gen?

Nope. It's confirmed that's not it.

A2 With 5.1 analog outputs, but not priced around $1000?

People are speculating that it's a white version but...how ugly would that be?

I wouldn't want a white one, but the color does seem to be in vogue. With the white iPod being popular, we've seen white electronic devices like the Xbox 360, the Nintendo DS Lite, and one version of the Wii. I've seen a DVD player that was white too. Anything white gets labeled "iPod-esque" as if Apple invented the color.

I think it's that too. And yes, dear lord, ugly as sin. Didn't they get the memo about no white after labor day? And here we are, October 31. Shameful.

FYI

Amazon.com: I placed the A2 in my cart and it had a November 6 ship date for the A2. But then later, I replaced it in again and the date was January 2, 2007. Hmmm....

I think stock is going to be tight on these A2s. This is why we should all be buying from Robert at AVS. Plenty of stock, two free movies, it doesn't get any better.

Yeah, his deal is tempting. I have the A1, but I was actually thinking of getting the A2. I don't care about the lack of analogs. The A1 is a tank and is a great player, but the A2 will be faster and probably have less bugs. My A1 has performed well, but lately it skips here and there.

Robert's deal...2 free movies from him or the warranty? Is the 4-year $39.99? or is it that price if you choose the movies. So basically, just the warranty is probably alot more than $40.

Nope. The warranty is a great deal at $40. It's a bumper to bumper warranty - if the unit breaksdown, you are covered.

It's the warranty or the movies. I got both (paid for the warranty). Essentially, it's two movies and a warranty for the same price as the unit is at most retailers.

LOL!

Just noticed that for AVS members, the A2 is $449 at VE.

How did you pay for the warranty? I didn't see a "add warranty" option.