I like the Region-Free feature of HD DVD. I plan on buying some imports later this year.

I love the fact it is region-free as well...

...Sadly I think it's doing more harm than good, though.

if you bothered to click on my signature, you might get the impression that I can imagine....with all due respect of course...

Honestly, that was a reply that renders all of your future posts moot in my eyes - you assume too much.

^^^U Has lotz DVDz.

"Blu-ray is simply more expensive technology."

I don't buy this for a minute. Manufacturing costs are a small percentage of the cost of any electronics product. Sony spends a ridiculous proportion of its budget on promotion, and I'm guess they use all kinds of voodoo accounting to charge the part of the costs of developing and promoting games and movies to the bottom line of BR player manufacturing.

Even if it costs twice as much to manufacture a BR player vs an HDDVD player, the $400 price point is indefensible.

Sony has always suffered from an elitist approach to marketing, charging a premium for their brand identity, positioning their products as upscale. That can work well in terms of profitability -- just look at Bose.

But when you're trying to define and own an entire product category, to establish a new format, you have to do one of two things: offer overwhelming value, or offer a compelling "can't live without it" feature set (which is how Apple dominated the MP3 market).

For value, it's hard to beat $100 players except with other $100 players. Sony will lose on this score if they don't move fast.

For features, it must be remembered that these players (either format) offer TWO important benefits, only one of which is playback of HD discs. The other is upconversion.

To the millions of people buying new HDTVs this year and next, the ability to "make all your current DVDs look like hi-def" is a very compelling feature. Probably even more compelling than playback of HD discs, which are still expensive and few. And a $100 player that can do that -- PLUS play HD-DVDs -- is a very easy sell to the owner of a new HDTV.

Once that sale is made, the sale of a BR player has to be made solely on the basis of the ability to play expensive BR discs, to a person who has already seen that the SD DVD of the same title is not only much cheaper but also looks pretty damn good.

Sony needs to get the price down, or BR will go the way of BetaMax, Elcaset, MiniDisc, and SACD.

This is the category I'm in. Getting an HDTV later this year and with the nicely priced players, I had no problem jumping aboard the HD-DVD wagon. If it were BR, I would've gladly gone that route as well...

I don't see how any who genuinely and truly loves films doesn't want to be format neutral.

And with $99 HD-DVD players, it is a slam dunk. I don't care who wins the war or if it goes on forever. I can buy any movie I want on HD and watch it any time I want. All the back and forth between the two sides suddenly becomes meaningless, and I can concentrate on the reason why I got into this hobby in the first place: My love of films.

The size of your collection provides absolutely no credence to the fact that you assumed what my taste for cinema would be, and implied that I will not be able to enjoy the titles you mentioned. This is not a thread where we bully up our collections. For the record, you come close to what I own.

Pro-B

I was on the BD side of the fence until the best buy sale, now I am neutral, I can't pass up on films like Children of Men, Deer Hunter, Fear & Loathing in HD. If one format ends up winning I will just slowly filter out the losing titles as they are released on the opposite format.

Well, I think this HD DVD sale proves what history has shown us. Consumers don't care about one particular format's touting of their quality or features. They just care about the price. Blu-ray and HD DVD supporters can debate formats till they're blue or red in the face, but once a sale goes on, all debates are rendered meaningless. Sales have a way of neutralizing any "winner" of quality or features. Sony will figure it out and will probably discount their PS3 and other BD players will be discounted I'm sure.

I'm the one making assumptions now? What, because I assumed you were a film lover on the basis of your review gig and would not want to limit yourself to specific titles?...sigh...whereas you assumed my passion for film doesn't approach yours for reasons unknown...one has basis, one does not, I'll assume you can figure out which...

the titles I mentioned are arbitrary, of course - plug in any HD-DVD exclusive that you would have an interest for and my point remains the same. I thought that would have been obvious but you seem content to write in circles...

Exactly! I got my A1 for $400 a few months after it came out and a PS3 in January. I love movies. I want to watch them in HD. I don't see how anyone that has a passion for films would pass on a $99/$199 player just because they feel their chosen format will win when both formats have equal amount of titles. Its amazing.

If I was not going to buy movies but just rent them, I'd agree with you on this point. However, there are many of us with a passion for films who aren't interested in ending up with a collection of expensive coasters if one of these formats should go obsolete. For me, it is not and has never been about the players; it is about being reluctant to collect media that may soon be useless.

If you actually think that either of these formats will cease to exist in the next 2 years then you need to re-think buying an HD/BR player at all. Both players and discs will still work, regardless if the format dies. At this point, neither side will be giving up any time soon. I'd much rather have a collection of "useless coasters" in HD, then a collection of DVDs that are worth a few dollars at best like they are today.

But how is my current collection of HD DVD movies going to become useless. The HD DVDs won't self-destruct if Blu-ray is considered a winner.

However, HD DVDs will become obsolete if my HD DVD player breaks down. So, it kinda is about the player.

Lets be fair, you can say that about just about anything. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DVD, Blu-ray etc.

All of these can still be purchased new, or second hand. You will not have the only HD DVD player in the USA, I guarantee you that

indeed - point in fact, the Atari Lynx I just bought for my daughter (where I had a sizable collection left over from my college years with my original system long gone). If I can find a effing Atari Lynx after 18 years, I'm pretty sure HD-DVD players will be accessible at a good price for a looong time...barring any 'Futurama'-type scenarios.

On a funny side-note, imagine the expression of my daughter's face when I hand her a behemoth Lynx when she's expecting a small, shiny DS! (admittedly, the gift was akin to Homer's bowling ball to Marge)

Sony is not dropping the ball. This is just the 2nd volley in a long fall war.

Fiasco? This fiasco has driven down prices faster than any new technology I can remember. Competition is always better for consumers and this war proves it. Owning both players is very affordable and disc prices have also been reasonable with the Amazon 10% deal and all the different stores and sites doing B1G1F deals.

The downside is some niche studios are going to wait to jump in? If there was no war then player prices would still be around $500 if not more and all of those niche companies would still be waiting for the HD format to get wider acceptance. The problem isn't HD DVD vs BD, it is HD video vs standard DVD. DVD was so successful that it will take a long time to move the masses to anything else. One HD format from the start would not solve that problem. Cheap hardware might and this war is finally bringing that about.

Stay loyal to one format if you wish, but drop your elitist attitude that you are trying to save HD video. Those of us that own both are just driving sales to keep these two sides fighting for our business and that is what will keep them driving prices down and ultimately give HD video a chance at mainstream success.

Guess I have to ask even though there are some hot deals out there arent all these hd player deals stop gaps? None do 1808p or have been reviewed to have anything but mediocre quality.

Nonsense. The A2 is a high quality player and I find it hard to believe most people could tell the difference between its output and an HD DVD player with true 1080p output. Maybe on a true 24fps 1080p TV or projector you could tell. The discs are encoded 1080p so it is not the same situation as 480i encoded DVDs.

If your 1080p TV does a good job of converting the video you lose nothing with a 1080i outputting player.

I'm waiting to see if the rumored rebuilt 360/hd-dvd is coming out next yr. It's called patience, I'm trying to grow out of the "instant gratification" mentality - even if it's a "deal."

I will be getting a PS3 soon, and I'll give it another yr and see where things stand with HD-DVD.

Agreed. You can still buy Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. I just don't understand the coasters argument. Most likely there will be another format that overtakes both HD-DVD and Blu-ray before the war is ever decided.

The only reason you'd want a 1080p player and crap on a 1080i is if your set doesn't properly de-interlace. If that's the case, your tv is shit and you should be worried about how you bought a crap tv just because it said "1080p FULL HD" and not about whether or not the HD DVD player output 1080p.

1080i is good enough for the 90% of the 100% of people that own HDTVs. Even IF you have a 1080p TV, I guarantee you that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I did an A / B test back and fourth.

The A2 is a solid player, and for $100, it makes it a no brainer for anyone that wants to get some HD action going.