You can have your 1080i player, spent money on my 1080p tv and have no interest in cheap Toshiba. Blu-ray all the way, 85% have lossless uncompressed soundtracks so far 31% of hd-dvd. Every Disney, Fox, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz, Anchor Bay and Sony/Columbia release has uncompressed sound, they are all blu-ray exclusive studios. Yet the exclusives for hd-dvd, Universal and Paramount, Universal offers 18% of releases in lossless and Paramount 2% (see formatwars.com, they are keeping track).
I am not interested in a rip off of dvd, Blu-ray is the brand new format, with 100gb discs coming first half of next year, it would take 2 discs for an entire season tv set, that's with extras and lossless sound. The future is blu-ray.
As for this low player price, what customer is going to buy a player that won't play Spiderman 1-2-3, Ratatouille, Die Hard 1-2-3-4, Independence Day, Close Encounters (Spielberg's only hd release), Simpsons movie, Cars, ect. I think mass market will only happen when one format wins, and so far it's blu-ray to the max. Let's see, the big hd-dvd titles coming by year's end? Chuck and Larry, Borne and Shrek 3, a few goodies but absolutely no match! They have won every week in disc sales all year, and even took the sales lead in the week when Paramount's Transformers came out, that was supposed to be hd-dvd's breakout title, oh well, at least Paramount got 150 million in bribes to go hd-dvd only, but they could have sold 300,000 Transformers on blu-ray, idiots! And now with the Playstation 3 coming Nov.2 at $399, millions more blu-ray homes. I know of 5 friends going Playstation 3 come Nov.2, $399 was their top-pay price and it's a reality now, and only 1 of them play games. Let's see, Toshiba's entry 1080p player $399 and Sony's Playstation, HD disc player AND game system $399.....heck of a buy from Sony!
I am not a bluboy....I am buying the Samsung 5000 combi player, so I can watch discs on both formats, but I know it will be a great blu-ray player (as were Samsung's previous players) when hd-dvd dies.