Tony,
Life's short. You probably drop two bills in a month going out to eat with the wife and kids. Toshiba A-2 can be had for a little over $200.00 with 8 free movies. With today's technology advancements, every format will eventually be yesterday's betamax. Besides no matter how the format war pans out, the HD-DVD player is an awesome upconverter of standard DVDs and will continue to play HD-DVDs after the format war is decided (if ever).
You owe it to your HDTV to give it every HD signal that's available.
Life is short, so is money!
I don't have a wife or kids so that isn't a problem. And I would rather use the the money to go out to eat with friends and family than on an electronics item that can be had for 1/20 to 1/4 the price and know it stands a better chance to be around at least as long if not longer. The $200 price point is real good. And it is tempting. But until my $9CyberHome POS with component outputs (which looks great on my Hitachi 42" plasma) dies, I see no reason to shell out money on a player whose format may not survive. When it is clear one format or the other is headed to the dumpster, that is when I would buy.
See ya
Tony
