Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player
Sound and vision gives round 1 to hd dvd over blu ray.  Also electronic house and pc world top products list.  Worth the upgrade
I recently purchased the a1 for 500$ after comparing side by side the 800$ xa1 and seeing the inards are identical, i can deal with a remote that doesn't light up and save 300$. <br />Ok, at first the hdmi would not work you may need to do a firmware update which you can do online if you have a high speed connection, once i did that it worked perfect.  Before i did the update i hooked it up using component and that was a huge improvement over standard dvds.  I purchased about a year ago a pionner elite dv59avi for 1k$ and was very skeptical to spend more money.  I was told by A rep at tweeter to save my money.  I'm honestly very pleased that i got it i really am into this stuff and love movies and it is amazing picutre quality. <br />I find it better than a movie on hbo or showtime that is in hd.  I was also blown away by the sound its amazing, crisp and clear.  You can use coaxial or optical which will make everything dts and that sounds great or if you do not have a receiver that has hdmi  which i didn't even after paying 4k a year ago for a pioneer elite 59txi however if you have the multi channel 5.1 you can use that to get dolby digital plus both sound great. <br />Pc world and electronic house named this to there top 100 products of the year.  Also Sound and vision magazine after doing a thorough review of the hd toshiba player and then next month the samsung blu ray, it gave round one to hd dvd stating the dics consistently looked better.  Not that im knocking blu ray its unfortunate there isn't one player but after reading everything i could i chose to go with the hd dvd player for starters. <br />Word of advice if you go to best buy, tweeter, circuit city, or any place out there it seems do your own research dont rely on anyone that works there.  Most haven't heard of it, most of the time i found no stores to even have it hooked up for you to see, found more stores ie circuit city and tweeter to have blu ray displayed.  Ive been told everything from all dvds are hd to there is no such thing.  Do your own research.  One more thing the wait time for the player cause its basically a computer.  Just be slightly patient once you turn it on, tap the buttons gently and wait before hitting the same command over and over then your just going to freeze it like a sales person in sears kept doing.  It just takes a minute and its well worth the wait.   I hope this helps.