In time for the Holiday's, the HD-XA2

[hmurchison]

I don't see anything coming in Blu-Ray players that makes me think consumers will go rushing to the stores to drop a grand +

The Pioneer player is nice with the DNLA and all but how many people have the supporting product to take advantage. Apparently the Pioneer and Sony units will ship without CD support. WTF???

I'm personally excited for the second gen Toshiba equipment. The only downer is losing analog multichannel out on the $499 unit. The A2 is quite simply more full featured than ANY Blu-Ray player beyond the Pioneer.

1080p...check
HDMI 1.3...check
Bi-direction RS232...check
Ethernet...check
Improved DACs...check
Great legacy support...check

Both formats are great but I"m not worried about HD DVD dying until you can purchase a BD player for $500 that doesn't have "Playstation" emblazoned on the front. My mother has a Toshiba TV that is still running strong over a decade later. I don't personally share the negative views of the company.