Already some gloating going on...

[Hussla]

Other than Toshiba and perhaps Onkyo which of any of those brands has mainstream recognition from your average joe crowd?

I'll note that i'm mostly speaking from perspective on the Australian market:

Toshiba isn't quite known for consumer electronics here anymore, not like they use to be. Even then I find many of their products of questionable quality.

Venturer??!?! never heard of them here.

Shinco are known here for making OK! portable dvd players and here in Australia have the perception as a cheapie Target brand.

Integra is only known by your niche high end market.

Alpine is car audio AFAIK, unless they are making a foray into home gear, but really what good is HD-DVD on a 12" in-car LCD (it does have wank value!)

Really nothing impressive from the HD-DVD camp.............it remains to be seen how good a quality these budget players will be.