As for the war, I went ahead and got the Toshiba HD-A2 when it was <$300. My logic is that I can watch HD-DVDs right now instead of no HD movies of any type, and even if HD-DVD does lose the format war all the HD-DVDs will still be playable on my HD-A2. 8-Track Audio eventually lost to Cassette tapes but for the box of 8-tracks I have I've still got one old deck that can play them, and I did enjoy the music while it could be found. Upconverting is fine, and a standard DVD player is much easier to find new release movies for. It's just a shame to own 3 1080i/p HDTVs and be limited to directTVs HD offerings and OTA ATSC which although digital is rarely true 1080 resolution in my neighborhood. The HD-DVD deck really shows off what HDTV is all about.