I haven't exactly seen the news reports on the masses flocking to retailers and snatching up all the HD-DVD players and movies.

HD-DVD really needed the XBox 360 to ship with a player built-in. Yeah, Microsoft announced they'll eventually be selling an add-on player, but that will be too little too late (and of course if you read between the lines I'm sure when the standalone drive comes out there will be a "refreshed" 360 with it built in - so why buy now, eh?)