OK. I've actually been one of those CrAzY people BUYING HD-DVD titles to use with my A2 HD-DVD player. I know, HD-DVD is dead. WIth Samsung saying that they are not going to build a replacement for their combo player (the BD-UP5000), it looks like if I want to watch HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray (once I ever buy a player) I would need 2 players. I mean, sure the BD-UP5000 is at about $450 right now at amazon.com, but it has its flaws and setbacks (2 Channel TrueHD, etc). Then there is the LG BH200. It seems a bit better, and is starting to be out of stock all over the place, and I am not dropping down $550 at this point.

What other options are there? A guy at work was saying "Buy an XBox360 with the HDDVD drive, and when they come out with the Blu-Ray drive, you would have both." Well, that is still a bit of speculation.

Or am I just "stuck" with having to get a seperate Blu-Ray player at some point? I tried to talk my wife into it being yet another reason for a HTPC, but was shot down again.

Any thoughts?

I would suggest buying a Blu-ray only player.

You already have an HD DVD player (as do I, A2 in one room and A3 in another), and none of the combos get really good ratings (I was disappointed that the Samsung 5500 got scrapped).

Just watch HD DVDs for now.

There will be lots of quality Blu-ray choices in the < $500 range in the coming months; if i was going to buy in that price range today it would likely be the Panny BD30 (BD50 coming out soon) but I think there will be lots of choices close to Christmas.