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.
