They look small enough to fit into a stocking too!!

Sure thing!! ;-)

/Ulf

Don't know where you are based but UK prices tend to be high for any electronics kit... it may be closer to $200 in the US...

"Don't know where you are based but UK prices tend to be high for any electronics kit... it may be closer to $200 in the US..."
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$200 was in fact the number that I heard being kicked around for a while now. LG is SUPPOSED to be coming up with a burner too sometime in the near future but my guess is that the price will be a bit higher.

But I almost NEW that Toshiba had it in their mind to undercut BD.....price has been their plan pretty much from the start.

"it may be closer to $200 in the US." Well, we have to wait to see. Under $200 makes a player for the kid to watch Transformers do-able.

Well, I'm beginning to wonder if this wasn't all part of HD DVD's master plan... lie low until you're ready to go.

I may be COMPLETELY off base and it may just all be a large coincidence, but things are starting to happen VERY fast for HD DVD. For some time now there has been little movement... and now in the last couple of weeks we have seen changes with Paramount, Dreamworks, Onkyo Players, Ventura players, and now burners. It kinda makes me wonder what else is coming!!

Blink3times, like everyone points out, HD is still a small market, so in the US, Nov25 will be the real test date for BR and HD DVD by what products they have on the retail shelves. By the Jan1, 2008, we'll see if limited media content is hurting sales, ie, did Target choices have a real impact on sales to the average family? And of course if Walmart sells any HD players( either or both formats)------

may be COMPLETELY off base and it may just all be a large coincidence, but things are starting to happen VERY fast for HD DVD. For some time now there has been little movement... and now in the last couple of weeks we have seen changes with Paramount, Dreamworks, Onkyo Players, Ventura players, and now burners. It kinda makes me wonder what else is coming!!

It's pretty funny that a format that launched first is still playing catch-up.

By the way, I wouldn't include the Ventura players in the "last couple of weeks" because cheap Chinese players were announced at least three months ago-- just not the name of the company. :-)

"It's pretty funny that a format that launched first is still playing catch-up."
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you will need too add "and surpass" to the end of that statement pretty soon :)

Yon mean there was tremendous SPECULATION over chinese players 3 months ago.

It is however pretty neat that you mention the word "funny" though... because I was just thinking about BD's inability to do much else lately but copy HD DVD in its interactive ability. In fact I would compare this whole thing to... oh i don't know.... maybe a ....DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS scenario.

Grow up already.

Blink, HD copied DVD in its ability to play movies, have chapters, animated menus, etc. And of course it TOTALLY copied the disc specs (same size, etc.).

HD also copied the fact that BR has burners.

And HD copied the idea of exclusive studios.

And HD copied the idea of selling only 1/3 the discs that BR sold. Oh, wait, they didn't copy that. That was an innovation.

And if you want to talk about desperate, look no further than the late-in-the-game bribery of Paramount to go format exclusive. Can you say "scared to death?"

BluRay won the war two days ago.

Well, it won here anyway. I finally got off the fence and bought a BluRay player in the form of a Playstation 3. I may never play a game on it, but as a multimedia machine, it's pretty slick. (Or "sick" as the kids say.)

I bought "Planet Earth" on BluRay and it's encoded as VC-1 (Windows Media) at around 20 mbits/sec. In 1080p is looks absolutely spectacular!