Also, Walmart is notorious for making the manufacturers cut corners to lower the prices. Probably not the case with A2, but a slimy practice nonetheless.

m. You get, I believe, at least three (maybe more?) free movies with the unit too. Tough to go wrong at that price!

<ul><li><a href="http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5723662">http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5723662</a</li></ul>

<center><img src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2007/10/wal-mart198.jpg"></center><p><ul><li><a href="http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/25/wal-mart-now-selling-toshibas-a2-hd-dvd-player-for-199/">http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/25/wal-mart-now-selling-toshibas-a2-hd-dvd-player-for-199/</a</li></ul>

I hear inadequate upconverting due to a crappy chip for regular DVDs, which is a major drawback, since there are infinitely many more films on DVD than HD-DVD. Also read about slowness at start up and buggy software, from what I remember.

Most if not all HD disks I've seen are encoded in 1080P and if not, will be so if I'm buying anything video related, I'd rather have something that at least handles what's available today. I'm sure lots of things look good on lesser equipment but I just don't like skimping myself. Spending $5 on something that's obsolete is a waste IMO but I know everyone is into instant gratification so to each their own.

I don't suffer from ADD. More concerned about inadequate upconverting.

Comparing to say an Oppo I'd *guess* that the upconversion wouldn't be as impressive on the A2. BUT, watching an HD DVD would be much more impressive visually (and potentially from an audio standpoint too) than watching an upconverted SD DVD on the Oppo.

I guess my point is, one could buy both an Oppo and the A2 for, what $365 or so? That's less than the A2 alone went for just six months ago.

For those who have TVs which are 1080i (most HDTV owners for the time being), a $200 1080i HD-DVD player makes good sense.

yet it still looks pretty damn good. For myself I've got a 1080p set so it does matter but we all know the majority of this country does not and will not anytime soon most likely.

Like I said, most HD DVD's I've seen are encoded in 1080P so why would I want to get a player that's not capable of producing the quality that I'm paying more on HD DVD's for. If you already got suckered by the industry and bought a bunch of 720 or 1080i stuff, then this works well for you and I'm sure it looks great still. Just a waste of $ IMO for my wants. Cool?

I don't see how it could be considered a waste of money. Not everyone has the $$ to go out and buy an expensive 1080p capable TV right now. Many don't even have an HD ready TV let alone a 1080p one. Many seem to be satisfied with their 720p or 1080i capable televisions. If you output a 1080i signal from your HD DVD player it's still going to look good.

One other thing, we're talking about a sub $200 player that can also upconvert. That's not a bad investment IMHO.

You still need a 1080p24 source if you are going to output 1080i60 and put it back together right, but it can be done with no loss of quality.

While I agree a lot of consumer TV's don't handle the 3:2 pulldown correctly. The 3:2 pulldown issue will be negated by TV's supporting 120Hz.