Well, here in Brazil i see the same. People are buying HDTV just to say they have one(most are 26" and 32", so size isn't a point there).
A very friend of mine have an 42 720p LCD, and Vaio Notebook that costs 2500 dollars with TOTAL HD support. His notebook have blu-ray reader and a HDMI output with sound, we can't BD for rent and buying is way to expensive(catalogues costs 50 dollars and new realesed can reach 100 dollars), but he could download HD content and watch in his TV... He just don't know he has high-end HTPC and a okay panel to show content. He uses dvd with component output, the image is a shit but he think it's awesome. I gave some tips to him.







