I really don't think that this is that big of a deal

 At 199$, I have my doubts. I still think that even at that price, it is still too much for the consumers. Not only do they have to buy the actual player but the consumers also have to buy and in some cases re-buy discs that still cost more than the price of regular dvds. Not to mention you need a surround sound system and an hdtv to get the full experience. I think the price of players and disc need to drop a little more for it to sell better. I could be wrong; maybe selling 5 million hd-dvd players is nothing for a retailer that sell tens (maybe hundreds) of millions of dvd players each year.

@rocket pig

You have a point.

I want 1080p (1080p performs much better than 1080i on my display because of a poor scaler) and DTS MA decoding for $199. That probably won't happen any time soon though...

In x-mas we will see...

This should sell amazingly well compared to other stand alone HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players but I doubt this will ammount to much ...

Far too few people have HDTVs that have been connected to an HD signal to care about the increased resolution at this point in time; HD is really only going to start to matter to the general population in 2010-2011 (assuming the western world does not spiral into a recession).

When will people learn?!! Amazon sux0rs for determining how the market is going! There are two metrics we can use for determining the power of Blu-ray vs HD-DVD ... players sold and discs sold.

Right now, it is difficult to tell the exact amount of Blu-ray capable devices used for Blu-ray movies because of the PS3, so we can't use that metric without a significant amount of guess work. The only other metric we have is disc sales, which are weighted in Blu-ray's favor, something to the tune of 2:1.

Yet, the combined sales of Blu-ray and HD-DVD are less than 5% of the total movie market.

On topic: I believe when these cheaper players come out, the 360 HD-DVD player will drop in price, and it should help increase the disc sales of HD-DVD.

A $199 price point puts it easily in the range of a Christmas present. Good news for HD.

 How many homes do you think have 1080P capability?  5%?  10%?  My guess is no more than that.  From a recent news piece on All Things Considered, househould penetration of HDTVs was about 25% with about half of them not even having it hooked up.  Of those, how many were sold as low cost sets during the initial craze to move to Flat Panel TVs  I suspect there are an awful lot of people that are stuck with 720P/1080i sets, don't know any better, or don't care.  Personally, I'm planning on purchasing a 42" LCD this fall and it will likely be a Vizio 720P set.  I'm not aware of a single live broadcast of 1080P though there may be some.   The audio and videophiles that DO care about 1080P are so small in number that they are essentially irrelevant in the big picture.  Joe Six Pack that shops at walmart has proven time and time again to be representative of the mass market and Joe always goes cheap -- wal mart cheap.  I suspect a $199 player will do well this Holidy.  Very well indeed.  If Toshiba were to match it and still keep the 5 HD DVDs in place, it could be a very rosy holiday for HD DVD.

Unfortunately both formats appear to be here for the long run, though, so only time will tell.

Yes I am pumped for this. Great to see that a cheap peice of crap could ruin the Movie industries chance at having a great format. This is the best news ever.

That didn't take long