Walmart will have a "Black Friday" sale on Friday Nov 2nd. They have the Toshiba HD A2 for 98.87. Yes...
Proof:
http://holiday.ri-walmart.com/?section=secret

I'm just jumped on the BB $179 HD A2 deal today. Kinda wish I waited now :(

Target still carries the 360 HD DVD add-on. 

Go with HD. The PQ @ AQ is the same as BR and has more features at half "if not more" the price of BR. Also Hd's strategy isn't dependent on a video game system like BR.

official successor to DVD, maybe, but the DVD Forum shouldn't be the only group to determine what the "official" next generation disc format should be. That would be a monopolistic advantage for the DVD Forum, allowing them to create whatever crap they want.

Competition is good, it forces companies to create better products to compete for your dollar. No person or group should be the one deciding things for you. They can create a new or "successor" product, but if someone else comes along and makes something better, at least you have a choice to decide.

The picture quality isn't always the same for releases that are on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD.

There has been a study done that shows that Blu-Ray picture quality is increasing in quality over time, and if you look at overall picture quality reviews for both formats, Blu-Ray comes out on top. The study was done over multiple review sites, such as HiDef Digest, Home Theatre Spot, DVD Talk, Upcoming Discs, and Home Theatre Forum.

Here's the analysis (dated Friday Oct 19th, 2007): http://www.dvdfile.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6326

As for audio quality, you've heard of the issue where Paramount had to decide between bonus features or PCM/TrueHD audio, due to storage limitations (and I'm also suspecting that it reached it's streaming rate limit). Transformers ended up with DD+, a lossy audio format. Is this what is acceptable from a high defintion format? For such a high profile movie, you should be expecting the best video/audio quality possible.

man, if you really need HD NOW :

if you cannot afford a BR player, if you prefer movie exclusive to HD DVD and if you dont care of PS3, then go HD DVD !

if you have more money, if you prefer the movie exclusive to BR, if you want/can afford a PS3, then go BR !

also remember the Xbox360 can play Hd DVD if you buy the extra HD DVD player !

High-Def Digest wasn't the only one to give the Transformers audio a perfect score:

TV Predictions 5/5

DVDTown 10/10

DVDTalk 5/5

IGN 10/10

HighDefDiscNews 5/5

I have followed the Blu Ray and HD-DVD formats closely and tbh my opinion has not altered.

HD DVD is better for the consumer, The discs should be cheaper, the combo option should make adoption easier, the players should be cheaper, the discs are currently region free and they have less movie house anti piracy mullarky which only causes issues with legitimate purchasers.

Now I used "should" a lot in the HD DVD is better because not all these things happen. I would like to see more combo discs at the same price to help with adoption also discs prices to better match those of DVD equivalents.

Blu Ray is more expensive and panders to the movie house anti piracy mullarky and that inevitable leads to the people actually making the purchases being the ones who are left with discs that do not play. Also again probably pandering to the movie houses the Blu Ray players are region locked, which of course only benefits the movie houses.

Yes Blu Ray has advantages but whether these are of sufficient interest to the consumer is debateable. Had Blu Ray not had the anit piracy and region locking then it would be a closer call just leaving the cost.

I can now buy HD DVD players for £200 in the UK and recently I have seen $169 and even less prices bandied around for the US Black Friday sales of HD DVD players so price is really becoming an issue and we could be at a tipping point.

The general public are less tolerant of accepting discs which they cannot play because of anti piracy measures so I see a seismic shift but the only thing that holds this in the balance are the movies houses, if they all went dual format tomorrow then HD DVD would win and that is the real crux of the matter in my mind and why this war most definately does not benefit the consumer.