Toshiba's HD-A20 finally ships

$499.00 For a DVD Player?Give me a Break.Ill stick with the 3 year old Technology for know,Its still great.

DVD has been around longer then 3 years

This new is from http://www.betanews.com
AACS LA Pulls the Trigger; Revocation System Under Way

Last Friday, the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA), which is responsible for providing the encrypted copy protection scheme for both HD DVD and Blu-ray high-definition disc players, exercised the option their system was designed to enable:

Through the distribution of new movie discs with embedded revoked keys, AACS LA will trigger a self-destruct system for PC-based high-def player software whose integrity from unauthorized copying is found to be compromised. And based on its last statement, the revocation could extend beyond Corel InterVideo, which warned its users last Friday.

Under the system which will get its first trials in the coming days, consumers will be prompted to upgrade their software in order to avoid the self-destruct sequence. The upgrade process will replace users' device-assigned decryption keys with new keys that would not be revoked, and whose identity has yet to be discovered.

But while multiple press sources over the past few days followed up on our story from last Friday by saying AACS LA announced it had fixed the problem, or patched the crack, that's not what the licensing authority actually announced. Rather, it said it had "taken action, in cooperation with relevant manufacturers, to expire the encryption keys associated with the specific implementations of AACS-enabled software."

What this means is that individuals -- including those who claim they're simply working to devise a way to back up their purchased discs, using a method that Congress could very well legalize this year -- may conceivably use exactly the same methods they used to detect the first set of critical AACS encryption keys, to detect the replacement set. Now that they know how, the detection process could actually be faster this time around.

As a result, the stage appears set for a kind of cryptographic volleyball between encoder developers and decoder programmers, with consumers finding themselves not feeling less like the passive observer and more like the ball.

Yea!!I Know DVD has been around longer than 3 years!!!Im talking about all the Things i purchased in the last three years.

52" HDTV
Sony DVD player
Sony Home Theater surround sound system
RCA Home theater surround sound system
Panasonic DVD player
Panasonic DLP HDTV projector,HDTV screen
Not to mention,rebuilding the basement for the Home Theater room.

Ive built my living room into a nice family room.
My basement into a Home Theater movie room.

Im done for now.Ive spent around $15,000.00 in the last three years on this stuff.Ill be damned to spend $499.00 on a new DVD player.You get what im saying now.Im ok using the stuff i have now,it still looks and sounds great.

As folks well know this is not just a 'DVD player'.

It's an HD-DVD player - and one with an excellent write up too.

BTW you might like to bear in mind those prices quoted are the official prices, not the discounted 'street prices'.

For instance the Toshiba HD A2 is currently officially $399 following the recent $100 official price-drop, but it is on sale right now on Amazon USA for $306......it was $349 even before the $100 drop so a $250 brand name HD-DVD is very possible this summer (some are talking $200 by X-mas).

Which leaves those Chinese HD-DVD players coming in Q3 this year where?
$100 - $150?

With BD not even a finished spec
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/dontgettheblues-saynotoblu-ray/4407
these kind of prices may well see BD relegated to being a mere PS3 proprietary media (just as UMD is to PSP) and, if they're lucky, maybe, professional bulk data storage.

BD simply is not a purpose designed video media and the PS3 is simply not selling well enough nor enough BD movies
(no matter how many lies they claim about Casino Royale and the phantom 100k sold that turned into merely shipped).

Originally posted by hughjars:

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As folks well know this is not just a 'DVD player'.

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No,it is not a DVD player,it is an OVERPRICED high definition player. I don't care how many bells and whistles it has.It still comes down to a format that the general public is not buying in vast amounts yet and until the price drops even further, I don't think they will! Let's not even get into the DRM aspect of it!!

And this is not even a burner that you can store your own stuff on....just a player. To me high defintion may be worthwhile in a couple of years when prices have dropped and both format's are on dual format players/burners. But even then,we will have to see how much they drop in price before the public starts to buy them in volume.

High Definition is basically a niche market right now,until they get resonable in price on blank and recorded media and burners/players....I won't be getting one anytime soon. I don't think the general public will either.

Actually webe123 that really just depends on your idea of 'over-priced'.

Some a/v enthusiasts will happily pay far more than this for just a SD DVD player.

But the fact that these Toshiba HD-DVD players have all proved themselves to be very high quality and very highly spec'd counts for a lot to some folks.

The fact that they are also excellent SD and HD DVD machines counts for a lot...... to the kind of people who place their movies before any ridiculous notions of supporting a 'brand'.