I love it!

I have been telling my wife for months that I wanted to save up and get an HD-DVD player. She really surprised on Christmas morning by having one under the tree for me!

Why HD-DVD?
I had asked for the HD-DVD instead of the Blu-Ray primarily due the price difference. In looking at the two formats side by side in stores, etc. I can see no difference between the video quality, and I can't justify spending more money on the BR player just to have discs with more storage.

Special Features?
I love eye candy, and the HD DVD experience is full of eye candy. It is really cool to have the full front end menu of the DVD available to you while you are viewing a movie. The picture in picture features is really nicely done, allowing for you to view the interviews with directors and actors and commentary while the movie is playing. Some of the studios have been pretty inventive with what they are doing with these features. For example the Bourne movies have the option to turn on a graphical representation of Jason Bourne that overlays on the movie itself giving you "Top Secret" information about him and what is going on onscreen. The system os runs on a Linux kernel that allows for the DVD developers to easily program/develop innovative, eye-catching content.

It should also be noted that as of right now HD DVD's are region free. They will still only play region 1 (in the US) on regular DVD’s, but the HD versions do not have that limitation built in.

Video and Audio?
I am running this into my 46" Samsung dlp, and viewing it at 1080i, since I don't have the 1080p tv. The video is stunning in its clarity and color sharpness. The audio is running out to my jvc 5.1 dts receiver and is amazingly crisp. I have no complaints.

Online Support?
Configuring this for the internet was a piece of cake. However, I have had trouble downloading the firmware update. I tried to download a couple of times, and then I tried to create a disc from the ISO provided online, but I could get neither to work. This was a bit discouraging, but I called customer support and within 3 minutes the rep had me in their system and the disc has been mailed. This experience has been the only downside to this purchase so far, but I won't hit them too hard since customer support was so responsive and friendly. However, if I could only give 4.5 stars this would be the reason (I can't bring myself to dock them a full star for this issue).

Hot or not?
One other thing to watch out for is that the player does get warm after it has been on for a while. It has a built in fan, which I have never had on a DVD player before, but it still gets pretty warm. This weekend I plan to rearrange some things to see if I can get it running cooler.

Load times?
Yes, it takes longer for this player to boot up than a standard DVD player. Yes, it takes longer to load the movie. Is this a big deal to me? No. I remember when I got my first DVD player (waaaay back), and it took a lot longer to boot up than the current models do. I just don't see the big deal in waiting an extra 30-40 seconds for the player to boot. When I am sitting down to watch a movie 30 seconds is not going to detract from my viewing experience at all.

Before getting this player I did not consider myself to be firmly seated in either camp in the HD Format War, but now I do consider myself to be an HD convert. However, if Blu Ray ends up coming out on top I will gladly buy their player, as they should be cheaper by that time... Personally I feel (I have no hard data to back this up) that the only reason Blu Ray is still in the game (given its higher price point) is that a Blu Ray player is included in every PS3 sold. If these two were to go head to head on a level playing field (console integrations not included) I believe the numbers would skew more towards the HD. Also, I have experienced a great deal of the rabid Playstation fonboyism on other sites to know that there are a lot of people that will intentionally discredit anything that competes with their preferred gaming console. Therefore, when I see an HD review from someone that says they have a PS3 I typically disregard what they have to say as it is usually very biased... but that's just me.

Synopsis?
In my opinion this is a great player for a great format. The video and audio are pristine (to my eyes and ears anyway), and the extra features are really cool.

Now to go watch Blade Runner in all of its HD glory...