Holy Moly Blu-Ray Disc Players below $300

Jkalman, wow, where did that come from? Look, I was simply relaying my personal experiences with the two formats and I'm not sure why you feel the need to attack me in your reply. As indicated, I own both formats and certainly have no agenda to advance. Please take the attitude over to AVS or AA where its accepted. Peace, brother, and have a Happy New Year.

I own both formats and don't care about the "technology" behind each. I just want to put a disc in my player(s) and watch movies. That having been said, from first hand experience I perceive HD-DVD to be the more complete product at this point. I have yet to have a HD-DVD fail to play in my XA2. My Blu-Ray experience has been more frustrating (Samsung 1200) because it seems that every time certain studios (Disney/Fox) release a new line of movies I have to wait about a month on a firmware update before they will play in my player. Therefore, it is clear to me that the technology behind Blu-ray is still evolving. For that reason, I would be very hesitant to recommend a Blu-ray player to friends/family at this point. On the other hand, I bought my parents an HD-DVD player for Christmas.