Dang It: Gotta Buy Blu-Ray to Demo Displays!

Well this is getting just too annoying.

Where have all the HD-DVD players gone in the stores? (I know, I know...people here are going to reply: "They've all been bought").

I've been in the market for a new, larger display, especially for enjoying the new HD film formats. I bought the Tosh A1 and naturally want to see how a selection from my HD-DVDs look on any prospective display. I'm looking at big plasmas and projectors.

But I can no longer find any stores that have an HD-DVD player hooked up to a display (aside from something like Best Buy at the HD-DVD display, on their Toshiba LCD).

When HD-DVD first arrived, being the first HD movie format I could at least find stores that had HD-DVD player hooked up...at least in their projector room.

But now that blu ray players and software is arriving on the scene in more numbers, it's blu ray, blu ray, blu ray....everywhere I look there is only a blu ray player to be found hooked up to the high end displays. And, thanks to the lovely format wars none of my HD-DVD collection will of course play on those players. So I'm actually having to BUY blu ray content just to demo displays.

Yeah, I suppose I can haul in my HD-DVD player with me. But aside from the inconvenience of doing so, it does seem perhaps portentous that everywhere I go blu ray is the source de jour on high-end displays.

Anyone else having the same experience?

Well my point wasn't "How do I solve this?" As I mentioned, I could haul my HD-DVD player around. But the very fact I would have to resort to this, because it seems Blu Ray players are the only HD source being used is both frusterating and, it would seem, telling.

Even if at this point HD-DVD players are still outselling Blu Ray, it's hard to see how long HD-DVD can stand a chance if the state of affairs continues, where Blu Ray has managed such a dominating foothold into AV stores.