Toshiba HD-A1 grabs #14 on PC World's top 100 list
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jun 1st 2006 4:57PM
posted Jun 1st 2006 4:57PM
HD DVD may yet get totally steamrolled by Blu-ray later this year, or face years of struggle against its mortal enemy (that shares its Achilles heel in restrictive AACS DRM), but at least it has had one day in the sun. The Toshiba HD-A1, the first HD DVD player on the market came in 14th on PC World's Top 100 list. With shortages, glitches and a dearth of content, quite frankly we're surprised to see it up so high. When all is said and done, it does get the 1080i HD picture to the screen that aficionados have been waiting for and at least right now it's all we've got. (Also congrats to our friends at Engadget for slotting one spot higher at #13.)
At $1000 and up Blu-Ray isn't going to be steamrolling anything but bank accounts.
That's what early adopters are for: people willing to lay down premium cash on new products. The majority of people buying into these formats don't really care about the cost. I know you love to get your hate on for Blu-ray, but the top-selling DVD players at launch were the more expensive versions (notably those from Sony). Those videophiles that want to can go with one HD DVD manufacturer for the foreseeable future, or they can choose between 4 Blu-ray manufacturers in the next several months, not to mention several studio's worth of exclusive titles.