Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"We need a digital camera that can be switched on and fire off that first shot fast. It's not a commonly tracked statistic on any review site, and nobody seems to have this information for every camera. We were hoping other readers could inform us as to what small digital cameras can fire off their first pics in under a second (ideally under half a second). It needs to be small, but mostly, just really quick in operation. Thanks!"
People rent and people buy. The mix they do depends on several factors. Obviously income is one pro-rent factor, which would tend to correlate with the cheaper player.
Another factor, unique to the format war, is risk. When you buy a disc, you take an investment risk in addition to the cost of the player; renting has no such risk. By the time one buys 10 HD DVDs, the investment in discs matches that of the player. If you are uncertain, you don't double down.
I support HD DVD, but I can see things for what they are occasionally.
A bright side is that once folks see the risk of HD DVD diminish, sales will go up, on a per-owner basis. Positive feedback leading to the chance of a BIG jump in sales. I suspect this is one of the reasons the BD execs do their monthly "The End is Near" pronouncement. FUD is part of the BD strategy.