Or you could go with the much cheaper alternative, HD DVD, which is region free.

Screw the TV, I'll take the girl.

A 4% decrease in DVD sales means the end of DVD?? I somehow doubt that. That 4% decrease is probably the result of the current state of the economy.

yeah. they act like this is news.

Just because it says 1080i does not mean it only puts out 720p (which is the case with most TVs that say 1080i). This player can put out the full 1920x1080. The picture is interlaced but that isn't a problem unless your TV has a bad deinterlacer. If it deinterlaces properly the picture will be identical to that of a 1080p player. Movies are only 24fps while 1080i is 60fps, so you don't loose any information in the interlacing/deinterlacing process.

This is quite humorous indeed.

Monoprice has an Optical Toslink to Coaxial (RCA) Digital Audio Converter for $11.20:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=2948&seq=1&format=2

Highdefdigest gives is a perfect raiting:

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1040/bladerunner_cce.html

If these things weren't so expensive I would buy one in a heart beat.

I already have a HD DVD player so I voted for a Blu-ray player. They are still too expensive though.