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Must be some different boxes with different cables included. My model only had the RCA cable and was labeled on the box that it was made in China. Some people have reported that they saw A2 boxes that were made in Japan. I'm wondering if some of that stock included the HDMI cable?
I made the half hour trip to the Walmart store in Salem, Oregon, figuring it was the most likely "local" place to actually stock HD-DVD players. Due to traffic delays, I got there at 8:05 am and noticed one guy loading three HD-DVD boxes into his trunk (in the store there were other people that had 2-3 also, so much for the 1 per person limit). It looks like they started with an end display of about 20. When I picked mine up off of the shelf there were about 8 left. By the time I checked out at the electronic counter there was 1 left (about 8:15). I did get a copy of Transformers & Batman from the display case.
The funny thing is that the staff seemed surprised and unprepared that there were about a dozen people milling about in the electronics department right after opening. They hadn't set out the $14 promotional HD-DVDs either, though they had them at the counter and we could purchase them. Overall, you could tell they were thinking "WTF is going on?"
For me, the A2 is a good match to my HDTV. I bought a 32" 4:3 Hitachi CRT about 5 years ago on an open-box special at Circuit City (a 42" flat panel at that time was $4k). So 1080p does not even matter on this TV. It's my understanding that a decent 1080p TVs will just use a 3:2 pulldown on the 1080i signal anyway. The TV only has component inputs (no HDMI on this set) for high def but it's my understanding that the whole "copy protection that forces 480p" thing isn't even being used now. My trial movie this morning after I plugged everything in looked nice and crisp, kind of like the high def feeds I've seen over cable for several years.
For those interested in the 5 free HD-DVD offer, you can click to get the PDF at this X-Box 360 page (yes, it also applies to Toshiba HD-DVD players).
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360hddvdplayer/hddvdnow/offers.htm
I made the half hour trip to the Walmart store in Salem, Oregon, figuring it was the most likely "local" place to actually stock HD-DVD players. Due to traffic delays, I got there at 8:05 am and noticed one guy loading three HD-DVD boxes into his trunk (in the store there were other people that had 2-3 also, so much for the 1 per person limit). It looks like they started with an end display of about 20. When I picked mine up off of the shelf there were about 8 left. By the time I checked out at the electronic counter there was 1 left (about 8:15). I did get a copy of Transformers & Batman from the display case.
The funny thing is that the staff seemed surprised and unprepared that there were about a dozen people milling about in the electronics department right after opening. They hadn't set out the $14 promotional HD-DVDs either, though they had them at the counter and we could purchase them. Overall, you could tell they were thinking "WTF is going on?"
For me, the A2 is a good match to my HDTV. I bought a 32" 4:3 Hitachi CRT about 5 years ago on an open-box special at Circuit City (a 42" flat panel at that time was $4k). So 1080p does not even matter on this TV. It's my understanding that a decent 1080p TVs will just use a 3:2 pulldown on the 1080i signal anyway. The TV only has component inputs (no HDMI on this set) for high def but it's my understanding that the whole "copy protection that forces 480p" thing isn't even being used now. My trial movie this morning after I plugged everything in looked nice and crisp, kind of like the high def feeds I've seen over cable for several years.
For those interested in the 5 free HD-DVD offer, you can click to get the PDF at this X-Box 360 page (yes, it also applies to Toshiba HD-DVD players).
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360hddvdplayer/hddvdnow/offers.htm