Limited shipments of the first nextgen DVD player, Toshiba"s HD-A1 HD-DVD player, have started to slowly hit store shelves. Most noteably, in the United States, Best Buy locations received small inital shipments, with BestBuy.com already listing the item as backordered and many stores already being sold out of the player after just one day.
The HD-A1, itself, is a large device, especially when compared to today"s DVD players. It sports both USB and ethernet connectivity which will eventually allow the user to access extra online material related to the movie they are watching, including other movie a particular actor may have appeared in. Those of you with a DVD collection have nothing to worry about. Not only does the unit support DVD, it will also upconvert the video to either 720p or 1080i HD quality when using the preferred HDMI connection (cable included).