Ok - I admit that I chose the wrong side in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray war.  That's the risk you take when you are an early adopter.  I'm cool with all that.

Now, the one thing I could take solace in was the fact that my Toshiba A20 was still a reasonable upconverting DVD player.  Sure, it takes longer to boot the damn thing than all of my computers combined, but once it is running, it does a good job - until today.  It seems that it has lost the ability to spit out audio on the HDMI line.  Of course, I need HDMI to upconvert.  With the component connection, I get great audio - but a 480p picture.  Grr.

It appears that the blu-ray player may need to be purchased sooner than expected.  I'm not about to buy a standalone upconverting DVD player.