It seems the first HD-DVD players are out, and excited home cinema fans are sitting at home with their hands on HD-DVD movies too. The verdict so far is positive.

Over at AVS Forum through HD Beat, you can see the first arrivals, discussion of what is included, pictures of the...well, picture, as well as images of the menus and setup screens. Here's an extract of what one of them has to say on watching The Last Samurai HD-DVD:

I have to say that this is the best HD footage I have ever watched. Both my wife and I commented over and over again about how there was no visible pixelation (macro blocking?). When I watch shows like LOST it looks great but there is always some level of blocking during the night and/or dark shots. I saw none of that on this DVD. Also there were no jagged edges - It simply looked superb. We kept saying how clean and finely detailed everything looked. The picture was just stunning.

It's actually quite interesting reading some of the news coming out of these early consumers, but as usual I think they may well be the ones to pay the price for the general marketplace. They will be forking out the extra cash, proof testing hardware, and helping to make the second and third generation players much better, and cheaper!

My advice, and my actions, are still to hold on. I think buying now is quite a gamble. Waiting until both formats are out there and beginning to get used is when to start making your call either way. That is unless you're like these guys and want one early...It's tempting though...