Why not maximize the use of the HD DVD?
I respect the suggestion of others as regards not buying (or not recommending to buy) disks anymore but here's my opinion.
I have been buying select R1 DVDs since 1999 but renting most of the time. Among those titles that I have bought, even with various kinds of machines that are capable of playing DVD in every corner of my house, I've not touched most of my owned titles for a looooong while mainly because there are always new releases every week that can be accessed through the rental shops or through the net. My daughter has also grown not to rewatch her favorite titles like 1000x as she did until grade school. The only value those catalogue DVDs have right now, is when I look at them neatly stacked in the shelves and realize "oh this was a nice movie." I'm not using them as coasters, but I'm not using them at all either, so what's the difference.
2nd, my early 1999 generation DVD player that didn't even have component video output still works as well as it did when I first opened it. Assuming the current HD DVD players are not as reliably built, do you really think it would die in 1 or 3 years of normal usage?
3rd, right now I only have about 30 HD DVD titles. I've watched them all fully at least 2x each and I have the habit of popping in a disk while doing the ironing - a chore you "spoiled" husbands and wives with maids based in the Philippines should learn to appreciate for a better perpective of real life outside the Philippines - he he he.
In any case, the chances of me buying the BD transfers of already available HD DVD titles is practically ZERO even if my HD DVD player conks out. So despite Toshiba's defeat, I'm always on a look-out for fire sales of disks, not for collection purpose but to actually watch. If I can get titles I've never watched or would like to rewatch in high def 1-3 times for $15 or less, that's a great deal for me already considering it would cost me $4 to rent SD DVD and worse, $18 for a movie ticket. Besides, SAYANG lang HDTV ko if I don't do that. The HDTV is much more valuable than the HD DVD player, so I've got to maximize it's use. It's a high def experience travesty to have an HDTV and use it mainly for upscaled DVD watching.
But real collectors have already posted that the fun is more on collecting discs than actually watching. I cannot appreciate that at all obviously but are you that type or not?
So in my opinion, if you decide to keep your HD DVD player, you'd better maximize it. If not, you'd better unload it now while it still has some value.