HD DVD Decks available in the states

The first HD DVD Decks hit US stores to little fanfare. Only a handful of mostly lame discs are available and the verdict so far is that the devices are fairly clunky.

Here's Mikes notes on a Toshiba deck passed on from an early reviewer:

-it's slow - 35 seconds to boot until logo, over a minute until a disk in it at power up shows the first menu
-nearly 40 secs from disk insert to start playing - a lot of consumers might think it's broken
-you can bring up a navigation menu (such as for chapters) WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF PLAYING and it is a graphic overlay - that is, in the vernacular, "totally schweet."
-It'll be about $800 in the US
-reviewer was dissapointed

OOoohh boy, Phantom of the Opera in HD.