The BDP-S550 looks like a good mix of feature set and price, especially for the huge installed base of home theaters without the latest HDMI support at the receiver/processor. I wonder if its arrival will lead to a price drop on the BD50, as the two are going to be clearly matched in head-to-head competition in the marketplace.

Like RCF051, I am very interested in seeing what OPPO brings to the table when the time finally comes. There were rumors that they might be ready to offer some hints this summer, although the last time I talked to anyone there they were still tight-lipped about Blu.
Aside from the PS3, Sony has so far lagged behind in hardware development for Blu-ray. Samsung has been out in front when it comes to speed to market, but that has not been much of a kindness to consumers since it also meant the first ones out of the gate were pretty rough around the edges. Panasonic and Pioneer have done well, by and large, especially in the last year or so (starting with Panasonic's BD10A, I'd say). I was pleased with what Toshiba did for hardware on HD-DVD, but what they've done since throwing in the towel is a bit disappointing. Rather than use that experience to produce good Blu-ray or Blu-ray/HD-DVD hardware, they are trying to market upconverting DVD players as equal to HD players - which, having seen some of the top video scaling available today used for DVD (the Anchor Bay chips in OPPO's 983H) alongside a trio of true HD sources (cable, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray), strikes me as just obnoxious and deceptive. I'd much rather see them leverage that HD-DVD experience to give them an edge in building Profile 2.0 players than try to mislead and confuse consumers.