Waiting for the HD part may take a while considering the format war on that front, but if you've got a universal player you're content with I would say that sitting tight sounds like a reasonable move.

Noise levels around the house are unchanged during the day. My mother-in-law even vacuumed the den last Tuesday while Kate was sleeping in my lap, and Kate didn't fuss a bit. Once we put her down at night, we keep the lights low and sounds to a minimum in her room to promote the idea of night being for sleeping, but that's about it. As for crying, she definitely doesn't get much chance to tune up before somebody's checking on her. She's been good about crying, only crying when there's a reason and calming down once it's taken care of.