On the lighter side: After Gonk and Butchgo posted links from engadget I browsed the site for a little while. I came across this article I thought was amusing:

Top ten things to do with your now-defunct HD DVD player:

Gimmes
eBay
Doorstop
Entertainment center cup-holder
Destroy it. Office Space style.
Oh, the humanity

1)Mail it to the office of Howard Stringer in protest of Blu-ray's victory.
2)Plug it into your clothes dryer's 240-volt outlet. Woops, honey! My bad, guess we have to buy a Blu-ray player now.
3)Finally, replace your Betamax player.
4)Buy the Blu-ray player of your choice, put it in the box, attempt to return it as "defective."
5)Channel it through Whoopi Goldberg and make some pottery with it.
6)Put a Blu-ray disc in the tray and then call up Toshiba when it doesn't work. Repeatedly.
7)Put it in a time capsule, just to confuse future generations.
8)Buy a few dozen of 'em and build a little hut for your Blu-ray player.
9)Lock it alone in a room with a few lethal weapons... let it die honorably.
10)Use it to upscale DVDs, which is all you ever used it for anyways

Top Ten Things To Do With Your Now-Defunct HD Dvd Player