Most years were early morning runs, so you're probably right, but it really was slow from what I saw, slower than last year at the same time.
This isn't HT related, more of shopper's beware... ToysRUs ran a 50% off sale on certain toys in the morning. The sale was only for a couple of hours, but it looks like they raised the prices on some of the more popular items by as much as 60%! So for those few hours people were able to get things a bit cheaper than Target and Walmart, but certainly not 50% less. What kind of rubbed me the wrong way was for the rest of the day they more than made up for any 'sale' they had for two hours earlier in the morning with some inflated prices. Basically what I'm saying is buyer beware... make sure to do your comparitive pricing before heading out and that applies to not only toys, but even HT gear.
I'm not sure if they raised the price, or if it just didn't hit my area yet, but there were definitely no $199 or less A3's forsale in Walmart. The list price was $289! A little online shopping or price checking can find a much better price. I got my second A2 for $89 with three free movies in the store and then the five free crappy ones through mail in.
Oh, I remember something else from the podcast that I agree with 1000%... those crappy cables included with HD DVD players! It's not just Toshiba that's a 'shame on you' but even my PS3 only had a composite cable. Granted it's a game system, but Sony does push it as a Bluray player too. It wouldn't have killed them to throw in an inexpensive HDMI cable and I'd even say if they were serious about it as a player... the remote too. But PS3 aside, there are other dedicated BD players that don't have an HDMI cable included either. Perhaps they don't want people knowing that HDMI cables aren't as expensive as people think?? Even if that is the lame reason, they could throw in component cables!
As far as the A2 upconverting, I have a Samsung HD-931 and there is no contest between the two of them. I can't say anything about the Oppo since I don't have one. What is the price of the Oppo now? One thing to mention is if the Oppo is still hovering around the $200 mark, then an A3 is a better choice in my opinion if only because it can play HD discs and if it is on par with the A2 as far as upconverting, it does a respectable job... Maybe not as good as the Oppo, but the Oppo is limited to just SDVD and at a premium price. If the Oppo was say $100 (maybe it is now, I don't know) then it would be a viable option for SDVD, but if it's within 10-20% of a HD player, I'd have to recommend the HD player for the reason I mentioned- it can play HD discs and the Oppo can't.