I can understand the frustration, but it is just something you have to deal with in the electronics world. If you want the latest and greatest, you'll have to pay for it. Otherwise, just wait 6 months and get it for half the price. As for increasing resolution, I don't necessarily disagree with you there. I'll probably wait until I can see 2160p with my own eyes, but I'm sure we're getting close to maxing out on resolution (well, with noticeable differences though). And the 22.1 surround does sound like overkill. BTW, IIRC the people who watched that demo ended up being nauseated because it was too intense. I guess instead of increasing the resolution, they could also increase the frames per second. I believe Ken Kutaragi (CEO/President of the Playstation branch) commented on the future having displays (and content) capable of 90 and 120 FPS. I'm not sure if that will offer much of a difference either though...except for making more people sick to their stomachs. As for gaming systems, I don't think it is really too early. Maybe for the Xbox and possibly the Gamecube, but the PS2 will be getting close to 7 years on the market by the time the PS3 comes out. If the PS3 came out 3 years later, that would be 10 years, and probably more for those that didn't get the PS3 at launch (most people get consoles when they are priced under $150-$200 IIRC). That would probably be like 2-3 times the length of any other console.
I'm so glad I waited long enough to get a 1080p Westinghouse 42" LCD, with HDMI. $2100.00, on sale at Best Buy, and I got a free DVD recorder. It's a no-name, but it works fine. At least I don't have to go through torment over my display's resolution for a while. Just everything else! No sound system (which is driving me crazy), and certainly no HD player. I have an excellent Sony progressive scan DVD player, with HDMI, and T/W HD from their digital box, so I guess I shouldn't complain. My SuperBit copy of Fifth Element looks positively awesome. So do all my decent quality DVDs. They're being upconverted to 540p on my display, and you can tell the difference. I didn't realize what a plus upconverting was, until I actually was able to do it. You read about it on a forum like AVS, but seeing is believing!
