I've been renting from Hollywood for some time now, unfortunately, their selection is small and I've pretty much seen or own everything they have (I think I own more discs than they do). They always ask if I have a BD player too - which is a good thing - but it does indicate to me that they have had people rent them and not have a BD player.
Hollywood charges like $7/rental. I remember buying HD DVD's from them for $10 when they went under. Most used Blu-ray discs are available for around $15 on E-bay. Living in the Bay Area, Netflix should be almost instant for you. (Here in TX, I've found very few waits with Blockbuster Online. Netflix is another matter.)
Honestly, I don't really know what you are talking about... My panny boots up plenty fast for me. I rarely have a disc picked out before its ready. Or by the time I can turn off all the lights. Well, its way faster than my Tosh HD-A35 in any case.
I still have no idea what I'll miss out with 2.0. I never watch commentary. I have a growing collection, and I never have watched commentary (or is that what 2.0 is even for??).
To me loading time is more important than booting time. All of my displays are kept in low power mode. I'm not cheap. I'm just semi-green. I can wait an extra 95 seconds for my TV to turn on. My player will be power up faster than my display. I then have to wait another 3 seconds for HDMI to sync.
According to Cnet, the fastest two loading standalones are the (not yet out) Panny DMP-BD50 and the (surprise) LG BH200. The LG at least has the excuse of being bogged down by having to read defunct HD DVD discs. Pioneer, Denon, Samsung, Philips, Sony, Sharp and others don't have that excuse. (Mitsubishi, Hitachi, JVC, Yamaha and Oppo at least have the decency to stay on the sidelines here in the US for now.)
http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/panasonic-dmp-bd50/4505-6463
These speeds were all significantly faster than the Samsung BD-P1500, and among all of the standalone players we've tested, only the LG BH200 loaded discs as quickly as the DMP-BD50. Of course, the PS3 is still the speed champ, and we're constantly frustrated by how unresponsive standalone players feel in comparison.
Profile 1.1 is for PiP commentary, etc. Profile 2.0 is completely different. That's for Internet connectivity. (way cooler with much more potential than PiP IMHO) Too bad you didn't utilize some of the neater features like community screenings and chat on your HD DVD player. Some people think it's just a spam port for trailers and sales. Err... The spam port is Disney preventing you from easily skipping their old *** trailers on Blu-Ray discs.
