When it comes to remotes, some of us here at EngadgetHD are partial to Logitech's Harmony models. The concept of "activity based" remote configuration and automation is a good one; even though we criticize Harmony, it's because we see potential, not because we're haters. Here's a criticism we have: issuing a laundry list of commands to switch activities is slow, and one thing users don't enjoy is maintaining a line of sight between the remote and the equipment rack while it issues all those commands. RF is a solution, but it's only available at the top of the Harmony lineup. Enter the Next Generation Remote Control Extender. It's a bit of kit that will "RF-ize" your standard IR remote (not just Harmony remotes); and we're big fans of "izing!"

The biggest surprise here, is that the "no sh** Sherlock" reaction to the delay of Sony's Playstation 3 has already been trumped twice in two days. We can't decide if this is more obvious than Microsoft's so-predictable Windows Vista delay (yep, they're still Microsoft), but Toshiba has decided to wait to ship their HD-DVD player until there are actually HD-DVD movies to play on them. Now this is where you show how surprised you are, don't worry, we'll wait.

Ready? Ok, although Toshiba has not announced a new date, Warner expects to have titles on store shelves April 18th, so through the power of the cosmos, telekinesis and Google, we predict we'll see players.....April 18th. Sometimes we surprise ourselves with our abilities.

The next gen DVD announcements keep on coming, this time we've got the list of titles annonunced by Warner Home Video for Blu-ray and HD-DVD, dates for the HD-DVD releases, none yet for Blu-ray. One title jumps out at me, Unforgiven. Only because I recall seeing For a Few Dollars more on Sony's Blu-ray release list. I love Westerns, but I didn't know they were in such high demand in high definition (or else I wouldn't have already bought so many boxed sets *sob*).

Other than how quickly I'll be buying Swordfish in every high definition format available, other questions remaining include what kind of extras we can expect to see on either or both formats and how much it will cost us.

Check after the jump for the full list for both.

Who needs blue lasers? Not New Medium Enterprises or Beijing e-world, as they have announced they will be showing off a combo EVD/VMD player at next year's CeBit in germany. Amazingly, while Blu-ray and HD-DVD continue to fight in the streets over who has the birthright to the high definition throne, a little collaboration could be a big boost to two other formats.

EVD (Enhanced versatile disc) is a Chinese backed format that has produced very little since being originally announced in 2003, but promised high definition DVD's with standard red laser technology.

VMD (Versatile Multilayer disc) is a new format pushed by NME, where they say they can increase the storage of a standard red-laser DVD, by adding additional layers, all the way up to 100GB storage (theoretically).

Could all this Blu-ray/HD-DVD posturing be for naught? If these companies can get any studio support and cheap but high quality (MPEG-2 apparently) high definition DVD's on store shelves before the big guys get traction.......2006 will be an interesting year.  Read on for the full press release.