Thanks for the leads! I perused both NewEgg and Tiger, but neither could beat what I found between Amazon & Costco at the moment for these particular items. I'm starting to wonder if I can last the summer on my son's computer and wait for Windows 8 and Ivy Bridge. But barring that remote possibility:

Both the Asus & the Toshiba have reliable two year warranties, i7 2.2 GHz and 17.3" screens, 8GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1TB HD, and supposedly great audio, weigh 7.5 lbs. and cost ~$1,300 (still more than a grand less than my current Dell doorstop). This is kind of the range that my cost/benefit scales find a sweet spot. Have you savvy shoppers seen comparable units for less?

Differences:
Asus has a Blu-Ray burner. The Toshiba does not.
Asus screen is 1920 x 1080, Toshiba 1600x 900.
Toshiba has the GTX 560M 1.5GB, The Asus has GT 555M 2GB (GPU's are a sensitive subject at the moment).
What do you think matters more in these differences when considering that I do a fair bit of non-HD video editing?

I'm not crazy about the red look of the Toshiba, but there's also some negative scuttlebut about the Asus keyboard layout. Neither of these is a deal-breaker for me.