THIS FRIDAY! Toshiba HD DVD player $98.87!

[gigapixels Veteran]

CC does 110% price match! Confirmed!

Being as I used to work for Circuit City I'll tell you right now that won't work because the store you're matching is supposed to have it in stock at a location within 50 miles, that is if the CC store you go to follows the rules.

Now if we're talking about Wal-mart... There's a chance that you could get it to work, however why do that when you can just go to Wal-mart anyway?

[sn00pie]

If you are not excited that you can get a A HIGH DEFINITION PLAYER for $99 with 7 movies then I'm not really sure what does excite you!

This is HUGE! 2 biggest retailers getting into price wars. I'm excited so is everyone else. IT'S GREAT DAY FOR HD DVD and finally we are very close to ending this. The only people who have problems with big letters and the reality of the situation as I can see everywhere are Blu-Ray fans.

Don't worry, you can STILL sell your PS3 now and cover some losses. I mean I blew $600 too on PS3, but it's all good. I'm not going mad, neither should you.

Even I won't deny it, this could seriously be the start of perhaps the end. I'm a BD owner and you could say supporter, but even you know that I've always understood and accepted your points on HD DVD. Sometimes I wished I had bought a 360 instead. :cry:

Nonetheless, this won't kill BD. I hope.

If I remember rightly thats the premium model which supports 1080p, the HD-A2 dosn't, only supports upto 1080i, theres probably more little differences here and there which I don't know about and probably arn't really that important :p 1080p is the main one.

So a 1080p HD DVD player is the same price as a 1080p BD player, which everyone overlooks. But the cheap 1080i player gets all the attention because it's way cheaper then the BD players. A little injustice perhaps?

Don't worry, I know 1080i and 1080p is pretty much the same graphic wise.

[Ianwoollam]

So a 1080p HD DVD player is the same price as a 1080p BD player, which everyone overlooks. But the cheap 1080i player gets all the attention because it's way cheaper then the BD players. A little injustice perhaps?

I wouldn't have said so myself, I mean everyone's overlooking the more expensive HD-DVD player too, they just like the idea of a cheap High Def player! If Blu-Ray themselfs decided to make a cheaper 1080i unit I'm sure people would be going nuts like this too...

[Sheppard]

If you are not excited that you can get a A HIGH DEFINITION PLAYER for $99 with 7 movies then I'm not really sure what does excite you!

This is HUGE! 2 biggest retailers getting into price wars. I'm excited so is everyone else. IT'S GREAT DAY FOR HD DVD and finally we are very close to ending this. The only people who have problems with big letters and the reality of the situation as I can see everywhere are Blu-Ray fans.

Don't worry, you can STILL sell your PS3 now and cover some losses. I mean I blew $600 too on PS3, but it's all good. I'm not going mad, neither should you.

Talk about desperate, chopping the price by a huge margin after everyone has gone out and spent $300+ on a HD DVD player as well as GIVING AWAY 7 movies, it smacks desperation, HD DVD is losing the war and its scrambling to hold on to what little it has left.

I dont see how anyone can be excited about a dying format in its death throes.

Also why would someone go and sell their PS3 just because theres a cheap HD DVD player? i thought the PS3 was a games console?

Talk about blatent bias, do you work for the HD DVD group?

[Ianwoollam]

Talk about desperate, chopping the price by a huge margin after everyone has gone out and spent $300+ on a HD DVD player as well as GIVING AWAY 7 movies, it smacks desperation, HD DVD is losing the war and its scrambling to hold on to what little it has left.

I dont see how anyone can be excited about a dying format in its death throes.

I wouldn't say it was dying either, I mean only recently Paramount/Dreamworks have gone HD-DVD exclusive, do you think a company that big would decide to back a dying format no matter how much money was thrown at them? The system looks exacly the same as Blu-Ray, and Toshiba are taking a different approach to get more HD units into houses, and this seems like a very good approach to me!

Also the HD-A3 is around the corner, so Toshiba will be wanting to get rid of old stock.

Edited November 2, 2007 by Ianwoollam

[Danrarbc]

A3 is already being sold, it's on the shelf already at my local Wal-mart (they're holding the A2 for this sale)

[DrCheese]

I dont see how anyone can be excited about a dying format in its death throes.

I thought the same, this smacks of companies trying to dump stock as quick as they can.

Also, HD-DVD is already ahead in stand alone sales but its not exactly proving much good at this point

There is no way anyone is making a profit on this, someone is losing massive amounts of money over this.

Quote -

from Blu-Ray forums: I'm not so sure Blu will win. As of 13 minutes ago, Warner is no longer part of the BDA

erm no, Warners BDA membership was due to expire, information about them renewing it or not has been released. Just because they've not said anything or issued a "press release" does not mean they have left the BDA.

Also they seem to be pretty committed towards blu-ray at the moment, probally helps that 300 is outselling the hd-dvd version

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/War...D_by_2_to_1/848

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/whic...fat-stupid-lie/

Not to mention the comments of a warner VP at a blu-ray event recently

http://www.tvpredictions.com/bluwarner103007.htm - Granted he was at a BD conference and unlikely to say anything against it, but still.

Of course this is a good thing for HD-DVD, Ultra low prices is a good thing and it will force the BDA to respond in kind. I realise you are a heavy heavy support of HD-DVD, but please don't overblow this and say "the format war is over" because it isn't. Why on Earth would I rush out and sell my PS3 just because a rival player is cheaper? I'd miss out on releases like the Die Hard films on BD, the simpsons movie and potc3 which are due out soon.

[jerzdawg]

just picked mine up from walmart... pretty good crowd there by 7:45... most of them picking up the Acer laptop.... they had about 10 hd-dvd players... all of them gone before i checked out... my sony only does 1080i and i needed a upconverting anyway... going to put up my xbox hd player on ebay... hopefully can get back $75

[spedanden]

Just got one. Walked in at 7:45... grabbed one and Big Lebowski for 15 bux, walked out. No one else there. Suprising.

[DrCheese]

No one else there. Suprising.

yeah, the market for HD players in general is pretty small at the moment, firstly you need to have a HDTV and even then some HDTV users find watching DVD's no problem so don't feel the need for a HD player. Possibly why the que wasn't that large.

As much of a blu-ray cheerleader I am at times, I'd probably buy this if it was equally priced here (Would be about ?50 if it was converted correctly, but no doubt they would just say ?99) just for star trek HD alone....

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

So a 1080p HD DVD player is the same price as a 1080p BD player, which everyone overlooks. But the cheap 1080i player gets all the attention because it's way cheaper then the BD players. A little injustice perhaps?

the A20 and A30 both support 1080p and, afaik, are both cheaper than any BD player out there.

in other news... I bought the A2 this morning. There were still 13 units when I checked out. Most people were there for either the laptop or something else. Only 2 others had the A2 in hand.

that brings me to my next question... this still qualifies for the 5 free HD-DVDs by mail right? Was Wal-Mart offering 2 free movies too like BB? I was in a rush to get to work this morning so I didnt stick around to find out.

[TruckWEB]

the A20 and A30 both support 1080p and, afaik, are both cheaper than any BD player out there.

Here, the A-30 is $449 and the new PS3/40Gb is $399. So BD player cost less than 1080p HD-DVD player.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

ah... well it's significantly different in the US. A30 is $330 on Pricegrabber vs. PS3 at $399.

can anyone confirm/deny the 2 free movies at Wal-Mart like theyre doing at BB right now?

[giantpotato]

ah... well it's significantly different in the US. A30 is $330 on Pricegrabber vs. PS3 at $399.

can anyone confirm/deny the 2 free movies at Wal-Mart like theyre doing at BB right now?

Of if you're in the US and want a Blu-Ray player this is one hell of a deal. Even cheaper than the PS3.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/487442830

$389 with free shipping and 8 free Blu-Ray movies.

(I was considering writing that in red in huge capital letters, but I don't get as excited about this stuff as certain other people.)

1080p

HDMI v1.3

Picture-In-Picture

Ethernet

BD-Java

The price wars are beginning.

[HawkMan]

of course at 4 times the price, it wasn't that eciteable either.

[Ayepecks]

I went to THREE Walmarts... missed it at EACH ONE barely. The first only had one for some reason, and it was 7:30 or so and they went ahead and sold it to the guy who had it... so I drove to another one and saw people getting the last ones at 8:10 or so... then drove to a third one and the guy said they sold out quick.

I think I'm going to try one more and call it a day.

[gigapixels Veteran]

YES! I got to mine at about 7:50 and there were only two left. Seems there was a crowd waiting so they just decided to start selling them. I got worried because I saw one guy walk out with two as I was walking in, but I got one so I'm happy.

Too bad the $15 movies didn't interest me at all :/

I'll just have to pick up a few at regular price from Circuit City later today.

[asmallvictory]

Yea, I went to a huge WalMart in my area. They had a crate with 30+ of them and they were all gone by 8:10AM. I got there at about 8:05 so I was last in line. People must have started lining up at 6:30AM or so. A couple of people were buying 2 and 3 so I was kinda ****ed, so I never did get mine. There were about 100 people there. I then called two others and they were both sold out as well.

Yesterday I hit up BestBuy and they said they were all sold out in all of Western Washington except maybe some rural stores.

So much for me getting these at $99 any time soon. I'll be watching eBay like a hawk the next few weeks. They are down to $150 after shipping there.

Ethan

[+Warwagon MVC]

I went there at 7:50am and the managers said they just found out about the sale, so they had to go back and get them. So at about 8:10 they brought them out on the cart, there was probably about 10 - 15 of them, and I was the only one waiting for them. There was no crowd no nothing.

One word of warning, the player does not come with an HDMI cable or even an RGB, just your standard composite with audio

on top of that Wal-Mart rapes you up the ass on the price of HDMI at about $10 per foot. Where you can get a 10 foot at Newegg for $12

I guess over all I’m a little bit disappointed about the HDVD player, I bought transformers and after reading the transformers review and the way people here have been talking up the quality of HD DVD players I was expecting 2x the quality of an HD DVD movies I download online that only come in at 4 gigs. I really can't see a difference at all, the audio is great, but no different than the audio of the HD movie I download, I think so far I’m more impressed from an HD download of House season 4 episode 1, that takes up the entire screen, transformers doesn't even take up the entire screen

Edited November 2, 2007 by warwagon

[asmallvictory]

Damn. Lucky you warwagon. I think I am out of luck here in the Seattle area.

[soniqstylz]

I'll admit this is a great deal for consumers, but how many of these are going to be in stock? Retailers have been known to advertise items for well below cost just to get people into the door, then only have a few of them in stock. It's my understanding that the HD-A2's are no longer being produced, so when they're gone, they're gone for good.

According to a friend I have at Sears, there's 30,000 of them nationwide.

This is essentially a fire-sale to get rid of stock for the A-3.

[DrCheese]

I saw one guy walk out with two

That's just wrong, they should have had a "one per customer" thing like they do over here in some stores when they do offers like this. Granted its not hard for them to just get a family member in the que behind them but still.

[Ayepecks]

I tried 3 more Walmarts... nothing :(

[jerzdawg]

I guess over all I?m a little bit disappointed about the HDVD player, I bought transformers and after reading the transformers review and the way people here have been talking up the quality of HD DVD players I was expecting 2x the quality of an HD DVD movies I download online that only come in at 4 gigs. I really can't see a difference at all, the audio is great, but no different than the audio of the HD movie I download, I think so far I?m more impressed from an HD download of House season 4 episode 1, that takes up the entire scretransformers doesn't even take up the entire screen

you do understand that has nothing to do with hd-dvd right?.... that all depends on the aspect ratio the original film was recorded in

[HawkMan]

TV series are filmed in 16:9 format as they are mean for tv.

Movies, wich are shot for the big screen, are filmed in a different aspect, a much wider one.

That's why a lot of widescreen DVD/HD-DVD/BluRay movies still have black bars on widescreen TV's.

I have yet to be as impressed by TV series in HD, even at 720p, as I have been by movies though. TV series may be shot in HD, but they don't have he clarity and fidelity that the HD movies do. Not by a long shot.