Toshiba drops HD DVD MSRP, effective 4/1/07
At just about the one year anniversary of the format war, it looks like Toshiba is throwing the next punch. HD DVD will be one step closer to that magic price point of $299, with that latest update of the MSRP of their HD DVD players. According to a few retailers at the AVSFroum on April 1st Toshiba will change the MSRP and the least expensive model; the A2 will now have an MSRP of $399. The A2 isn't the only model with a new price, as the other two models see a drop as well, the A20 will be $499 and finally the high end model, the XA2 for $799. So if price was the only thing stopping you from getting in the HD DVD game and the Xbox360 add-on just isn't your style, then now might just be the time. Of course some of you will still be waiting for the $600 Blu-ray player instead.
[Thanks, WiFiSpy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zombieflanders @ Mar 20th 2007 11:12AM
They're getting their asses handed to them in movie sales (Sony will issue a press release with some huge figures very soon), and even at a claimed 1/2 price advantage, they're not moving software.
I really don't see how this will help all that much. Almost their entire April/May slate of exclusives is box office failures and odd catalog choices, and they're up against both POTC films. If Casino Royale is any indication, those two alone could outsell every HD DVD disc sold for either month, if not both.
zombieflanders @ Mar 20th 2007 11:15AM
Oh, and I should also point out that with that 1/2 price advantage mentioned above, monthly standalone sales (i.e., not counting PS3 or 360 addon) were equal for at least one month. So, the price advantage isn't doing much, if anything.
Larry @ Mar 20th 2007 11:20AM
Good news to hear from the HD DVD camp. If this turns out to be true the barrier to entry is lowering everyday.
Alex @ Mar 20th 2007 12:59PM
ignore zombieflanders, he is a Sony fanboy just as bad as Dave.
These price cuts are a great move. BluRay is finally sellings movies, but yet HD DVD still far outranks them in sales of standalone players. So obviously if the content was out there BluRay would be struggling much more. When BluRay finally has a decent competitive player (features, price) then we will have a contest.
Until the PS3 upconverts and goes down in price, there isn't much of one.
zombieflanders @ Mar 20th 2007 1:18PM
"ignore zombieflanders, he is a Sony fanboy just as bad as Dave."
I have facts and evidence to back up my statements. What about you? Oh, it's all opinion? Well okay then.
"So obviously if the content was out there BluRay would be struggling much more. "
It's already been proven that Blu-ray maintains or improves their sales on equal release dates. Just check the ratio/weekly sales for the weeks of 1/16, 2/28, and 3/11. Or check out the sales of discs that came out on both formats, where BD outsells the HD DVD version by at least 50%.
By all means, Alex, show me any actual facts that support your argument.
Bob Meridian @ Mar 20th 2007 1:16PM
Looks like another act of desperation. They would have better luck with giving away 10 free HD-DVDs.
Blubaru @ Mar 20th 2007 1:18PM
Sorry to burst your bubble Alex but Blu-ray has outsold HD-DVD in Standalones si as well.
HD Tom @ Mar 20th 2007 1:27PM
I'm waiting myself for the $299-and-under player, but it has to be in combination w/ one format winning! I won't even waste $300 on a player, when my upconverter is fine for now. Someone has to win. Maybe below $200, I would take a chance on one or the other, as I could live w/ possibly wasting that down the line, but not more!! It all will come down to content, though, it appears. Eventually, Blu-Ray prices will fall enough to the point they are competitive w/ HDDVD players. If at that point, Blu-Ray still dominates the content, then game over, Blu-Ray wins! If HDDVD can upgrade the content by having studios adopt their format before Blu-Ray prices drop far enough, game over, HDDVD wins.
I really have stopped caring! I just want one to win already!
Scott @ Mar 20th 2007 1:48PM
Are they dropping their prices or having a going out of business sale?
Blubaru @ Mar 20th 2007 2:06PM
Sometimes I just dont understand Toshiba. They must have known coming into this that their chances of success were very low. Did they not understand that their chances of loosing a lot of money and having their format fail were far grater than the chances of their format succeeding.
If sure their investors and stockholders are pulling their hair out now because of this.
andy @ Mar 20th 2007 2:07PM
Until either camp is selling a full blown, full featured (1080p plus codecs), BUG FREE player for 199, does it really matter what either one of them does?
I predict the format winner (i.e., most disks sold and most money made) for the next three years to be DVD.
Joe_T @ Mar 20th 2007 2:44PM
I don't care who wins, although I lean towards Toshiba because I hate Sony. But my approach is I'm not buying either until one of them comes out with an affordable HD recorder with a good size hard disc. I wanna timeshift some baseball and football games in HD, and the movies don't really matter to me.
hmurchison @ Mar 20th 2007 3:43PM
The desperation is a bunch of Blu-trolls employing the skill they do best. Viral Marketing. I'm convinced that Zombieflanders is paid by Sony to market Blu-ray every chance he gets. Notice that it's either he or Dave in EVERY HD DVD thread. If he didn't care or worry about HD DVD he'd not waste his time. Next we have Blubaru who never backs up his statements with anything substantive. Please show me where Blu-ray standalones have overtaken HD DVD please. The only data I see is that the A2 on Amazon is still selling in the top 200 of Electronics. Right now it's ranked #133. The Samsung BD-P100 is ranked #941. Please show me where these magical Blu-ray standalone sales are coming from because one of the largest retailers in the world has data that shows otherwise.
I'll grant you that the software numbers are correct. Umm let me see.
1. HD DVD has little new releases in Q1 2007
2. Blu-ray has over twice the releases and pays for a %50 Amazon sale
April is looking pretty good for releases from both platforms Blu-ray doesn't have anything substantial until May with PotC and Cars in June. The PS3 used to be a great deal but now even it's cheapest player will be $200 than a HD DVD player. That's a lot money and consumer will think long and hard about coughing up $200 more for Blu-ray.
zombieflanders @ Mar 20th 2007 3:57PM
"I'm convinced that Zombieflanders is paid by Sony to market Blu-ray every chance he gets."
The hilarity of this statement coming from an ADMITTED TOSHIBA REP is enormous. I'd be more than welcome to have the admins of this site check my background in person were they to ask.
George @ Mar 20th 2007 5:00PM
Um, you can get a bluray player for $499 from amazon now (Samsung BD-P1000), or the better BD-P1200 for $660...no need to wait for sony's $600 player.
KissTheRing @ Mar 20th 2007 5:06PM
Awesome, price is the main reason I got the HD DVD add on for my 360. Sure Blu-ray holds more data but both have plenty of room for a full 1080p movie. Plus I like the audio potential of HD DVD better than BR. So maybe Blu-ray can win out on storing data for your computer but for movies I'm rooting for HD DVD simply because the hardware is cheaper and the movies look just as good sound better on high end audio equipment.
polyh3dron @ Mar 21st 2007 9:04AM
KissTheRing: You mentioned being more interested in HDDVD's audio features than Blu-Ray's, and you also mentioned that you have the Xbox 360 add-on. This is wrong in so many ways.
First, HDDVD players are required to decode Dolby TrueHD lossless audio which is always at 16-bit/5.1 channels. The catch is that due to HDDVD's low bitrate limit, it's very tough to implement lossless audio without taking a picture quality hit. There are very few HDDVDs available that actually have Dolby TrueHD audio streams also. The Blu-Ray exclusive studios almost ALWAYS put completely uncompressed PCM audio tracks on their releases and sometimes they are 24-bit as well.
Although you may be interested in HDDVD's limited audio "features", you won't be able to experience them. The Xbox 360 can only output in Dolby Digital 5.1 (the lossy version) so you will never be able to hear those Dolby TrueHD audio tracks with your current HDDVD player.
humpty @ Mar 20th 2007 8:32PM
Its funny how they boasted about the sales of the 360 HD-DVD addon when it was first released.... now.. nothing at all. All the people waiting for have gotten theirs, and there's no else who wants them.
GhostDoggy @ Mar 21st 2007 5:15AM
Considering that many reported the A2 having pooer pq video results than the A1 it replaced, I wouldn't be surprised if this is nothing more than a 'lets move inventory' until the A3 comes out--a rebadged A1. Not advocating one format or another and neither have a bare minimum of titles I am interested in. They both lose in that department.
Tauron @ Mar 23rd 2007 12:43AM
You can get the XA2 from amazon for $599 now. Also, the A20 is avaialble from valueelectronics.com (pre-order of course) for $449. It'll be available on
April 4th, 2007. And you can bet that prices will continue to drop.
The "war" is far from over.
WTF @ Mar 24th 2007 11:49PM
Have you people ever hear of supply and demand? Demand is at an all time low therefore Toshiba is dropping it's prices in the faint hope that sales will pick up. Stupid people might bite but a 399$ door stop is still a door stop. I wouldn't pick up an HD-DVD unless it's in a liquidation bin for 99$ and I would then use it as a DVD player (I should be able to do this by mid-2008).
HD-DVD is dead... they just don't know it yet.
Me @ Mar 25th 2007 12:52PM
After months of reading about both format, I've finally bought HD-DVD player and it is great. Both sound and picture quality is suberb even when I play my standard DVD movies. I'd fully recommend it. Having seen the improvement in picture quality of my old DVDs, I'm glad I didn't pay twice as much to buy BR player!
HDMike @ Mar 25th 2007 8:19PM
The format war is far from over folks. Below are some points to chew on...
MOVIE STUDIO SUPPORT
Folks must bear in mind that most of the studios have provided non-binding support to one format or the other. In lay terms, they can sell movies in any format that they choose. HD DVD players are already far cheaper than stand-alone Blue Ray players and appreciably cheaper than PS3's (which Sony loses several hundred dollars per player on). If Toshiba maintains this player price advantage and their sales figures continue to rise, then the movie studios will start releasing HD DVD films or dual format films.
The running total of released movies isn't all that different at this point...
HD DVD 163 vs Blu-ray 188
PS3 DUAL-USE
A large percentage of the population doesn't give a damn about video games. Why would someone purchase a PS3 for $600 when all they care about is watching movies? It is less intimidating to setup a stand-alone DVD player than it is a gaming console. The gaming community is propping up BR says right now, but wait a while and see which technology is adopted by the non-gaming and perhaps less technology savvy crowd -- the cheaper player!
MEDIA CAPACITY ARGUMENT
Both media already offer adequate capacity for HD video and audio. The extra features that can be crammed onto the Blue Ray media aren't a big selling point; at least not yet.
It is also important to note that the majority (~70%) of BR movie titles are single layer discs (25GB), while the vast majority (~90%) of HD DVD releases are dual layer (30GB).
A dual layer two-sided HD DVD already offers 60GB of capacity. That is ample to offer all sorts of options that would not require a mid-movie disc flip (e.g. different resolutions on each side).
Lastly, at the 2007 CES show, Toshiba announced that they have demonstrated a 51GB per side (102GB for two-sided discs) HD DVD media by implementing 3 layers. If you didn't think 60GB was quite enough, how does 102GB strike you? Not enough? Well, media company Ritek is developing 10 layer HD-DVD media with a single sided capacity of 150GB. Still not enough? Well, you must be drinking the Sony Kool Aid.
SONY'S FORMAT TRACK RECORD
It's very abysmal..
1. Betamax (dead)
2. Minidisc (dead)
3. SACD (dying)
4. UMD (universal media disc -- PSP movie format)
The war of the PS3 effect vs lower priced players isn't over. When mainstream America starts adopting HD en mass, which technology will they grab? Quite possibly the cheaper one. As I said at the beginning, it's far from over people.
Monty @ Apr 11th 2007 11:53PM
Blu-Ray is winning week to week now. It was hard for me to make my decision but I am going to go with the one that has more exclusive movies. I considered to going the cheap way and getting the 360 add-on but it got poor reviews. I don't think being cheaper will automatically attract buyers. It is something they will look into because it's a new format.