Sub-$200 HD DVD players just around the bend?
A standalone HD DVD player for less than two Benjamins? From a manufacturer that we've heard of? We've been waiting for that day for some time now, and while there have certainly been wild claims by less popular foreign outfits and even price hiccups that have paired certain players with a (temporary) sub-$200 pricetag, it's about time for entry-level units on the whole to settle beneath the barrier. If a number of reports circling the web are true, we just might see it happen in the not-too-distant future, which isn't all that shocking considering how HD DVD player prices have been (expectedly) falling in recent months. Apparently, a $198 Toshiba HDA2-W has been noticed in Wal-Mart systems, and you won't color us surprised if it's joined by a few other name brand alternatives in time for the holiday rush. Of course, it remains to be seen if buyers will be willing to forgo the extras that higher-end units are blessed with in order to simply have a player that understands HD DVD, but historically speaking, money talks (the loudest).[Via PCWorld, thanks Nigel M.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jack @ Oct 18th 2007 1:22PM
Yah HD DVD supporters have been saying this whole "wait until hd dvd players come out" and it keeps happening....Next they will be saying "wait until 150 hd dvd players"
Dave @ Oct 18th 2007 2:59PM
I don't know what you're talking about. Stand-alone HD DVD players are already beating stadn-alone Blu-Ray players.
h4ldol @ Oct 18th 2007 1:28PM
YAWN. Another 1080i cheapo Toshiba that can only decode 2 channel TrueHD, can't do DTS-HD MA at all, will have problems playing 1080p/24, will have compatibility problems with combo discs, will have the same old 1 1/2 minute start up time, the same old clunky, laggy functioning, etc. Great news for Joe 6-pack though, since J6P thinks he's watching HD if uses an HDMI cable on his DVD player.
Dave @ Oct 18th 2007 2:35PM
YAWN. Another uninformed and moronic post from h4ldol.
Jeff @ Oct 18th 2007 3:13PM
DUDE give it a friggin rest!!!!!!
Smee @ Oct 18th 2007 8:39PM
@H4Idol
Thank god your on the blu team as your posts have moved past stupendously ridiculous and are approaching the point of the mentally retarded.
You are an embarrassment to your team so, keep up the good work :)
Smee @ Oct 18th 2007 9:50PM
@H4Idol
Wow, so how do you ever see Joe 6 pack buying blu ray then?
If he is as stupid as you say he is, he's not going to pay twice as much for blu ray then is he?
Another quality post from H4IpullTwiceDaily
Interested Watcher @ Oct 18th 2007 2:19PM
Yup, sub $200 is here now, months before X-mas.
Just watch the $149 HD DVD shift this X-mas.
....and as the Chinese CH-DVD (identical to HD DVD except for a logo on the casing & a firmeware) production gets going and spawns cheaper component prices & new cheaper HD DVD brands - it'll get even less expensive.
$100 by Easter 2008?
Chaz @ Oct 18th 2007 2:26PM
Jack: what in the world are you talking about? HD-DVD players have BEEN out. And how can u bitch about features when the Blu-Ray association hasn't even finalized their standards yet? A bit of hypocricy eh?
This is the target price point we've all been waiting for. Now we'll finally see the High-Def market share start to shift... to somewhere above 2% after this holiday season, and it's thanks to who? Yes, HD-DVD.
Angus_rg @ Oct 18th 2007 2:27PM
Great if it is true. If I had a nickle for every inside story we heard that never happened I'd be rich. I'm still waiting on the Warner Bros dropping BR to come true, which, with the newly announced BR releases doesn't appear to be happening.
Interested Watcher @ Oct 18th 2007 2:28PM
h4ldol
the player is 720p/1080i (like the overwhelming majority of all HD TV's out there) and you want to pretend to complain about 108op/24!?
....and 'only' Dolby Digital + is a big let-down to anyone but a tiny handful is it?
LMAO
ryan @ Oct 18th 2007 3:35PM
I totally agree with you Interested Watcher!
I like my nice equipment but honestly, I don't care about any of the higher end audio codecs nor p24.
The normal consumer doesn't care about it either...
h4Idol sucks @ Oct 18th 2007 3:19PM
h4Idol you are officially becoming the most worthless person on the internet. Have you ever posted anything that without blu glasses on? This post is officailly worthless......just like you!
domerdel @ Oct 18th 2007 3:50PM
h4Idol:
Okay most ppl know i'm a blu-ray support, but seriously, you're making us look dumb. I'll read a post about an HD TV mounting bracket, and I'll hear something about how HD-DVD sucks, and blu-ray is way better.
MAK1981 @ Oct 18th 2007 4:23PM
HAHAHAHA.... God, that's good. h4 needs to get a girl... or a willing barnyard animal....
joe @ Oct 18th 2007 6:33PM
This will make a good paper showing on the HD format war. If they shift even just a million units for the holiday it will make a good statistical showing. If they do sell a million units the HD-DVD attach rate should drop dramatically also.
It's not so important that the player is $199 dollars rather it's important that the player is for sale in Walmart. It'll be interesting to see how Walmart plays this since they are issuing market guidance that there are having issues with customers being broke and sales staff not caring. They have had a very difficult time upselling their customers on any more than the basics. If they rally behind HD-DVD and make it a pivot point they could make a corporate turnaround.
If they continue to be short staffed and leave staff undereducated on the bigger ticket items, walmart and HD-DVD will both suffer a consumer wrath.
Michael @ Oct 19th 2007 7:45AM
@Joe - I don't know if you've been in a MegaWalMart lately but they have completely revamped their A/V sections. They've actually got some fairly attractive yet inexpensive furniture designed specifically for HD. They've also got a row of wall mounted LCDs in varying sizes and are also setting up their mini-islands up in the center of the main aisles with smaller LCD sets & accessories. WalMart is definitely "in the game" as it were when it comes to riding the market and HD is no exception.
Now, everything you say is also true, meaning ask a sales person a question and good luck getting a correct answer (or even one CLOSE to correct). The same goes for finding most quality brands there, good luck on that one too. Unfortunately, most of the people that shop there aren't looking for specific features, brands or even product information. I doubt that very many of them would even ASK a sales person question besides "do I pick this up here or up front?" A sub-$200 HD player makes perfect sense in a situation like that. I bet they will sell a ton of them - if only because they've got so many freaking locations to sell from.
On the plus side, if WalMart starts selling HD-DVD players that cheap, doesn't it also make some sense that they will have to by necessity have to start selling the HD-DVDs to support those players AND start selling them at a discount??? This fact alone may end up being the proverbial nail in the coffin for BD. Once this mass merchant starts selling a wide variety of HD titles at reasonable prices, that's going to spur both production and catalog title issue to a faster pace and prices will come down even faster. The ripple effect from all of this is going to end up being tremendous.
If I were Sony, I'd be shaking in my BOOTS right now!!!
MrBigglesworth @ Oct 18th 2007 9:00PM
I love the people griping about a player that doesnt support all the super high end features.
You have a weird disconect about you.
Someone buying a sub $200 player isnt going to have a receiver that will do more than vanilla DD / DTS 5.1 in the first place.
Jeff @ Oct 18th 2007 9:39PM
Too bad there is nothing particularly special about a $200 HD or a $400 Blu-Ray at this point that a $50 upconvert DVD doesn't do.
Smee @ Oct 19th 2007 12:29AM
Nothing particularly special OTHER then play HD movies!
TrentD @ Oct 19th 2007 10:19AM
Other than play glorious 1080p video, provide next generation special features (well the HD DVD Player, anyway), and next-generation DD+ and TrueHD audio (HD DVD again)
Mike @ Oct 19th 2007 2:36AM
DD??? 5.1? I was going to coment that when I do get a HD DVD player...I will normaly be listening thru tv speakers as I won't want to wake my 3yr old (maybe 4 by then)...and if I do get to use the reciever...it's a sony 4ch surround sound vhs combo unit i got on clearance at wards many years ago.
Not everyone needs loseless audio or true hd audio.
joe @ Oct 19th 2007 3:50PM
@Michael - I actually do not live near a Walmart so I haven't seen inside one in a few years.
I've been mainly going on the corporate guidance given to investors. I know that walmart has been stocking higher class items than there typical fare but has had a great issue getting customers to but them. Target has had much better success in this case.
There needs to be a strategy to the discounts offered. Typically DVD's have offered at great discounts to get customers in the store and buy other items at a high markup. It wouldn't make much sense to cut the rate on HD TV's, HD-DVD players AND media. Even at cheap rates that is near $1000 those consumers aren't going to be buying much else.They need to sell a fat profit margin item to those people at some point in the same shopping transaction.
BD vd HD-DVD is becoming the Walmart vs Target war as well. When February rolls around who will be in the red and who will be in the black?
Jeff @ Oct 19th 2007 11:36AM
Still not much difference. But feel free to fanboy on by spending too much on a player and $30 bucks a movie.
ryan @ Oct 19th 2007 2:07PM
Jeff,
If you did an accurate side-by-side comparison or even an A/B test you would change your tune.
I have a samsung upconverting DVD player that does a decent job other than the crappy remote hooked to my TV with a DVI cable. In that I had a copy of King Kong.
I have an xbox 360 with addon HD-DVD hooked up with component cables, in that is a copy of HD-DVD king kong. The chapters were broken identically on both discs so I could change chapters and watch the exact same scene just by switching inputs with the touch of a button. The clarity, color and detail was amazing on HD-DVD whereas the picture was just drab by comparison on DVD.
You can say upconverting will suffice all you want but you're kidding yourself.
Taking a native 640x480 picture and enlarging it to 3200x2400 does not give you the same picture quality as a native 3200x2400.
Fredster @ Oct 19th 2007 11:51AM
I really don't think an audiophile is really looking for a sub $200 player, as well as J6P ain't looking for a high-end player either. If you have a 720P TV and no fancy audio system, i'm sure the sub $200 will be just fine!!
Jeff @ Oct 19th 2007 4:34PM
I am not saying that HD or blu ray isn't better than upconvert, but its just not worth it at this point. As i said, its not the same as the difference between analogue tv and hd. Although an SD true widescreen signal isn't that bad on an "HD" channel. No I am not advocating stretch o vision, nor am I advocating putting hte HD logo on the bottom when it isnt HD programming.
west99 @ Nov 6th 2007 9:19AM
Picked up a Toshiba HD-A2 for $98 at Circuit City. Connected it to my Epson 76c XGA projector via component, used optical connection into my reciever, used ethernet to tie it into the web for extra content, and I am happy as a clam. Easy, no fuss, and WOW!
Understand folks, this format "war" will be won by the likes of me, not high-end techno junkies. Remember beta vs. vhs? Who won?
HD DVD, for both sound and image improvement, is HUGE compared to DVD. And a regular joe like me thinks it was $100 well spent. Opinions are opions, nothing more. Mass market appeal, that is where the war will be won. Is Blue Ray better? Don't really care. HD over 480i, for less than a $100, has won me over.