HD DVD holding its value in Dominican Republic

by Darren Murph, posted May 1st 2008 at 9:14PM

Although Best Buy was purging its stores of HD DVD titles months ago, it seems the dream is still alive in the Dominican Republic. Thanks to snapshots taken by a tipster who recently vacationed there, we get a real good look at what kind of premium the Toshiba HD-A3 (11,999 Dominican pesos, or around $353) is still pulling in. Even weirder? The only Blu-ray player in attendance was a PlayStation 3 (going for around $550). Either we've just hit the twilight zone, or folks move really slow in paradise.

[Thanks, Dennis]

Gallery: HD DVD holding its value in Dominican Republic

Filed under: Industry, Misc, HD DVD, Players, Toshiba

Tags: comedy, Dominican, Dominican republic, DominicanRepublic, hd-a3, toshiba

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

notorious @ May 1st 2008 9:40PM

It's not that they move slow in paradise, it's that big companies love to unload left over stock in third world countries

Neutral

Ken @ May 1st 2008 10:49PM

Yea for the third world!

Neutral

Alaim @ May 7th 2008 5:44AM

I´m from D.R. and that price is from an U.S brand PRICESMART and, is true they like to over price all the things, sometimes u can buy a laptop for US$600 and they offer the same product for $1000, people here knows that, and they don´t buy that kind of things in those places cause they sell them more expensive. The other problem is that some companies don´t respect the DR-CAFTA aggrement and are still charging the products with taxes that the goverment don´t cover to them.

Lowest Ranked

FlashGordon @ May 1st 2008 10:20PM

ITS OVER PEOPLE GET A CLUE, BLUE WINS , KO

Neutral

Davsot @ May 1st 2008 10:35PM

Well, not all paradise is the same. Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republics' closest neighbor, seems to have kissed the HDDVD train goodbye. and it (Puerto Rico) is NOT a third world country.

Highly Ranked

Matt @ May 1st 2008 10:56PM

A world where HD DVD is still alive! I am moving there! I am coming for you HD DVD!

Neutral

Nfinity @ May 1st 2008 11:34PM

I think that myself and majority of consumers except gamers of course, would actually embrace HD DVD coming back.

It's obvious that Blu-Ray is flopping big time and recent studies, analysts and market numbers are showing.

Unfortunately, the Sony grease is too thick at this point and Toshiba has moved on.

Such an unfortunate thing in corporate America. Everyone could've had cheap and finished HD this year, not 2 years from now.

Sigh, well the new happenings in digital distribution are definitely showing that by end of this year we will have multiple HD digital download services.

As this analysts are saying, by the time Blu-Ray lives up to HD DVD standard, we'll have 1080p digital downloads working overtime ;)

Low Ranked

DrXym @ May 2nd 2008 4:09AM

Bullshit. Even when HD DVD was alive Blu Ray still outsold it 2 to 1 without even considering the PS3. Consumers quite clearly didn't give a damn about HD DVD even with firesale prices.

As for Blu Ray, it'll have no troubles. The cheap players people are screeching for will come in time just as they did for DVD and VHS before it.

Neutral

XDragon @ May 2nd 2008 6:51AM

Keep dreaming.
Consumers made this decision and I can't believe you and TT won't admit to it. Blu killed HD-DVD when both were alive even when Paramount went HD-DVD exclusive.
Warner's decision to go Blu was based on sales comparisons with their own titles and the HD industry's.
You and TT can spin things how you want but the real truth is more people bought Blu movies and that was the real reason for Blu gaining exclusive support which ended HD-DVD's chances of success.
If you want to mad, blame Microsoft for not releasing an additional version of the 360 with HD-DVD built in. But then you guys would complain about price as the PS3 would be cheaper and that's even without adding the wireless network card and an online subscription, not to mention having the RROD hanging over your head while you try to enjoy the system.

Neutral

Dnyce @ May 2nd 2008 12:07AM

This country is actually pretty modern in most respects. But the first comment is true. Not many people here know about HD-DVD OR Blueray. Therefore its easier for them to tuck away there blueray players for a few months while the entire inventory of hd-dvd gets sold. when its done, they'll break out the new stuff.
On a side note, i was so surprised to see the hd-dvd on display that i visited a movie rental place to see what they stock. Neither high def formats where available at two locations.

Highly Ranked

Xavier Alexander Ortiz Guerrero @ May 2nd 2008 1:41AM

Hi, I'm Dominican and I love technology. In the US and in my country the percentage of HD and BD discs players are more/less the same. What happen is that for for each dominican in my country there are 100 us citizens in the united states. another thing is that people prefer to buy it online on amazon or ebay and ship it to our country; because when a dominican company import an electric device they have to pay 35% of the value to aduana (government importation tax) and after that when a person buy it from that company, that person have to pay 16% of tax too. so if you figure it out it is more/less the same!

Neutral

DrXym @ May 2nd 2008 4:11AM

I wonder if stores get sale or return in smaller countries. Maybe they're stuck with the thing.

Neutral

Dane @ May 2nd 2008 1:08PM

I lived in the DR for almost 2 years, and I can vouch for the fact that folks DO move really slow down there. That price is not even suprising for me. When I was there I bought a DVD burner (circa 2003) for something like $500 when they could be had here for under $200. It's a jungle out there!

Neutral

jose danilo soto @ May 2nd 2008 2:06PM

what we use actally here is dvd.
nobody is using hd dvd or bluray because
the rental stores do not have movies in these
formats ( or bluray,the winer format).also
not many people here have an hdtv.so for
now this is not bussiness.(like in every
latin american country).this will take
sometime. even in u.s. bluray sales are
not going in the way expected.something
important is that we were not in this war,we
did not have to pay for hd dvd!!!

Neutral

Ed @ May 2nd 2008 6:42PM

The Dominican Republic is not THAT far behind people, they still have HD DVD's in circuit city and best buy here in NYC. And on that note HD DVD and Blu Ray players where available in DR before anyother Caribbean island (although probably not officially released by Toshi) they do have HDTV's but prices on those are too hight for the average Dominican worker to afford even the crappy brands. Plus, they have the most advanced telecommunications network in the Caribbean and you get the nice cars that are not available here in the US such as Peugeot , Fiat even the Euro Ford Focus and Fiesta. Pretty good for a "third world country".

Neutral

dj496 @ May 4th 2008 10:20PM

Yeah! Let's all move to the Dominican Republic!

Neutral

Nehemoth @ May 5th 2008 12:03PM

@DJ496

I'm from Dominican Republic and I can give you the Welcome to the paradise, this is a Mad place, a Jungle if you want but still if you arrive hear and listen of the so many problem we have (HD or HDTV is not one of those) you will really surprise of how can we still smiling.

Definitely is this country there are so many thing to do, to change for good that I love to be here and be part of that.

Neutral

ordanel @ May 5th 2008 2:57PM

I dont know if is correct to say this.....but the picture is from a pricemart store, when i saw the price thag i said ti my sel, they are F@#% crazy lol.

Neutral

JaL @ May 5th 2008 11:00PM

Hey, DR is not a jungle nor is far behind, the picture that you are seen is from Pricemart, kind of like a Wallmart but smaller and kind of a little far behind in the tech department. All of the stores there, the ones that are really into the technology, like bosse, radio shack and other do sell blu ray instead of HD-DVD. So, get more info before you call DR a jungle.

Neutral

Angelo @ May 6th 2008 1:57AM

A lot of BS going on this one. First off, this picture was likely taken on a place that is known for their premium prices, aka pricesmart, and the player on the pic is probably sitting there for more than a year, and it was probably expensier by that time. They are stupid enough as their rich ass owners.

Second thing is that, we (dominicans) are not behind no one, on tech matters, what happens, is that the people here tend to be too savy or too cheap, and that means this kind of stuff rarely gets bought, if ever (usually by rich and stupid people).

Most dominicans that follow tech stuff will either buy the thing on the states (internet) and get it shipped here, or ask a relative to borrow one for them and bring it here.

Neutral

Jose @ May 6th 2008 4:19PM

Hi. I live in the Dominican Republic (I'm American) and I can confirm that this is a picture from the PriceSmart in Santo Domingo, where I do most of my groceries. The picture is recent: the Toshiba HD-DVD player is still sold at this price here.

This is not a big deal, however. This is the way I see it: the very few people with enough money to have HDTV and HD movie players either don't mind paying this premium (they can throw their money away), or, as Angelo said, they know enough to buy it on the internet and have it shipped from the States. This is true for most gadgets such as ipods, iphones, laptops, PS3, xbox, etc.

Personally, I don't know of anyone who actually buys these here at these prices. Everyone I know who has one bought it from Amazon, eBay, or on their last trip to NYC... including myself.

Neutral

tranced @ May 6th 2008 7:16PM

hi

im from Dominican Republic and as it is in spanish im gonna say what it comes with. it comes with 2 HD movies: 300 and Bourne Identity.

i dont know how expensive or cheap is a HD movie though.

*that price is from feb 28 2008, maybe it's got cheaper by these days.

Neutral

Cristian Marine @ May 13th 2008 5:54PM

Well, I'm dominican...living here in DR as well. I can say that electronics here are way overpriced and that should not be a surprise (I bought my last TV in Puerto Rico). To the gentleman that said that we do not rent HD-DVDs or BluRays...Mr Movies and MovieMax do rent these Hi Def formats. What happens is that we are not jumping into the Hi Def wagon due to the fact that authorities have not pushed our local networks to go digital. Analog signals and cable will remain the same here after Feb 17. That being said, there is no point to buy an HDTV unless you have a satellite HD feed. Visit my blog at loultimoenelcine dot com

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