According to Home Media Magazine, Kmart is only going to be carrying HD DVD players. Kmart and Sears are related, and it looks like Sears stores will not feature this HD DVD exclusivity.

Kmart still carries the PS3 (a Blu-ray player), which makes this move roughly equivalent to Target’s Blu-ray move (Target still sells the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player in stores, and HD DVD online).

The $200 price tag on the HD-A2, and increased availability at mass-retailers such as Kmart and Walmart are likely to have a major impact on the installed base of HD DVD users. Instead of early adopters, these retailers aim squarely at the more ordinary households (that most of us belong to or can relate to) which is where the real success lies. The holiday shopping season is only now getting started, and we’ll find out in another few months exactly how all of this turns out.

UPDATE: A Kmart exec clarified the announcement to say that they’re not excluding Blu-ray, however they feel that their customers are more likely to purchase HD DVD, thus their shelves aren’t featuring Blu-ray players. It should be noted that unlike the Target move with Blu-ray players, this one at Kmart did not involve Toshiba purchasing retail shelf space for themselves.

Recent news has been about HD DVD players, specifically the entry-level HD-A2 model selling at under $200 all over the place, but there’s still stuff going on with the disc side of things. For example, there are still a few more days left in the Heroes-related Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player bundles at Best Buy and Buy.com, as well as the Heroes and 360 contest at Amazon.com.

On the new releases, the Halloween themed discs are done (you’d be unlikely to get them right on time for your party any way), and it’s back to more traditional fare. This week we have one comedy, one drama, one action flick, and one opera, from each of the usual HD DVD sources.

(all links go to Amazon.com order pages)

Talk to Me (2007) Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cedric the Entertainer Directed by Kasi Lemmons Rated R

License to Wed (2007) Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski Directed By Ken Kwapis Rated PG-13

Magic Flute (2007) Simon Keenlyside, Dorothea Roschmann Directed by David McVicar Unrated

Face Off (1997) John Travolta, Nicolas Cage Directed by John Woo Rated R

Early adopters and gadget geeks might pay any price for new technology, but these products become way more attractive to the ordinary consumer only when the pricing becomes more reasonable. The march to a $150 HD DVD player has begun, and it’s just the first part of the inevitable journey to a $99 machine around Christmas 2008.

Last week’s HD DVD player pricing news was that Walmart would start selling the HD-A2 for $198 on November 3. Pictures of some Walmart aisles prominently displaying the price and players came out, and just days later we found out that Circuit City had already started offering the same player for a penny less at $197.99. Next up, Amazon.com decided to join the fray and is now offering the HD-A2 at $197.99 too.

There are also reports that Costco is offering their equivalent HD DVD player (the warehouse stores get the same thing but with their own model number) for $199. This is a sweet deal because Costco’s version includes an HDMI cable, which might save you at least $20-$40, depending on how you buy your cables. I’m sure pictures and verification are forthcoming on that one. If you’re not a Costco member, then you’ll have to factor in the additional cost to join, so this deal might not work for everybody.

Some might point out that these prices are on the HD-A2 model, which has been replaced by the HD-A3 for the 2008 lineup. Though it has the same “5 free movies” deal as the other HD DVD players, it does not include 300 and The Bourne Identity like its replacement. One response is that at the price difference between an A2 for $200 and the A3, you can go ahead and buy those movies on your own.

That response was good enough until just a short while ago when a couple of sites started reporting on a leaked “Black Friday” advertisment book from Sears. If everything is accurate (click here to go to the site with the entire PDF), it appears that Sears will be offering the HD-A3 for $169.99 from 5AM to noon on the day after Thanksgiving.

That’s the $299 HD-A3 folks, at a $170 promotional price in just about a month from now. It’s not the new, regular price for that player, but it does show that we are headed into the next major phase of the HD DVD deployment strategy where the price difference starts to get exploited in a big way. If the A3 can be $170 for just half a day, then we can expect at least a few more promotions where the A2 might be about the same or less, and other astonishing deals from all the usual sources on the A3.

All that remains now is for the cost of movies to come down by at least $5 or $10 across the board. I’ve already seen many movies at or near $20, but I’m sure they’d be flying off the shelves at $12 to $15. It’s up to the studios to decide this pricing, and they might be nudged to take up this kind of action once they realize their installed base is characterized by ordinary folks who only got in because the players were so cheap, instead of early adopters and fans who’d put up with high prices.

• Leaked Sears ad
• BlackFriday.info listing the Sears ad’s deals
• HD-A2 for $197.99 at Amazon.com
• HD-A2 for $197.99 at Circuit City

UPDATE: Getting a head start on Wally, Circuit City has the Toshiba HD-A2 at $197.99 right now!

There had been talk earlier this year about Walmart selling an HD DVD player for $199, and lots of speculation about whose player it would be. One statement from Walmart indicated that they were only interested in carrying a major brand, which ruled out the cheapest of players coming from China. It also appeared to rule out Toshiba because their lowest player was still retailing at $399.

Now that the fourth quarter is solidly upon us, and Toshiba has a third generation of players to put out, it appears that Walmart did indeed score their rumored $199 player. It’s the HD-A2, which is in the process of being superceded by the similar HD-A3 in Toshiba’s current lineup. The A2 is not significantly different enough from the A3 to make this a bad deal. It even qualifies for the “5 free movies” offer. Walmart already contributes its fair share of new HDTV customers, and the $198 price point will now allow them to contribute to the population of HD DVD owners in a meaningful way.

According to the message thread at AVS Forum, this deal was to go live on November 3, but it appears that some stores jumped the gun and might have prepared their displays a little early. News about this was already floating around two weeks ago, so it comes as no surprise. Considering that the HD-A2 has been selling in the low $200s for the last several weeks at Amazon, it’s even less reason to be surprised or amazed that Walmart has this offer.

• Picture of Walmart display in AVS Forum thread

UPDATE: This appears to be an in-store only price, and the quantities available to each store are not limited (as had been reported in a few places). Stores may wait until the official November date to start offering this price.

Amazon is giving away 3 Heroes-themed Xbox 360 systems per day in its Xbox 360 Heroes Sweepstakes. The contest ends November 14, 2007, and has 3 daily prizes which consist of an Xbox 360 decorated in a Heroes theme by artist Tim Sale, an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive, and the Heroes Season 1 HD DVD box set. In the end, they’ll have given away 90 such systems.

Heroes is a popular theme for 360 promotions right now, with Best Buy and Buy.com also offering deals involving that box set. The Best Buy deal was already described in an earlier posting, and the Buy.com deal is pretty much the same thing: Buy an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive and get the Heroes Season 1 box set for free.

The drive goes for $178.99, and it already includes King Kong in the box, plus it’s eligible for the “5 Free HD DVDs” offer. This offer at Buy.com ends on November 4, 2007 (or while supplies last), and I think it’s a similar story at Best Buy.

The hardcore bargain hunters out there might appreciate this tid-bit: buying the drive (or just about anything) at Buy.com through Google Checkout for the first time brings and additional $10 discount, resulting in a $168.99 total for this deal.

• Buy.com offer ($165 on Oct 29, $155 with Google Checkout)
• Amazon contest

There are a lot of things to look forward to in the HD DVD world as we get into the heart of the fourth quarter of the year. Transformers is already on its way to boosting disc sales figures, and upcoming titles like Shrek the Third and The Bourne Ultimatum are likely to make Christmas even more special for HD DVD owners.

On the hardware side, Toshiba’s full lineup of third-generation players will be completed as the HD-A35 starts appearing on shelves and online retailers, and it will be joined by Onkyo’s high-end HD DVD player, the DV-HD805 shortly. Word from an Asian CNET site is that this premium player from Onkyo will be launched at the International Sound and Sight Exhibition in Singapore in mid-November. (more…)

Selling 100,000 on its first day and 190,000 for the week, the HD DVD Transformers disc has set sales records for most discs sold for any HD format on opening day and is the best selling HD DVD disc ever.

These numbers are not surprising, considering that Transformers was so successful in its theatrical run, having made $700 million internationally. The HD disc sales numbers demonstrate that there are at least 190,000 HD DVD owners, which extrapolates to more hundreds of thousands of them who didn’t buy the disc in its first week. It also shows that the HD DVD customers are indeed out there, and they’re not necessarily the same crowd that propelled 300 to its sales records.

Cruising around on the forums last week, I read many posts written by people either getting off the high-def fence, or choosing to go dual-format just for this movie.

Some may grumble about format-exclusivity preventing this disc from doubling or tripling its sales had it been available on Blu-ray as well, or that director Michael Bay is a Blu-ray fan himself. Those grumblers should take solace in their own format-exclusive movie titles and get over it.

• Transformers Mania – previous post on Transformers movie fun

UPDATE: Subsequent to filing this article, competitors came out to voice their doubts whether Transformers really sold in the quantities that Paramount/DreamWorks is claiming. We may not know for a few more weeks what the real numbers are, but there’s lots of evidence and proof that the disc did exceedingly well. Why? Because even a couple of weeks after its release, Transformers continues to trounce sales of other prominent movies. According to Video Business, it’s handily outselling Spiderman, even two weeks after its October 16 release.

Warner has a Stanley Kubrick festival on HD DVD this week with five of the director’s movies spanning from 1968 to 1999. Kubrick’s movies are usually a little quirky in some way, and all of them are guaranteed to keep you thinking and talking about the story for a long time.

The Shining is both a Kubrick movie, and one of this week’s Halloween related discs (the other one is Seed of Chucky).

Music is also a theme this week as Surround Records releases three discs featuring a three-dimensional musical experience with full 7.1 audio tracks. I’m sure they’ll sound great on just about any kind of audio system, but they’ll especially shine on higher-end equipment. Unlike the movies, these don’t actually come out on Tuesday, but a few days later on the 27th.

The other musical disc is Stage Fright featuring Motörhead. This is a 2004 concert shot in Düsseldorf, Germany, with lots of bonus material, and a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.

Last, the Jack Ryan disc set was supposed to be released this week, however that set has been recalled while Paramount figures out why all the bonus material listed on the box is missing. No word on a new release date yet, but at least there are plenty of other HD DVD releases to choose from to populate your Netflix or Blockbuster rental queue, or buy from Amazon or your other favorite retailer.

(All links go to Amazon ordering pages)

2001 – A Space Odyssey (1968) Robert Beatty, Glen Beck Directed by Stanley Kubrick Not Rated

A Clockwork Orange (1972) Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee Directed by Stanley Kubrick Rated R

The Shining (1980) Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall Directed by Stanley Kubrick Rated R

Full Metal Jacket (1987) Adam Baldwin, Bruce Boa Directed by Stanley Kubrick Rated R

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman Directed by Stanley Kubrick Rated R

Inside Man (2006) Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe Directed by Spike Lee Rated R

Carlito’s Way (1993) Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller Directed by Brian DePalma Rated R

Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power (2005) Luiz Guzman, Tony Cucci, Mario Van Peebles, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Directed by Michael Bregman Rated R

Seed of Chucky (2004) Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly Directed by Don Mancini Unrated

The Sopranos – Season 6, Part 2 (2007) James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Edie Falco Not Rated

Motörhead: Stage Fright (2006) Motörhead Unrated

Uncommon Mozart – Music Experience in 3-Dimensional Sound Reality

Space or Dream of Life – Music Experience in 3-Dimensional Sound Reality

Spatial Dynamics – Music Experience in 3-Dimensional Sound Reality

The Xbox 360’s HD DVD features have been in the news a lot these last few days. It’s going to be at least another year before a 360 model comes out with an HD DVD drive built right in, so let’s put that conjecture to rest. There’s no need for Microsoft to bump up the cost of the 360 and slow down sales momentum on the game console.

Increasing HD DVD’s momentum seems to be at the heart of the other big international news about the 360’s HD DVD add-on player, however.

The big news in the USA is that Best Buy’s advertisement for October 21 leaked to the internet and they’re offering the Heroes, Season 1 box set with the purchase of the 360’s HD DVD player. This player already comes with King Kong and it also qualifies for the “5 Free HD DVD Movies” offer. In the end, this deal pays for the player with just the movies alone because the Heroes seven-disc box set goes for $70 at Amazon, and it would cost over $100 to get the other movies.

If you were planning on picking up the 360 HD DVD player, it’s definitely worth waiting for October 21 to get this sweet deal at Best Buy. Unless you aren’t interested in Heroes, I suppose. But then you could always e-bay the disc set or pass it along as a gift, right?

In the international news, the “5 Free Movies” offer on the 360’s HD DVD add-on player has now started appearing in Canada and in the UK. It’s the same offer that we get in the USA, and I hope they get their discs mailed to them a lot faster than we’ve been getting them over here.