Black Friday 2007 and Related HD DVD Deals
by Pravin on November 22nd, 2007 in shopping.
(includes some movie deals too, like Amazon’s “Buy 2 Get 1 Free”)
UPDATE: Amazon has the HD-A3 at $179 again (Nov. 27) — and back to $198 on Nov. 28
UPDATE: Except for Value Electronics, it appears that all of the HD-A3 deals have expired after the holiday weekend. Perhaps some will be resurrected in the weeks ahead.
There are lots of Black Friday deals on HD DVD, with many changing their terms all the time. For example, Amazon’s original deal of an HD-A3 for $199 and ten movies changed for one day to $169, and as I checked this morning, it was at $187. Just because any particular deal listed below does not appear to meet your requirements, it’s still worth a visit in case a merchant has improved the deal in some way.
The following list of deals will be updated as new information comes in, and you’re welcome to share your own news in the comments.
These tid-bits of information may help you in comparing various deals:
- Verify the model number before you buy. The HD-A2 is the older model and should always be less expensive than the HD-A3.
- While these deals are all on the A3, it’s possible that the same merchants have something interesting on the A30 and A35.
- ALL of Toshiba’s HD DVD players are eligible for the “5 free movies” offer which expires on February 29, 2008. The Xbox 360’s add-on HD DVD player is also eligible for this offer, as are purchases of Toshiba’s laptops equipped with HD DVD drives. You receive these movies after mailing in a form, and it can take a couple of months to get these movies.
- The HD-A3, HD-A30, and HD-A35 come with 300 and The Bourne Identity in the box. This results in a total of 7 free movies overall. It means you get to start watching two HD DVD movies right away.
- In-store and instant rebates are always better than mail-in rebates.
- For offers where you can choose extra movies at the time of purchase, make sure you know about pricing or other restrictions.
- Don’t forget to include tax and shipping costs in your comparison.
- Consider whether the merchant has the items in stock and how long you’re willing to wait for your HD DVD player.
And here’s the list:
- HHGREGG: HD-A3 for $150
- Tiger Direct: HD-A3 for $169
- Sears: HD-A3 for $169 on Black Friday from 5am to noon
- Costco: HD-D3 for $179 (the big club version of the HD-A3, membership required, player includes HDMI cable)
- Amazon: HD-A3 and 10 movies for $199 (or less)
- Value Electronics: HD-A3 and 10 movies for $199
- Circuit City: HD-A3 for $199
- Best Buy: HD-A3 for $199 (back-ordered, check in store if they have a free movie deal on top of the usual)
What about all of us who already have players and are now looking for movies? My own solution has been to use Netflix as a way to check out stuff I’d be interested in buying when the price is right. Here are a few deals on movies:
- Amazon: 47% off on several Universal discs
- Amazon: The Bourne Trilogy for $50
- HDScape scenic movies $9.99 each insead of $25. Try coupon code gobble to see if it goes any lower.
- Warner Bros.: 25% off with coupon code NVBM makes most movies about $15
- Fry’s reportedly has some HD DVD movies in-store for well under $15 a piece, but there’s no ad with a list, and not everybody has a Fry’s nearby.
- Circuit City had an in-store “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” deal on HD DVD movies which could come back over the holidays. You may need to talk to someone in the department to clarify which movies.
UPDATE: “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” at Amazon.com, 104 titles to select from! (expired)
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
As one of the many who got the $98 HD-A2 players, I am now looking for some software to use on this thing. So far the media deals have been much less than spectacular. It seems that the same crummy titles are on sale and nothing new ever makes the list (other than THE BOURNE IDENTITY). One other measure of a format’s success should be the media availalability and so far the HD-DVD lineup is less than stunning. I was kind of hoping that we would see some better media deals as Christmas draw nearer.
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I think we’ll see more movie deals in the next couple of weeks. Lots of new HD DVD owners are going to be looking for stuff to watch, and the retailers will respond. Amazon’s “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” is a good example.
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:47 pm
ummm… anybody seen this website
“http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20071119150942_Disney_Votes_for_51GB_HD_DVD_Media_Approval.html” yet about the new 51gb Trip layer HD DVD? Also I bought two of the $98 HD players and since also bought 18 HD DVDs for it. Have to support the format now!
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 am
Beware of the FYE HD-DVD deals. I stayed up all night and went to one at 6am only to find they don’t stock any HD-DVD movies. Called the 2nd closest one and they didn’t open for another 2 hours and didn’t sell HD-DVDs as well. Called the last store in my state which would have been a 45 minute drive each way and they DID have HD-DVD movies, but didn’t have any of the ones I had wanted. So I wasted my sleep, time, gas, and patience for nothing and only to save $14 total on the 2 movies I wanted
Just got home from that crap and since I was empty-handed still, I decided to go ahead and take advantage of “Amazon buy 2 HD-DVDs get the 3rd free” deal, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/1000162991
I’d say it’s the best deal of them all, plus you should be eligible for free “super shipping”. I got “Red Dragon”, “The Feast”, and “Black X-Mas” for $39.90 shipped
Great job Rick, I thought I was the only one buying HD-DVDs, lol, I got the A2 as well on pre-black friday and I’m up to 14 HD-DVDs including the 3 I just ordered.
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:14 am
Yes I saw the announcement that Disney is supporting the 51 Gb HD DVD disc. I think it is a matter of hedging your bets. Disney is going to want to at least leave the door open to HD DVD incase they called it wrong with BluRay
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Well it seems that Amazon is being dominated by HD DVD. The top ten HD discs are all HD DVD.
http://charts.highdefdigest.com/rank.aspx
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
In fact 62 of the top 100 are HD DVD. I think that this is significant as Amazon is a major shopping outlet. In addition their lower price on just about everything tends to draw a lot of holiday shoppers. Where I might normally pay the extra $5 to pick up a HD DVD at Best Buy or Circuit City, I have ordered a bunch of high def movies from Amazon as Christmas gifts. And you could not beat Amazon for the Star Trek set at around $132.
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I’ve been watching that chart over at HighDefDigest.com as well, and there’s been a lot of momentum in HD DVD sales, to the point where HD DVD has surpassed the competition.
http://charts.highdefdigest.com/history.aspx?TYPE=100&SPAN=14
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Yeah my FYE store has a very poor selection of HD DVD titles (which went to black Friday pricing Wednesday night), almost to the point of not even carrying them at all. I think I am the only one purchasing them from this store. My local Wal-Mart stopped carrying HD DVD (and BD) shortly after the $98 pre-black friday event. Which peeved me a little bit. But I added the HD-A3, 300 and The Bourne Identity on Friday (thank you Sears for having it on sale) I bought the last one from the store too! So at least people are taking notice when the players go on sale to buy them. Now if I could only get people to start buying the damn HD DVDs! My philosophy: the only way to win the format war is purchase as many as you can, even just one a week, or in my case one a day! lol! later!
November 24th, 2007 at 9:12 am
The sales trend seems to be continuing today. I have been reading some of the boards and a lot of people scoff at this because it is “only” Amazon and, according to them it only represents 20% of the sales. People who dismiss a trend over a 20% sample do not work with statistics. A pattern found over a 20% sampling of as many individual units as are sold on Amazon SHOULD hold up over the entire market with a +/- factor of between 10 and 20%. In other words if we see that HD DVD has 8 of the top 10 spots over a 20% sample, at 100% it should hold between 6 (at the low end) and all 10 at the high end. It is more likely that HD DVD would come out somewhere around 7 of the top 10. Of course this would vary by market and if one camp or the other was to launch a big promotion or had a sales leader like Transformers that could skew the numbers as well. In the final analysis though Amazon is a huge retailer and their sales figures should never just be dismissed. By the way, for BluRay supporters, I really have no personal feelings one way or the other about the so called format war. I suspect a PS3 will make it’w way into my daughter’s room for Christmas which means BluRay movies for her.I do think that HD DVD will ultimately be the defacto standard because I have never seen anything dictate the market mor strongly than price. Certainly in a case where the technologies are virtually identical oprice will be the deciding factor.
November 24th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Looking at the top 100 titles shows a 62% share for HD DVD which fits into the statistical “swing” of looking at the top 10. Interestingly HD DVD totally dominates the top 50 while the bottom 50 are split exactly 25 each. I suspect, but do not know for certain that most of the bottom 50 are older titles and have found their steady state of sales.
November 24th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Dismissing figures is what you do when they don’t agree with your position. The recent sales trend on Amazon for HD DVD software is quite logical, and considering that there are tens of thousands more customers now, it’s also fair to predict that the red colored slices on those popular pie charts are going to take up more of those pies.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Keep in mind the Toshiba A3 output is 1080i and if you have the full HD (1080p) TV, you will not have the best picture quality. You need the A30 or A35 to get 1080p. If you are shopping by price, the last I saw a A30 or A35 is only about $50 cheaper than Sony’s Blu-Ray. I prefer the Blu-Ray, but I am waiting for the HD wars to conclude to decide a winner. Sony lost the Betamax vs VHS war several years ago.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
There is no essential difference between 1080p amd 1080i to the naked eye. Especially on a screen less than 42 inches. I am a videophile myself and have pretty discerning eye and I can’t see any difference between i and p. In addition most people own HDTVS with 720p or 1080i max resolution so for those people it would be a waste of money to go to 1080p. In fact most people have a problem discerning upconverted SD DVDS from HD DVDS. As to the “war” I think both sides are behaving foolishly and that if this goes on long enough HD discs could easily be beaten out by downloadable HD content. There are some very interesting things happening along those lines and with 1TB drives already popping up it may in face be the future of home video.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
At $359, the A35 is close to the $399 PS3, and the A30 is about $50 cheaper than the nearest Blu-ray (a Samsung currently going for $339 on Amazon).
In terms of picture quality, the A3 does not give you 1080p, however the technology behind LCD displays requires a de-interlacing of input to generate the full 1080 scan lines. The end result is supposed to be the same as 1080p, but I haven’t seen that for myself because my own display is 1080p and so is my player.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Blu-ray is done. Killed by Walmart, love it
November 27th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
“Killed by Walmart” will come true once low prices on players and movies are the regular prices, and not just for special sales. Perhaps they’ll do that some time in January or February after all the momentum of Holiday shopping has died down.
Right now, it’s still too early to call.