Most of our coverage at HDDVD.com is for the North American HD DVD market, but HD DVD is actually an international product with sales ramping up in other parts of the world.

Each world region has its corresponding promotions and rules about players and movies, and as many of you already know, many movies that are not available on HD DVD in North America are readily available in Europe. This aspect has been covered in a previous article about region coding.

Today, December 29, marks the European debut of Venturer’s SHD7001 player on the QVC shopping channel. Toshiba decided not to market the HD-A3 in Europe (and other parts of the world), and this Venturer essentially takes its place. The SHD7001 is a 1080i player, and is equivalent in almost every way to the HD-A3. The North American version, the SHD7000, has already been on sale for $199 in the USA and Canada for about a month at Walmart. One key difference is that the European player is part of the same free movie deals as the Toshiba players are, but the SHD7000 sold in Walmart is not. You can chalk that up to differences in marketing strategies for each region. In the same vein, purchasing certain Toshiba HDTV models in Australia also gets you a free HD DVD player, but there’s no similar deal in the USA or Europe.

The SHD7001 went on sale for €169.62, but heading over to Amazon.com.uk, we see Toshiba’s HD-EP30 selling for 20 Euros more at €189. The EP-30 is the equivalent of the HD-A30. It seems like too good of a deal to pass up for what’s really only a little more.

Bringing things back to the USA, we have our own sales on players that are worth looking into. Amazon.com has been running a 10-movie promotion on purchases of HD DVD players, and they’re already making news for setting HD DVD sales records with their “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” sale. Amazon likes to keep shoppers on their toes — pricing on the players has been known to go down for a few hours or a day now and then, and the selection of movies in the “Buy 1 Get 1″ has been updated a few times so that titles come and go. For instance, the Harry Potter movies disappear and reappear.

DeepDiscount.com has lots of HD DVDs under $20, with many at $16 or less. Some of these discs are of the scenic variety, meaning they’re along the lines of Planet Earth, except more focused on a particular theme like landscapes or a single country. They also have a lot of concert discs.

And finally, today, December 29, is the last day for Best Buy’s “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” sale both online and in-store. My fingers are crossed that Best Buy or Circuit City come through with something interesting to follow up next week.

UPDATE: Best Buy’s “Buy 3 Get 2″ promotion going on from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5.