Summary of HD DVD Deals for November 2, 2007
by Pravin on November 2nd, 2007 in shopping.
New deals have been added to this posting, and more are being added as they’re discovered. Scroll to the bottom to see the latest.
There’s been a constant stream of news about prices and deals on HD DVD players, and it’s getting a little difficult to keep them all straight. Some people have figured out ways to play one retailer against another via price matching, and wound up with even more amazing deals. There’s never a guarantee that a technique based on price-matching will always work (and some of these schemes seem a little dishonest), so I’m going to stick to telling you only about the formally announced or posted HD DVD deals that I’ve come across in the last couple of days. I’ll add updates as they come along, and you’re welcome to share yours in the comments.
- WalMart is selling the HD-A2 for $98.97 from Friday, November 2 to the end of Saturday, November 3. Stock might run out, however WalMart seems to be likely to replenish their supplies in the days ahead — but not necessarily at the $99 price.
- Value Electronics is offering the HD-A3 for $189 to AVS Forum members (link goes to forum thread, “membership” is a nice way to say “readers”). This is the model that will replace the HD-A2, and it comes with 300 and The Bourne Identity in the box.
- Sears will have the HD-A3 for $169.99 for about half a day on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).
- Best Buy’s stock of $99 players is getting depleted quickly, and it’s not clear whether they’ll be getting new replacements.
- Circuit City is likely to match pricing from the competitors. This relies on you proving that prices were a certain way, and on that store having the same item in stock. They might have the same stocking issues as Best Buy though.
It’s just my guess, but I’m pretty sure that $99 to $149 is going to be the price range on the HD-A2 until they’re all sold out. This model will be replaced by the HD-A3, and I’m sure that the HD-A3 is likely to fetch a final retail price closer to $199 through various discounts or promotions. In the end, a lot of HD DVD players will be making it out to people’s homes this holiday season, and even beyond as prices continue their inevitable downward trend.
UPDATE: I guessed correctly: Best Buy has the HD-A3 for $199! This deal includes 300 and The Bourne Identity in the box, along with the “5 free movies” and Best Buy often has deals to throw in two more.
UPDATE: HD-A2 is now $129 at Crutchfield. A little birdie told me that coupon code 3A706 would take $20 off that price, but your mileage may vary.
UPDATE: Circuit City doesn’t want to be left out… HD-A2 $129, HD-A3 $199
UPDATE: There are reports (with photo evidence) that Fry’s Electronics has the HD-A3 for $99. This is likely to be some kind of error, but it’s worth checking out. Remember, the A3 includes 300 and The Bourne Identity in the box.
UPDATE: Amazon.com has a few prices on the HD-A2 depending on which of their associated vendors you buy from. Last I checked, it was $139 from Tiger Direct. I bet they’ll get caught up on all the pricing action soon and we can expect some better pricing shortly.
UPDATE: Circuit City has the following HD DVD movies for $13.99: 12 Monkeys, Blood Diamond, Last Samurai, Backdraft, Casino, Unforgiven
UPDATE: Best Buy has upped the ante by offering three free movies at the time of purchase of an HD-A3, which results in a 10-movie deal (2 are already in the HD-A3 box, plus there’s the “5 free” offer).
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Ok, I was at Wal-Mart this morning (10/2) and they were sold out of the Toshiba HDA2, but they were already restocking the player with a Toshiba HDA2C which comes with an HDMI cable, I suspect this is a store exclusive packaged product, meaning only going to be found at Wal-Mart or discount stores, it was unclear if this model was also discounted to $99 or not, but I did witness another customer buy one at the discounted price, but this might have been an accident by the store in question.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:25 am
This was reported on Daily Tech. COM
Dear Valued Best Buy Customer,
You are receiving this email because you recently ordered a Toshiba HD DVD Player (model # HD-A2) from http://www.bestbuy.com and your order was placed in a backorder status while we awaited additional inventory. Unfortunately, the manufacturer has discontinued this item and we are not anticipating receiving any more inventory.
Because we value your business, we will be fulfilling your order with the next generation Toshiba HD DVD Player (model # HD-A3) that is replacing the HD-A2 in Toshiba’s lineup of HD DVD Players. There is no need for you to do anything to receive this upgraded model. We will simply fulfill your original order and your packing slip will be updated to show you received the HD-A3 and serve as your order receipt.
If you are not interested in receiving the Toshiba HD-A3 as a replacement for the discontinued HD-A2, you may return the unopened item to your nearest Best Buy store or simply contact one of our Customer Service Representatives at (888)-BestBuy for more information about how to return the product for a complete refund.
Please accept our apology for any inconvenience. We look forward to your next visit to Best Buy.
Sincerely,
Best Buy Customer Care
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:32 am
Wow! That means a few lucky people got upgraded from an HD-A2 to an HD-A3 just because the store was back-ordered. All without any funny tricks.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:55 am
This was just posted on TechNewsworld.com
Black Friday: The HD DVD Barbarian Attack
We’ve known for some time that there would be a lot of low-cost HD DVD players driven into the market during the critical Christmas buying season. We were expecting it to be off-brand Chinese players, but it looks like Toshiba products are the ones that will be hitting stores in massive volumes in prices ranging from $170 to $200 for their previous- and current-generation low-end HD DVD products.
Of course, if you were awake last Friday, you saw that Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) blew out the Toshiba A2 products at $99 a pop. I’m writing this Thursday night, but I expect the stores will sell through inventory before you read this.
This makes the new steady price for the low end (after last weekend) of the Toshiba line under $200, and this puts the still expected Chinese products at an even lower price point and that is a considerable amount of price pressure on the approximately twice-as-expensive Blu-ray offerings.
If, as we understand, the new A3 Toshiba products do drop below $200, they have a decent built-in DVD up-converter and that would make them a really good buy even though they only go up to 1080i. The format actually looks better than the more expensive 1080p player on a 1080p set because of the superior de-interlacing technology in most 1080p sets.
This creates a sustaining insider bargain, one where people in the know get just what a huge value this is. If that perception is widely held, the folks who sell these things — including Wal-Mart, which cornered the DVD market years ago — will likely set sales records now that both K-Mart and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) have jumped on board. Hint: It appears Amazon will have them at a sub-$170 price.
Adding to the drama is the rumor that Warner Home Entertainment is planning to go exclusive with one platform. It will be basing its decision on how many of these inexpensive players are sold. Initially, WHE was releasing titles in HD DVD only.
We’ll know in a few weeks, but the fact that Disney (NYSE: DIS) is anything but happy doesn’t bode well for Blu-ray. When executives start blustering like this it isn’t a good sign.
Christmas is the battleground where this could be won or lost.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I’m as curious as Warner Home Entertainment reportedly is to see the effects of the recent sales on discs being sold. As the pricing drama continues, I bet Warner’s Harry Potter series is going to do much better on HD DVD than might have been expected.
November 5th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Nearly a week after a Warner VP appeared to indicate otherwise, the studio told High-Def Digest that it has no plans to cease its dual-format stance, pledging a strong line-up for both Blu-ray and HD DVD in 2008.
News that Warner was eying a change in its high-def strategy spread like wildfire last week, following a story in industry trade Home Media Magazine that included a series of comments attributed to Warner VP of High-Definition Media Dan Silverberg at last week’s Blu-ray Festival in Los Angeles.
“One thing that may be changing is our strategy,” Silverberg was quoted as saying. “When both formats launched and hardware prices were high, we made a decision to support both formats and let the consumer decide. But now that hardware pricing is affordable for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, it appears consumers no longer want to decide — so the notion of staying in two formats for the duration is something we are re-evaluating.”
Silverberg reportedly followed up his remarks by citing strong Blu-ray sales for the studio’s top-selling ‘300′ release, saying that “we can definitely talk Blu-ray” and that Warner is “committed to the format,” a set of comments that seemed to suggest that the studio was considering a move to exclusive support of the Blu-ray format.
Following several days of breathless speculation from fans and industry insiders alike, Warner is now breaking its silence on the matter, referring to Silverberg’s remarks as having been “misquoted and misconstrued.”
Speaking with High-Def Digest, Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group said “I can tell you that Warner’s position has not changed, and I know that Dan did not intend to suggest that wasn’t the case. We support both formats and we have made no decision to alter that policy, nor are there any such announcements coming, or being planned.”
As for speculation that the studio is waiting for Q4 sales results before making an announcement of format exclusivity — perhaps even as soon as this January’s CES in Las Vegas — Noonan shot down any such short-term scenarios.
“Like any major company, we are always reviewing our strategies in every aspect of our business, it is what smart companies do. I can’t say what may happen five, ten years down the line. But right now, Warner Bros. has made no decision to change course. We are still onboard with both formats, and will continue [with a strong line-up of new releases and catalog titles], just as we have in the past in supporting HD DVD and Blu-ray.”