Though Less Exciting, There are Still Some HD DVD Deals
by Pravin on November 8th, 2007 in shopping.
Though not as dramatic as what went on last week, there are still some signs of HD DVD deals in the air.
The first one is a $200 instant rebate when you purchase certain Toshiba REGZA LCD HDTV models, and either the HD-A3, HD-A30, or HD-A35 HD DVD players. This deal is going on at Amazon.com, and Best Buy, and I’d expect it to appear at other places like Circuit City and Buy.com, though they didn’t have this offer up online as I wrote this.
Best Buy sweetens the deal by offering three free movies at the time of purchase, and that’s on top of the two that already come in the box with the player, plus the five free that you can mail away for (that’s a total of 10 movies).
The 1080p REGZA models feature CE-Link, which allows the remote on your HD DVD player to control some functions on the TV as well, like having it automatically turn on when you want to watch a movie. CE-Link is based on the HDMI-CEC standard, which means it can work with other HDMI-CEC devices. Of the three Toshiba HD DVD players, only the HD-A30 and HD-A35 support CE-Link.
Those HDTVs and HD DVD players need movies, and Amazon has a deal on a few Universal titles.
Up until Walmart decided to carry a bunch of discs at $15, I could always count on Amazon.com to have some of the best pricing on HD DVD movies, which are usually 30% off. Right now, they’ve got a limited time offer (with no information on when it runs out) for 45% off on six movies from Universal:
Unless one of the retailers decides to stir things up again, the next major HD DVD sale event is coming up on Black Friday when we know that Sears is offering the HD-A30 for $170. It’s not as sexy of a price as $99 for the HD-A2, but I’m sure there will be some other excitement and fireworks to look forward to as we head into the heart of the holiday season.
November 9th, 2007 at 6:10 am
Though this bit of news is not strictly speaking appropriate to this particular thread I think others will find it interesting. several web sites are reporting that Warner Brothers refused to renew it’s contract with Blu-Ray. While this does not mean that WB will back HD DVD exclusively, the Toshiba backed format should have an edge on support from Warners as they still are under contract. WB did not make a big announcement about this but they are clearly paying attention to which way the wind is blowing.
November 9th, 2007 at 7:34 am
I remember reading about that a few weeks ago as the expiration date approached, and then a Warner exec made some statements at the Blu-ray press event that same week which suggested that they were reconsidering their commitment to the formats. However, a higher-up Warner exec came out earlier in this week to say that Warner was misquoted and people were reading too much into what had been said, and that Warner’s plans are to be dual-format unless there’s a pretty good reason not to be.
November 10th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Price is the ultimate factor to the masses, first and foremost. Mainstream American has proven it over and over that when the product is within grasp money wise, they’ll make every effort to buy it. Tell me how many people want to buy an expensive high definition player when they’ve just purchased an expensive HDTV? And the PS3 can only do so much within its demographic.
Price is effectively killing the PS3, to name a recent example, and that’s not mentioning that Sony’s head honcho admitted that the war is at a stalemate in the light of HD DVD’s holiday-season, huge sales. Howard Stringer also downplayed the importance of winning the format war, almost as to admitting defeat if and when they lose. Don’t get me wrong…I was totally in love with Blu-ray’s potential, but what effectively alienated me was their lack of established specs (continuously evolving and nothing mandatory when it first came out): their profiles are an obsolute mess unfortunately making current players obsolete.
Nevertheless, we’ll see what kind of price cuts Blu-ray camp can come up with to successfully combat HD DVD’s fast-paced momentum.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:38 am
I agree that price has hurt the PS3 but I think dividing it’s purpose has done more damage. Sony spent so much effort making it a Blu-Ray player that they neglected the gaming side, which is it’s core purpose. Compared to the Xbox 360 and Wii, the PS3 has a dearth of good games, or exclusives to make it a choice over the other two consoles. The PS3 simply does not have a Halo or GOW to make plunking down a minimum of $400 worthwhile. I was always dubious about the Blu-Ray component of the PS3 because the majority of the units are sold to people without HDTV, making it useless to them. Microsoft was able to hold down the cost of the Xbox by making HD DVD an add on for those who could really use it.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:56 am
One good thing I can say about the PS3 is that it’s probably the best Blu-ray player for the money. Not only is it far more upgradeable than any standalone will ever be, it has a faster drive than most of them too.
As a game console, there just aren’t enough of the games that my kids and I would play and enjoy on it. Though we’re huge fans of the Ratchet & Clank series, I can’t justify buying a PS3 only for that one game.