Best Buy offers the Toshiba HD-A2 for $100, too, and other HD DVD deals

Wal-Mart may have been the first to tempt HD-fence-sitters with a $100 HD-A2 player (however limited), but it looks like it's not the only one, with Best Buy now also listing the very same player for the impulse buy-inducing price of $99.99. Of course, it's sold out online, so you may be better off trying your luck at your local store. Not surprisingly, the HD DVD PR folk are keen to talk up this recent spat of price reductions, including the still decent $197 price for the A2 at Circuit City and Amazon, and Sears's Black Friday price of $169 for the newer HD-A3 model, which also comes with two movies bundled in the box (not to mention the five free mail-in movies available with the purchase of any of the players).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Neeko @ Nov 1st 2007 3:42PM]

DAMN.. Now which one do i buy. $100 A2 or $170 A3... Hmm tough call.those 2 free movies with the A3 might just be the deal breaker.. SEARS here i come.

[nerdtalker @ Nov 1st 2007 3:49PM]

The A3 is probably the way to go, even if it does cost a little more. It's better to have the newer generation product, even though the A2 does have relatively good firmware support from Toshiba. I think with a firmware update the A2 can do 1080p/24, which isn't bad considering its price, now.

I already have a BluRay player, and even I'm considering getting one of these, just to make sure I win either way. You can't beat ~100 bucks. You just can't.

[andy @ Nov 1st 2007 3:52PM]

I'm with you, but Sears is black friday (otherwise known as the day I head out to my farm to shoot clays and avoid all signs of every retail area in the country).

The walmart and BB players are tomorrow, and I'll brave that for one, but I won't even go near civilization (or anarchy depending on your point of view) on Black Friday.

[paul.davis @ Nov 1st 2007 3:59PM]

I think you are thinking about the HD-A20 and HD-A30 right? I don't think the HD-A2 and HD-A3 have the right components to hit 1080p.

[Chris @ Nov 1st 2007 4:11PM]

@nerdtalker -

Don't you mean so you lose either way? ... hehe couldn't resist!

[James Cameron @ Nov 1st 2007 4:29PM]

Nice! And it can also play DOOM(the shit"ss movie).

I will probably wait for the blu-ray/HD combo player or go with the LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray HD DVD Combo Drive http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=26553

[mickel @ Nov 1st 2007 4:32PM]

What two free movies???

Or are you talking about the 5 movie deal?

[zargon @ Nov 1st 2007 4:43PM]

The A3, A30 and A35 all come with two movies in the box, Bourne Identity and I think 300. You also get the 5 free on top of that. If you are lucky and shop around, Best Buy runs 2 free HD-DVD promos often, so you can actually get a one of these players with 9 free movies.

[Mickey Jones @ Nov 1st 2007 7:16PM]

That's it, HD-DVD just won! The war is over. $99 price point is Sony's Waterloo.

[Mark @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:58PM]

"I hate Canadian retailers" doesn't quite describe the experience. I can't find the HD-A3 for less than 340$ and the HD-A2 for less than 220$ on this side of the border. Despite the fact that our dollar is actually higher now. What the hell?

[Greg @ Nov 1st 2007 3:45PM]

DAMN! how long till a bluray counter-punch?

[ScOObyDoo @ Nov 1st 2007 3:58PM]

I'm sure they are working on a $499 SPECIAL DEAL as we speak.

[digason @ Nov 1st 2007 5:11PM]

@ScOObyDoo: I'd hope less than $499 since you can already get Blu-ray disc players for that price.

[John Doe @ Nov 1st 2007 5:13PM]

Don't expect to see a $199 BR player anytime soon. Anyone who thinks someone will get one out in time for the Holiday shopping rush is delusional at best.
Maybe. Just maybe they can get to $299 if they really eat production costs but $199 no way in hell.

[Patrick @ Nov 1st 2007 5:28PM]

Not goint to happen. Sony can't allow cheap stand alone BR players. Their PS3 sales would plummet if they did. This is the bind Sony created for themselves. Imagine what would happen if there were no HD-DVD. Who said this format war was bad for the consummer? Pffft.

[peestandingup @ Nov 1st 2007 3:47PM]

Uhg, I just called every Best Buy in Northern Florida & none have them in stock.

Id say unless you live in a smaller town that happens to have a Best Buy in it, these are gonna be tuff to find.

[peestandingup @ Nov 1st 2007 7:52PM]

Scratch that. Just got back from my local BB. I talked the product manager into giving me the floor model. It was also missing the remote.

He let me have it for $75! That also came with the 5 free HD-DVD rebate.

Now THAT is a deal my friends :-)

[unkone @ Nov 1st 2007 3:50PM]

Blu-Ray FTW

[Daniel @ Nov 1st 2007 4:05PM]

just a friendly reminder for those who have 1080p TV's, the HD-A2 doesnt output in 1080p.

[Jensen @ Nov 1st 2007 4:15PM]

This is a moot point considering that any good 1080p tv will de-interlace the 1080i signal.

[zargon @ Nov 1st 2007 4:16PM]

Just a friendly reminder for those who have 1080p TV's, there is no data loss in 1080i and your TV will just scale it to 1080p.

[hothotdisco @ Nov 1st 2007 7:05PM]

@ Jensen

You are a fool to believe that a 1080i signal can be properly de-interlaced to display 1080p properly. Even if you have a really good HDTV set, it would never be true 1080p. I laugh at the idiots who voted your comment high......

[John Laur @ Nov 1st 2007 7:21PM]

Here is the real deal on this thing:

If the encoded film on disc is 1920x1080 images at 24fps, the DVD player will perform telecine and output 1080i/60.

IF and ONLY IF the DVD player does the telecine exactly right and IF and ONLY IF your display does the inverse telecine exactly right you will have the same 24 progressive frames on the TV with the 1080i/60 input as you would get if running 1080p/24. Still, relying on all of those image processing steps to work properly all the time is a bit of a tall order -- very often the TV wont properly detect the telecine, or the disc may have 1080p/30 source material on it and not 1080p/24.

[Daniel @ Nov 1st 2007 8:08PM]

yeah, so take that.

[mikey @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:55PM]

1080i is 30 hertz.... you cant have a 1080i signal at 60 hertz other wise it'd be progressive

1080p is TWICE 1080i because 1080p is 60hertz...

haha so no it can not scale unless you play the movie at 2x...

[Clayj @ Nov 1st 2007 3:53PM]

Scuttlebutt this morning is that with the new availability of HD-DVD players at less than $100, Warner Brothers is going to drop Blu-ray (they've already let their BD license expire) and switch to just HD-DVD.

Too bad these players are already sold out at Best Buy. I'd buy one just to have it.

[PS3guy @ Nov 1st 2007 4:20PM]

HD-DVD is dead.

[Eric @ Nov 1st 2007 4:25PM]

Like BSD?

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Nov 1st 2007 6:47PM]

No, like Macintosh.

^_^

[TrentD @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:14AM]

So BD is only selling 1.5 times the discs of a dead format? So if HD DVD's dead, Blur-ray is on it's deathbed.

Don't worry, the 50-100k HD players injected into the market today will speed things up for HD :)

[newgalactic @ Nov 1st 2007 4:02PM]

BlueRay - Respond! Or don't expect to be a factor come January.

...thank goodness, I'm so tired of this stupid format disagreement (I reserve the word "war" for what's going on in Iraq). I used to be pro-HDDVD, but now I no longer care. Glad that M$ didn't decide to go with internal HDDVD. Now I can still buy a 360 and not feel personally invested in this stupid disagreement.

[Sin @ Nov 1st 2007 4:06PM]

luckily my local wal mart here had 15 of these babies in stock as of lunch today! toshiba, here take my $100!!!!!

[FrankTheCrank @ Nov 1st 2007 4:08PM]

Looks like the CLEARANCE SALE has started early.

RIP HD-DVD.

[Clayj @ Nov 1st 2007 4:20PM]

It's called being an older model. It's already been replaced by the HD-A3.

And I think it WILL play 1080p/24 with the firmware upgrade.

[zargon @ Nov 1st 2007 4:23PM]

Yeah, a clearance sale on the last generation model of a HD-DVD player... Yep, that defiantly means that HD-DVD is dead

When you zealots going to let it go? The past x amount of times that you, BDA or Sony have proclaimed HD-DVD to be dead, is getting rather old and tiresome. Yet HD-DVD is still around and going strong, in fact, HD-DVD has been on the upswing heading into the end of the year. Blu-ray is going to have to pull out all the stops (BOGO to buy support) to maintain any sort of lead come the end of this year and going into next year. I do wish you guys the best of luck though and hope it helps me score a Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (now that BDA may have finally got their act together and some what finalized spec) player for around $200 or less relatively soon.

[MeDammit @ Nov 1st 2007 7:49PM]

You're a moron.

[John @ Nov 1st 2007 4:20PM]

I'm picking one up the day they hit the shelves. Blu-ray and sony just got the final nail in their coffin. WOOO HD GOODNESS!!!!!!!!

[PS3guy @ Nov 1st 2007 4:30PM]

Last time I check most Movie studio support Blu Ray.

[John Doe @ Nov 1st 2007 5:17PM]

When there is a critical mass after the holidays of HD-DVD players watch this change. Numbers matter no matter which way you cut it and at $199. Expect HD-DVD sales to increase substantially. will it go through the roof? No. But I expect HD-DVD to take the lead by January. I personally am planning on getting a HD-DVD player now and BUY about a dozen movies this holiday season.
Can HD-DVD still loose. Yes. However they have just been taken off life support and are hobbling around the room now.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Nov 1st 2007 6:50PM]

John Doe, what you say makes sense: grab it now - while it cheap!

Whatever format would win - at that price - we are guaranteed to have good Xmas!

[Dave @ Nov 1st 2007 4:24PM]

Cool... now when Blu-Ray players get lowered to $200, people can have both players for under $300, which is what I imagine folks are going to have to do for a long time in order to see every available HD film. I know for some of you it's hard to wrap your Betamax-addled brains around, but this ain't no "format war," it's format co-existence... similarly in which every home video game system has had to live since the late '70s now.

[Bowhuntr11 @ Nov 1st 2007 5:11PM]

I was going to buy one for a family member, but what is the point if they can't go to blockbuster and rent a movie? I guess that is the reason I have a PS3 and I can pick up bluray movies at my local blockbuster. :)

[Clayj @ Nov 1st 2007 5:18PM]

Blockbuster is stupid for having chosen ONE HD format before it was a given that that format would emerge victorious. The really stupid thing is that Blockbuster is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount, which supports HD-DVD. (So you'd think someone at Paramount would have made some noise about that.)

So now Blockbuster can either continue ignoring a segment of the viewing population that has HD-DVD players (and possibly lose them to Netflix or someone else), or they can admit they were wrong and start renting/selling HD-DVDs again.

[BuGG @ Nov 1st 2007 10:08PM]

Blockbuster sucks. Nobody rents from them anymore.

[Buck @ Nov 1st 2007 5:59PM]

At this rate, Blockbuster won't be around much longer anyways. They continue to lose money each financial quarter. Just today they announced $35 million dollars in Q3 net losses.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=30182

Netflix is doing surprisingly well. Also, it should be noted that more Netflix customers chose HD-DVD over Blu-Ray as their preferred format.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/HD-DVD-more-popular-than-Blu-ray-with-Netflix-users.html

[Justin @ Nov 1st 2007 4:31PM]

Couldn't you buy one today and go back tommorow and get the price difference back on your card. Some stores do that not sure if walmart or Best buy does

[Brad Diederichs @ Nov 1st 2007 4:31PM]

The 5 free HD-DVD disc by mail offer expired on 9/30/07 (and the mail in from had to be post marked by 10/31/07)

anyone buying these players at the new prices won't be able to take advantage of that offer

[zargon @ Nov 1st 2007 4:37PM]

Not totally right, the deal was extended and it includes all Toshiba HD-DVD players, XBox 360 HD-DVD Add-on and Toshiba HD-DVD equiped laptops and a new set of movies.

[Totalfixation @ Nov 1st 2007 4:38PM]

there is a newer promotion going on that will last through the end of the year.

http://thelookandsoundofperfect.com/_pdf/perfect_hd_dvd_offer_redemption_form.pdf

[zargon @ Nov 1st 2007 4:39PM]

Not exactly, the deal was extended and it includes all Toshiba HD-DVD players, XBox 360 HD-DVD Add-on and Toshiba HD-DVD equipped laptops and a new set of movies.