Amazon: $80 Xbox 360 HD DVD player with 6 free HD DVDs and shipping
By Thomas Ricker 
posted February 6th 2008 4:36AM
posted February 6th 2008 4:36AM
posted February 6th 2008 4:36AM
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I picked up my HD-DVD drive about 3 months back in a special deal (£50, and the 5 movies too), and am impressed.
Shame really about it failing, but that's life. I can rip and recode to bluray when the price is right, using this very same drive on my PC!!!
I picked up my HD-DVD drive about 3 months back in a special deal (£50, and the 5 movies too), and am impressed.
Shame really about it failing, but that's life. I can rip and recode to bluray when the price is right, using this very same drive on my PC!!!
Yup. Back up to $179. That sucks.
The best part: the deal comes with all the HD-DVD movies you will ever own!
Microsoft.. stop extending the format war only to make money... it is a good effort to get HD-DVD out there... but it is too late and the game is already over
what cracks me up is the blu fans dig at hd dvd players and companies for including free hd dvd's! They seem to forget that the blu camp done EXACTLY the same thing!
http://www.bluraysavings.com/
obviously blu is running scared of the red camp as they seem to be offering free movies too! Until blu comes down in price and is affordable for everyone to own (no $300 is not affordable for the average amaerican when they can get an upconverting dvd player for $50) people will continue to opt for the red camp because they can afford to own the new technology! This is an awesome deal for those who have not decided and own a 360 and $129 for the A3 is within the reach of evry american household.
Maybe the blu owners are so angry because they invested so much of their money on a product that is still up in the air as much as hd dvd??? hddvd players will be in so many homes by the end of the year, not to mention that blu are still trying to chase hd dvd in terms of extra features! the war is still in full swing, and blu watch out because you're about to flanked and gunned down by the red camp!
Both sides have had offers to woo users over to their side. But when you talk of slashing the price of an add-on player down to $80 with 1 free disk and another 5 by post, or a standalone down to $150 with 2 free disks and another 5 by post it is a firesale. There is no way they're making money *anywhere* with that deal.
I think Toshiba's simply trying to get rid of the boxes in its channels and cut their losses as soon as possible. It will be very interesting to see what happens in March when the 5 free disc deal is through. At that point there isn't even the temptation of free discs to entice people to buy these things.
@DrXym
It was an Amazon Goldbox Deal! No other store is showing the same price cut! There is no "slashing of prices." Target is still selling for $179.99. For all we know, Toshiba/Microsoft had absolutely nothing to do with this.
Your line of thinking has absolutely no logic. Why would Toshiba spend an exorbitant amount of money to take out a Super Bowl Ad and an ad in the Super Bowl section of the USA Today, only to then "cut their losses"? That would be absolutely ridiculous. Like it or not, they are still trying to win the format war. That does not mean they are winning, or they will win, but they are still trying to compete.
Does everyone forget that BluRay has sighed Warner Studios, thus giving them some 85% (not exact) of the market, I am sorry but HDDVD's are slowly going away. And Microsoft never wanted HDDVD’s to take off, they want the war to wage until they perfect their online downloads.
Do you really think toashiba is trying to clear it's inventory? they just spent 3 million on a commercial during superbowl! The idea behind the low prices is so that they can get into as many households as possible not because they fear the end is nigh as so many people think!
Gee whats smart here? Over price your technology so only the rich or stupid buy it or make it affordable so that everyone can get a slice of the pie? As a company they want people to own their products and not sit on the fence waiting for prices to drop, as many people are with bluray! In the meantime while those potential blu buyers wait for prices to drop, they will instead (and are) choosing hddvd because they can actually afford to buy the players!
In my eyes Toshiba has their marketing strategy right. Broadcast a commercial that would have been seen by the 97.5 million superbowl viewers, flood the market with their technology and products and get into as many households as possible. I know that the movie studios based their decision on movie sales rather than player sales, but they will not be able to continue to ignore the fact that most households will own the most affordable format.
The Blu-ray promo is unfortunately over.
This could be a way for Amazon to clear inventory. I've heard Best Buy is essentially doing the same thing with Toshiba hardware to clear out their warehouses, and won't be carrying HD DVD Players after Q2. They do plan on continuing to carry the movies for a while, particularly New Releases, to keep customers who purchased an HD DVD player happy.
Look out HD DVD owners! TJ has "heard" something.
Take it as fact. Definitely.
Damn strait! If I say it, you know its fact! ;)
Heh heh.
I get my HD content from downloads :) suckers.
Where's Nfinity, spewing his usual crap?
If you didn't get in on this... you missed it! Price is back to normal now...
What the heck are you thanking me for? I didn't send you any news tips.
If you'd use real names you'd avoid letting idiots appear to be clever, when they obviously are not.
In other news, one of my favorite weekend activities is popping in a 1/2 inch home videocassette tape into my Sony Betamax, which I got on sale in 1988.
Is $80 really such a good deal if its for a product that may be obsolete in 10 months??
for the cost of less than half a day's work, yes.
I think so. Hear me out. While I'm of the Blu persuasion, I've got an HD DVD drive for my Xbox. There are a couple of movies still currently exclusive to the format (Serenity, Transformers, the upcoming Sweeney Todd) that make it worthwhile, especially at only $80. HD DVD really only supplements my Blu-ray collection, but I won't be getting rid of my HD drive until all of the titles I currently own on HD are on Blu-ray.
If you think the HD DVD group is going to be quick with your free HD DVD turn around then think again. It says 8-10 weeks and they mean it, it's been 9 weeks for me and I called and they said it's in the last stages.
Unlucky.
I got mine in 3 weeks, and that was the run up to Christmas too...
So... if you don't have an HDMI equipped Xbox, or a TV who's VGA inputs accept an HD signal - buying this is relatively senseless because it won't output HD over component, right? Just something to keep in mind.
...if it was true, which it is not. Component can handle up to 1080p depending on your TV set, and certainly can handle 720p and 1080i for almost all HDTVS.
Yes 1080p requires a HDMI connection (or a VGA connection) - due to DRM.
Actually just ordered the A3 from amazon for $121. I could care less about the format war, I still think HD downloads will be big before its over. But for this price, I get free movies and a nice upconverter. Might as well take advantage before its up. Would have been nice if I caught this though, even less money to fork out.
$80 for obsolescence… Woohoo! Maybe I'll pick up some bargain priced UMD videos while I'm at it. ;-)
Better than $400 + movie costs for the same quality videos right now. Actually there is no way I would spend that much for either HD format. I bought the A-30 HD-DVD player for $170 + Planet Earth + The Matrix trilogy + 7 free movies for $280, and I got an 1080p unconverting DVD player as well.
I actually wanted to bite on this deal...
But, thanks to all the deal forum whores who bought 5 to put on EBay, the deal is over. Showing $179.99 now.
The sale is over, its back to $155 at Amazon. For the life of me I'm still trying to figure out why the hell anyone would pay $155 (or $129) when they can just purchase the MUCH better standalone Toshiba HD DVD player for $120. The MS add-on should be retailing in stores for $80 period.
Remember when you could get a Beta-Max player real cheap? ...and then they all sold out!
Dammit!
Not entirely sure I would have bit-the-bullet on this one but just checked Amazon at 10:10am PST and it's back to $155.67 — even though M$ has already officially announced the $50 price cut to $129... so it's still not worth it. (Prolly not worth it at $80 but I'm dying to see ANY hi-def movie on my new Olevia HDTV!)
Quit faking the funk - if you cant afford a HDTV, dont pretend like you dont care about either format and tout HD downloads.
Just google "time warner blocking itunes" or comcast blocking torrent traffic. Until theres net neutrality, broadband providers that offer competing hd video service will be hard pressed to let you download a 30GB movie every other day.
I just bought one at the $79 price. You may want to look again if interested. At this price I consider it disposable when Blu-ray finally starts dropping the price of their equipment. Until then I will use this + Netflix.
I haven't pulled the trigger yet on either an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player, but I badly want to. Ever since Warner left, the inveitablity factor has made me wait. I have an Xbox 360 which is a great gaming console, but I doubt there will be an add on blu ray player because it's in Sony's interest not to licence it to Microsoft. I'll probably end up buying a PS3, because it's hard to justify any other choice; $399 for a console and a Blu-Ray player which may be able to take advantage of 2.0 profile? It's just that $399 is 5X more than the $80(which might as well be free) for 6 movies and the add-on for my Xbox. Damn you Sony!