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HD DVD Prices Slashed By Toshiba

Posted by Zonk on from the i-think-that-bell-has-rung dept.

Hellburner writes "Hoping to stop the inevitable, Toshiba has slashed the price of entry-level HD DVD players to $150 — down from the previous $300. 'It's a half-empty, half-full moment for retailers, who could see a sales boost at the same time that some may be faced with price matching from holiday sales ... The theory: play up the acceptance by consumers who have already paid for HD DVD versus those who get it with something else like a gaming console, get more players out there--and dare studios to ignore those consumers. In addition to the sales cuts, Toshiba will launch major initiatives, including joint advertising campaigns with studios.'"

11 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. Great... just great. by AdamTrace · · Score: 5, Insightful



    Warner joins Blu-Ray. People think the battle is over. In response, HDDVD prices are slashed. Consumer's flock to HDDVD. Battle continues.

    I'm really tired of this.

    1. Re:Great... just great. by RailGunner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It doesn't matter what the player costs when there's little to no content for it.

      Especially when Disney is Blu-Ray exclusive - never underestimate the number of parents buying Ratatouille for their kids.

    2. Re:Great... just great. by Zalbik · · Score: 5, Insightful

      never underestimate the number of parents buying Ratatouille for their kids.

      As a parent, that's one of the least convincing reasons to go with HD discs.

      The minute I start buying kids movies on HD, I lose the ability to play those movies:
      - on my laptop when on holiday
      - in the car
      - ripped onto my media centre
      - on the upstairs SD TV

      My kids don't watch a lot of TV...but the places they do watch tend to be non-standard. They don't go down to the theatre room & plan to spend a couple of hours watching a movie. That's a mom & dad thing.

      Watching TV for them is more typically on the way to grandma's house, or for 20 minutes in the family room so mom can get dinner ready. Unless I invest in a whole pile of new technology, blu-ray reduces the options for my kids. Do portable Blu-Ray players even exist yet?

      And to make matters worse...my kids won't even care. Oh sure, if I sit them down and force them to compare they might notice a difference, but they won't whine about having to watch the DVD version over the HD version.

      For that matter, neither will I. I'm gonna pass on this format war until I have no choice whatsoever (i.e. blockbuster doesn't carry standard DVD's).

      It's still possible that BOTH formats will go the way of the laser disc.
  2. Probably not enough to undo the damage by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but they do make good upconverting DVD players, and at that price can be bought as "An upconverting player that also happens to have a fairly good selection of real HD content for it."

    I think more than that's needed for HD DVD to "not fail", but it still results in good value hardware hitting the market that's worth the money regardless of whether it supports a standard that may not end up going anywhere.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. Too late... by nweaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its too late. The writing is on the wall. With almost all studios having defected to Blu-Ray primary/Blu-Ray only, anyone who's been sitting out the format war to date is not going to jump at this.

    Especially since, lets face it, you'd only care about Blu-Ray/HD-DVD in the first place if you drop $1k-2k+ on the TV itself, and another $200-1K on the stereo system.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:Too late... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously too late. Toshiba could have done this before Christmas (and not just the one-day sales at Walmart) and took a short-term hit but likely gained a lot of mind share.

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      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  4. The best option by Alzheimers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Make HD-DVD disks the same price as DVDs, or less. I don't care about getting a cheap player if the disks are going to cost me 25%-75% more for a movie that looks just as good (right now) on my TV as the cheaper DVD that I already own a bunch of players for.

    Meh, it doesn't really matter at this point. Digital Distribution is going to end this format war a lot faster than Sony's or Toshiba's corporate posturing.

  5. Re:Competition drives down prices! by IDontAgreeWithYou · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It isn't about a price war, it's a format war. If I spend $150 on an HD-DVD player and that format dies next year, I have to buy a Blu-Ray player anyway. The money I spent on the HD-DVD player was a waste. This is where consumers have a problem. Generally competition is good, but eventually one format will win this battle and you don't want to be heavily invested in the losing side.

    --
    Finding other idiots on /. that agree with your opinion doesn't make it any less stupid.
  6. Parents aren't early adopters by Kludge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know many parents who still use VCRs regularly (like me!).
    Little kids aren't clamoring for better-than-DVD quality. They don't care or know the difference, and parents aren't going to fork over extra $$ for it.

    1. Re:Parents aren't early adopters by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the parents you know aren't typical of the population. Most American parents will happily buy their kids DVDs, Blu-rays, etc., and the kids will scratch them up through mishandling, then the parents will go buy replacements and then complain about it, but never do anything to either 1) teach the kid to handle things more carefully or 2) get around the problem by using backups.

      Most people are just complainers. They complain about stuff, but they refuse to find ways to solve their problems, and worse, they actively ignore any suggestions which would solve their problems.

  7. Re:Victimizes the weak by techstar25 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes it may be orphaned, but these folks are getting one of the finest upconverting players available, that just happens to have thousands of HD DVD discs already available for it. If you think what Toshiba is doing it unethical, then how about what the BD group did by releasing 1.0 players that they knew might become obsolete so soon.