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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.'"

4 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 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. 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
  3. 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.