Archive for the ‘HD-A2’ Category
HD DVD is Dead
Game Over! We’ve known this day was coming ever since Warner Brothers Entertainment made their announcement last month that they were going Blu-ray exclusive. Having purchased an HD DVD add-on drive to my XBOX 360, picked up a Toshiba HD-A2 player at Christmas for $98.87 and a 12 disc collection of movies, I feel like I’m the one left holding the bag in this format war. Yes, it was my decision to buy this stuff, but the landscape was significantly different when I made the decision. The formats were fairly equal and it looked like the war would go on for years ahead. I am upset with the corporate powers that be at Toshiba and Warner Brothers Entertainment for pushing the format war through the 2007 holiday season and then dropping a bomb on consumers in January with the Warner Brothers announcement. It basically allowed both companies along with the retail channel to sell through their inventories and reduce the losses these corporations would have to take at the expense of the consumer.
Toshiba HD DVD Player for $98.87
This past Friday, I picked up Toshiba’s HD-A2 1080i HD DVD player for only $98.87 at Wal-Mart. They had them marked down in a “Secret In Store Special“. As you can see in the picture the HD-A2 was signed at the regular price of $196.00 and you had to know about the special. It had to be entertaining for the Wal-Mart employees to watch people stroll up to pick up their HD DVD player and walk off knowing that it was a “Secret”.
I was in the store 30 minutes prior to the 8:00AM start time of the special and the item scanned for the sale price. Keep that in mind as the holiday season picks up. Wal-Mart will continue these “Secret In Store Specials” through out the holiday.
I picked up a couple HD DVDs that were also on the “Secret In Store Special”. I got both Blood Diamond and Alexander Revisited The Final Cut for $14.96 each.
Update 11.12.07: EngadgetHD.com is reporting that “Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City — among others — were able to move 90,000 stand-alone HD DVD players this weekend.”
