$100 HD DVD player
 

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.co...d-dvd-players/

Today only, though I can see this happening again. Only for the 720p/1080i units. And if you read the Blu-Ray reaction, it seems like they don't want to fight back so much.

Heath

I know this has been discussed a million ways but...

No crystal ball here, but I have a tealeaf feeling HD DVD is going to win out for distribution and BlueRay will be used for Professional acquisition/archive.
Sort of like the 80's. Sony Betamax ended up being Betcam and Betacam SP for production while VHS (Remember the RCA VHS Hawkeye?? I'm really dating myself) and SVHS never worked really at all for pro/broadcast production.

But I wish someone would hurry up and win.....

When I read about this last night I thought to myself, "Looks like HD DVD just won".

I'm all for BluRay, but it really does come down to price for the masses. If HD DVD can keep these prices going, they'll win out for sure.

I do think that a disc based system is only a stopgap at this point though. Digital distribution is going to be the wave of the future. It just makes too much sense. Look at the music industry. When's the last time you bought a CD? It's coming for video too. Just wait.

Big issue in Digital Distribution: Download sizes and Bandwidth. Too big for that right now.

Blu-ray's capacity will ensure it's survival right now.

And thats about the only thing it has. Take that edge away and Blu-Ray becomes a total waste of money.

It must suck for Sony to see history repeating. I almost feel sorry for them.

I wouldn't feel too sorry for them. If they can get better profit margins for BluRay and subsequenct anncillary professional broadcast products, then they might make much more money in the long run, and I stress long run, than they would selling $100 consumer products. One of the local TV stations here has completely standardized on XDCAM, XDCAM HD and a XDCAM BluRay cart machine for commercial/program insertion. They're stuck with BluRay discs for a very long time. And Sony can charge a broadcast TV station a lot more for products and service support.

I read several years ago that Sony more than made up for their Betamax losses by moving the format into broadcast. After 20 years Betacam SP is still being used, although less and less every year.
So you never know, history might serve them well.

Cheers.

David,
XDCam Cart machine? That's freakin hilarious. Put the darn stuff on a server for God's sake. Look, I understand the reasoning behind it, but a cart machine? Really? HD 8 track is around the corner :) Maybe I should call Sony HQ on my CB Radio and give them the idea. Why don't they have a computer tap out the 1's and 0's of the digital file in morse code while they're at it.

.... somewhere, a Sony Exec just put down his Pong controller and almost had an idea.....

Speaking of BetaSP, I just moved from Monroe, La. and the TV stations there still wanted most everything on BetaSP. We were constantly fighting with them trying to get them to take mpegs to put in their system since they were digitizing the BetaSP's into a server anyway. I love the forward thinking at TV stations.
US: "hey, why does our audio sound crappy on that spot?"
STATION: "must have been that way on the tape"
US: "you sure it wasnt the guy who you pay $6/hr digitizing the spots at 3am with a hangover?"
STATION: "nope, it must be you. we never do anything wrong"
US: "look, just let us give you an mpeg file on disc with a tape as the backup in case you lose the file... see, we just demonstrated that it works fine. So can we do that from now on?"
STATION: "I don't know, let me talk it over with the head engineer... he gets back from his geriatrics appointment in about an hour."

HD DVD/Toshiba is selling these things at a massive loss, too. Bigger than Blu-Ray. I guarantee the Blu-Ray guys will strike back, if only to survive.

Heath

Ethan,

That's pretty funny. But you know how it is at a TV station. They pretty much go with what they know will work or they hold on to equipment way passed its prime. If a guy making $6/Hr has a better chance of not screwing up by physically putting a disc in a cart machine than accidentally deleting an MPEG file or screwing up a playout routine then so be it. After all, they're already used to Betacart.

But you make a good point.

Kmart is reportedly dropping Blu-Ray except for PS3.

Lawrence,

Do you have a link to that?

heath

I really don't care who wins this battle, and I certainly don't care how much money they make. HD will not become a mass-market medium until HDTVs routinely cost less than $200-500 and players cost around $100. Whoever gets us there fastest gets my vote. My target audience is average, middle-class schmucks with day jobs, not bleeding-edge techno-geeks with too much disposable income.

With $300-400 LCD screens with HDMI and $100 players, we're getting mighty close, though.

Now, if I could just find $7K in loose change under the cushions of my sofa, I'd order myself a PMW-EX1.

The EX1, very cool. But I agree; I am waiting patiently for people to make a move so I can put out my HD content in HD vs. SD. The industry won't 100% declare the winner, but they can make it more appealing.

heath

I hope both formats last for a while so there can be many threads here debating blu-ray vs. hd-dvd. It's clear that this argument will become as important as pc vs. mac, A1 vs. Hvx and Panny vs. Sony tapes.

About K-Mart dropping Blu-Ray, this link may provide more insight.

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/kmart-chooses-hd-dvd/4873

I'm not an early adopter in general, so these really low prices are what's making the difference to me.

Taking a $100 flyer on an HD-DVD player is a much easier choice than having to decide between two $500+ formats like it was not too many months ago.

This one day deal is not going to put a dent on Blu-Ray as much as the 2 studios that went from neutral to HD-DVD exclusive. But even after all that, Blu-Ray is still winning. With the crippled 400 dollar PlayStation 3 already out, you can actually get it for 300 dollars using the Sony card that comes with 12 months no interest. Basically without either deal, the PS3 is only 200 dollars more. Also Sony is finally releasing decent PS3 commercials.

Now there are some things that can change everything. One way is by Microsoft releasing an XBOX 360 with an HD-DVD drive built in. There are already rumors all over the place so I wouldn’t rule it out. Another way is by Toshiba offering 1080p players at a much lower price. Last but not least is to have either Microsoft or Toshiba buy off some more studios to go exclusive.

1. Somebody just told me Sears is going to be selling the A3 for $169.00 the day afetr Thanksgiving. I don't know how true this is but it is yet another huge boost for HD-DVD.

2. Most people who want budget players and shop at Wal-Mart do not have a true 1080p HDTV so really they don't need 1080p players. For a massive chunk of the market a 1080i player is more then enough.

3. Thats just what Americans need more credit cards just to buy a Playstation 3. Do you know how many people never pay those things off within that 12 months and then they end up paying double for it?

4. Even if they do buy a P3, at this low of price they will also buy a HD-DVD player so they can watch every movie.

5. Harry Potter 5 will be out on HD-DVD soon as well as there will be a Harry Potter first 5 movie HD-DVD box set. That combined with a low cost HD-DVD player make a nice Christmas gift for kids that parents can actually afford. The box set will also be in Blu-Ray but the cost of players will not make parents happy to buy the combination.

6. Parents usually would much rather buy a movie player the whole family can enjoy then yet another video game system that will consume poor Timmy's life and turn him into a social reject. Just kidding I like games as well. The part about a family based device is true however.

7. I have a lot of friends who just went and bought the $98.00 players at Wal-Mart and every single one of them loves them to death and wants everybody they know to get one.

8. I doubt these slaes are going to stay one day deals for long. In a month this price level could be the norm.

9. Who cares if Toshiba is loosing money on the players. They will make up the cost from the studios that are all switching to creating HD-DVD. Isn't it SONY that made up that rule that make the player cheap and make up the loss with the software?

http://www.tacp.com/hddvd/data/pdf/T...Rebate_R08.pdf

Don't forget your 5 free movies with it!

Regardless who wins this war, it's still a great DVD player that upconverts regular SD DVD.

This whole thing just reeks of desperation tactics. If the HD-DVD camp is getting so desperate as to lose massive amounts of money on the hardware. It must mean that Blu-Ray is winning. This is a last ditch effort. It won't change anything. Blu-Ray will still come out on top.

I disagree. It's not necessarily a desperate move. It was only a matter of time before a low-end model was priced accordingly. The Blu-Ray camp will have to respond eventually. And high-def DVD won't really take off until HD TVs and DVD players are priced what their SD counterparts were a few years ago.

Apparently BestBuy decided to be extra generous today:
http://www.dailytech.com/Best+Buy+Re...rticle9519.htm

-EDIT-
The article was their a few minutes but the website is down.


All it said was that the A2 became sold out at BestBuy and because it’s discontinued, BestBuy is giving out A3s instead for the people that has the A2 on backorder.

Bad link...

It looks like that whole site just went down. :D

Maybe Best Buy was being a bit TOO generous? :D

C

Yeah and that is why a few Studios switched to HD-DVD right? Because it is failing. Just piece together all the news reports about support that is building up. Studios know more then any of us do about what is going to happen and a few have switched for a darn good reason. Maybe they knew this massive price reduction was going to happen and they wanted to jump in and be part of the huge buying frenzy that could very well happen this holiday season for HD-DVD.

Look the way I look at it the price has already come down to the price point when DVD really took off. My first DVD player was $280.00 and I bought that when I was in collegeand trust me I did have a lot of money back then living in San Francisco. That was an open boxed item as well. My first DVD burner which I bought two years after that was $250.00. Good up conversion DVD players still cost a little bit today. Sure you can get cheap ones for $35.00 but the people who want good quality for a low price are going to really look at these things.

I talked with a bunch of people in other cities and they all said all the Wal-Marts were sold out within 15 minutes of the players going on sale. That is a lot of HD-DVD players that are now in the hands of consumers just in time for holiday shopping so they can load up on HD-DVD movies. Sure that is only 10 to 15 players per store but how many Wal-Marts are there in this country.

I would say it is the other way around. Blu-Ray may not be in trouble yet but this really does start to turn the tables and when the movies start flying off the shelf and other stores follow Wal-Mart's lead that is going to equal an even mroe advantage for HD-DVD. If every person gets loaded up with cheap HD-DVD players guess what kind of movies they are going to buy. That and Studio funding is what is going to make the money for Toshiba.

All I have to say is Target better reverse it's decision to only sell Blu-Ray players or they may be hurting this season.

You're kidding!! That is one of the most stupid retailing decisions I've ever heard of. I think I'm going to ask for an HD DVD player for Christmas. If the price is low enough then someone in my family circle can afford it!!

And that's the way it works...Most people aren't involved in a quality or data capacity debate. They want affordable HDTV's and an affordable way to view movies.

I'm with Thomas on this one. I'm betting on HD DVD, especially if I get one as a gift!!!

I actually purchased one A2 at walmart yesterday at 6:45am and it was a breeze. Went in they brought it out and I was out of the door with transformers as well. I felt like a kid again though I'm in my 20's. Now where are HD DVD burners!!!

Blu-Ray better do something fast! Two stories on the highly influential film geek site Ain't It Cool News:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34674

and

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34676

Hurry up, Blu-Ray!

heath

<Yawn> Wake me when the HD-DVD consortium ships a burner...

Toshiba SD-H903A HD DVD burner...

Whatever happened to this product. Did it ever ship?

I saw a Toshiba Laptop with an HD DVD burner. It only cost $3,000.00...Chump Change huh.

And Sony Vaios offer a basic laptop with a 1.5 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Blu-Ray burner for under $1500! That's not including a rebate.

www.sonystyle.com

heath

This reminds me of when I received my first DVD player in late 1998; it came with 5 free (albeit crappy) DVDs, plus 12 free rentals from Hollywood video (one per month). Now you can get the A3 (1080p, I think) for $199, and others have jumped onboard + 9 GOOD HD DVDs:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/34674

heath

Most consumers don't really care about that yet which is why a lack of burner may upset us but it isn't going to mean anything in terms of which format wins with the consumers.

Burner or not we all better find a way to make HD-DVD discs soon with this many people having players. At least we can still use dual layer DVD discs for now. At least we can give something to our clients.

Nope, HD is 720p and 1080i only (specs here).

You're right, the HD DVD A3 is indeed 1080i/720p! I thought I'd corrected that.

heath

That makes sense, but ever since the Playstation 3 started shipping Blu-ray movies have been outselling HD-DVD movies by a substantial margin. That either means more people are buying PS3s than HD-DVD players in spite of the price difference, or it means people who are buying cheap HD-DVD players aren't buying many HD movies. It will be interesting to see what happens to movie sales after this season's wave of super-cheap HD-DVD players...

From $399 to $99 in what a years time? It's not a low end model. It's the same model that has been out for awhile. This isn't a matter of manufacturers from china mass producing cheap players. It's a one day only sale. It's not like those players are going to stay at that price. It's a move to counter encroaching blu-ray sales.


You're forgetting that the few studios that are now HD-DVD exclusive were paid off to be HD-DVD exclusive for a certain amount of time (18 months I believe). It has nothing to do with format support. They were paid for their allegiance to the format.

As I stated before this isn't your normal price drop. It took DVD players over 5 years to reach the same price drop. and they didn't drop from $500 to $100 overnight. It was gradual. This is a one day only thing. The price will come back up.

So the facts are, a few months ago a couple of studios are paid off to be HD-DVD exclusive, then around x-mas Toshiba decides to drop all of their unsold overstocked HD2's for $99 (keep in mind these players only do 1080i). If no one is buying the hardware no one is buying the software. They are getting rid of these devices at that price because nobody is buying them. If that's not desperation then I don't know what is.

The Blu-Ray camp hasn't had to resort to these measures... I wonder why?

How many hardware manufacturers are making HD-DVD players (Toshiba... and uhh...who else?) compared to the manufacturers making Blu-Ray players (Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic)?

Again... I wonder why that is?

Good points, Tony. I didn't bite the bait of an HD DVD player, but I kinda wish I had. I wish the format war would end already.

Btw, Paramount was paid $50 million and DreamWorks (part of Paramount) was paid $100 million to go exclusively HD DVD. Sometimes that bit of info is left out of the story; glad you brought it up.

heath

I agree completely Heath I wish it would end. My bets on Blu-Ray, but even I was tempted to get an HD-DVD player at that price.

Another desperate offer I heard of (which I cannot confirm as fact) that if you bought the X-Box HD-DVD Drive from... I think it was Best Buy... they were giving away 5 HD-DVD's and HEROES Season 1 on HD-DVD with it. Granted I don't know this for fact and if it's true it's an insane deal... but just hearing it didn't shock me one bit.

Did anyone else hear about this offer?