Toshiba to Slash Price of HD DVD Player to $399 This Weekend

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 30, 2007 - 12:45pm.

Los Angeles - Toshiba announced this week that it is slashing the price of its entry-level HD DVD players, with the cheapest HD-A2 model to begin selling for $399, as of April 1.

Toshiba's new HD-A20, which features 1080p output, will be introduced at $499 when it ships to retailers later in April. The company already discounted its top of the line HD-XA2 to $799 on March 1.

Sony announced last month that it will cut the cost of its comparable Blu-ray player to $599 this summer, and said at the time it expects prices for Blu-ray players to drop below $500 by the holiday shopping season.

The Sony PlayStation 3, which comes with an integrated Blu-ray player, is available online for $499; the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player is also currently selling for $499 at Amazon.com.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2oq8qe

http://www.hddvd.org

Published in DMW Daily, March 30, 2007

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Comments

Toshiba HD DVD Price Drop

Submitted by Byron Lloyd (not verified) on March 31, 2007 - 8:57am.

Only $50 more to go. When The MSRP of HD DVD or Blur-ray Players hit the $349 mark, then retailers may break the magic $300 mark. Once prices are south of the $300 mark and the mainstream begins to buy, then we will see who wins the Blu-ray vs HD DVD battle.

I believe the magic number

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on April 2, 2007 - 1:41pm.

I believe the magic number will be a street price around $169: whichever format hits that number first "wins" the war, because Joe Sixpack will buy it. Still won't be a mass market item much above that figure. The big trouble for the BluRay camp is the intrinsic comlexity and cost of that format compared to HD-DVD, so purely as a more-likely scenario between the two, my guess is HD-DVD prevails. An early-warning indicator of this cost matter is the fact BluRay player manufacturers have been unable to match the cost reductions of HD-DVD players, with BD always about $100 more, Sony's own branded units included. Shades of the Beta/VHS wars of a generation ago. History always repeats itself.

Magic number

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on April 4, 2007 - 4:37pm.

Not far off - but the crossover will be $299 for the BD player with 90% features and a base player at $199 for 1080i max. With this in place from at least 3 vendors, BD will happen. Sony will not loose this. They will eat margins to win the war long term. I am a geek and long term Home Theater person (started in 1984), but I will not spend $1K for a BD player now. Suckers and dumb rich people will pay for Sony and their friends R&D. Sony and friends must win because it is superior technology and will deliver 4K x 2K pictures in our home within 5 - 7 years. It is the promise many of us dreamed about in 1984.