AfterDawn: News

Toshiba permanently lowers price on HD DVD players

After a month long promotion that sent sales skyrocketing, Toshiba announced that it would permanently lower the prices on its two entry level HD DVD players, the HD-A2 and HD-A20.

Beginning on July 1st, the HD-A2 will be offered at $299 USD while the A20 will be offered at $399 USD. Both are MSRP without any rebates necessary.



For the month, thanks to a $100 rebate promotion on both players, Toshiba saw stronger than expected results, with some retailers seeing 500% increases in sales for the players.

The HD-A2 is the cheapest standalone player available (not including the Xbox 360 add-on drive) and the new price reflects a $200 cheaper pricetag than the lowest priced standalone Blu ray player, the Sony BDP-S300.

Ken Graffeo, co-President of the HD DVD Promotions Group, seemed to state the obvious when he explained to Video Business that his organization "has found that price is the biggest motivating factor for consumers when it comes to buying a high-def disc player."

Source:
HD Digest

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 29 Jun 2007 14:21

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• 16 comments

• IM1

  aahh shaarrup.. HD-DVD has lost!
  blue-ray is killing them! lol

  29.6.2007 14:53 #1

• hughjars

  My bet is they'll be down to just under $200 by X-mas 2007.
  
  The Chinese HD DVD players will have arrived at even lower prices by then.
  
  When the management of Matsushita (big BD backers) are publicly talking of planning to 2010 which will have both HD DVD & BD players in the market -
  
  http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20070620PD201.html
  
  you know that all the cr@p about 'the war already being won/over' or anyone having 'won' anything just yet is either pure wishful thinking from the ill-informed or PR BS from the shills & the blind fanboys.
  
  For all the so-called sales 'lead' those 3.5 million PS3s sold really aren't impressing anyone too much with the relatively low numbers of movie discs they are shifting.

  29.6.2007 15:43 #2

• ematrix

  You're correct hughjars, the numbers show that most PS3 sold were purchased to play videogames, not Blu-ray movies. Regardless of the so-called sales 'lead' those 3.5 million PS3s sold worldwide, even lowering prices on HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, the fact is that consumers are more than content with conventional DVD players and don't care for HD-DVD and Blu-ray, since eight million standart DVD players were sold to U.S. customers from January through March of this year. Also 1.2 million Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs were sold in Q1 2007, but that was less than 1 percent of the 414.4 million DVD titles sold in the same period.

  29.6.2007 17:59 #3

• borhan9

  Seems to be a good level of prices to hit those prices. Well done.

  29.6.2007 19:26 #4

• rihgt682

  Blu ray is in trouble. $300 vs $500. Good luck sony even your playstation is not going to help now.

  29.6.2007 21:44 #5

• DXR88

  Its all a market gemmick Whos going to buy a stand alon BR player for $500 dollars when they can puchase A PS3 For 100 dollors more in relative there sacraficing A Standerd ideal of Video media For an all round media
  This will make Hollywood real happy with sony..Cough Not really..
  Simple there pushing people and there Gaming device ahead.. by hiking prices on a player that very well could compete with the 300 dollar price tag on HD-DVD

  29.6.2007 22:35 #6

• ematrix

  Again you have to realize that regardless if the PS3 can play Blu-ray movies, most consumers bought it to play videogames, not movies and therefore should not be considered as Blu-ray players... record sales show that 5.27 million PS3 games have been sold in the US since its release in November 2006, Resistance: Fall of Man being the bestselling PS3 with 730,000 copies sold, which means that this videogame alone has been bought more than all the Blu-ray movies sold in the same period.

  30.6.2007 03:55 #7

• Riotard

  Even if most peopel ahev bought the ps3 for video gaming, i think they are idiots, i compeltly understadn why the BRA think that all ps3's bought are for the BR player, look at teh consol, look at teh titles. Basically when the chiness enter the market with these uber cheap HD DVD players, the BRA are ognna hev to do soem major price changing, and sony are gonna hav eto admit that the ps3 is not gonna me the BR playing, game playign machien taht will ruel them all!
  lolz. Persoanlly Sony cocky. This is just liek ebfore, Sony always loose formate wars! WHY DO THEY BOTH NOW!

  30.6.2007 04:32 #8

• arcanix

  Originally posted by rihgt682:Blu ray is in trouble. $300 vs $500. Good luck sony even your playstation is not going to help now.Bluray is far from trouble. They're starting a campaign that all bluray player (including ps3) buyers get 5 free bluray movies. And blockbuster already announced that they're going to support only bluray. So HD-DVD is the one in trouble.

  30.6.2007 05:07 #9

• hughjars

  Yeah but let's tell the truth about this, it's 5 freebie movies from a list, not just any 5 movies from the total number of BD movies released (unlike the HD DVD freebie offer).
  
  Here's the list -
  
  Movie Choices (you can only pick ONE movie per category)
  
  Category 1
  - The Guardian
  - Pearl Harbor
  - Invincible
  - Chicken Little
  
  Category 2
  - Corpse bride
  - Phantom of the Opera
  - Blazing Saddles
  
  Category 3
  - Stealth
  - Resident Evil 2
  - Underworld Evolution
  - Stir of Echoes
  
  Category 4
  - The Italian Job
  - Black Rain
  - Babel
  - Devil's Rejects
  
  Category 5
  - Kiss of the Dragon
  - Omen 666
  - The Transporter 2
  - Species
  - Hart's War
  - The Last Waltz
  
  Can't say as I'm wildly impressed by many of those titles myself.
  
  Secondly anyone who imagines store rentals are the future of anything needs their head examined IMO.
  
  On-line rental may have some life in it
  (and contrary to the impression the recent press release gave BlockBuster will still be offering HD DVD via on-line rental as well as it still being offered in 250 stores)
  but the truth is with rental stores closing down all over the place rental is just not the future of anything.
  
  Blu-ray right now is the PS3 and that is a major problem for them now if they are to try to move into the wider a/v market.
  
  In the UK we have just seen Panasonic pull their next player.......
  
  Quote:No new Blu-ray player planned by Panasonic
  
  Panasonic has confirmed that it will not up replacing its DMP-BD10a Blu-ray player with a new model this year. The decision could be seen as a tacit admission that interest in dedicated BD decks is limited, with the lion’s share of sales going to the PlayStation 3. Instead, Panasonic will be concentrating on its Viera TV ranges and Lumix cameras as core product lines, alongside a renewed emphasis on HD camcorders." http://avzombie.com/blog...er-planned-by-panasonic/
  
  So much for all that amazing 'CE support' BD was supposed to have
  (the Sony is actually a rebadged Pioneer and the Philips is a rebadged Samsung).
  
  Also, looking at the updated description for the new Pioneer BDP-LX70, there was originally a sentence at the bottom saying there would soon be a replacement model -
  
  Quote:"Availability
  The BDP-LX70 will be commercially available in June. In the near future, Pioneer is planning to introduce a HD Audio Bitstream output player to replace this model."http://www.pioneer.co.uk...n/products/bdplx70.html
  
  
  This has now also been removed.
  This new BDP-LX70 will also never support BD-J 1.1/2.0
  (along with the Samsung BD-P1200 and the Sony S300).

  30.6.2007 07:43 #10

• plutonash

  Just wanted to add BlockBuster aint shit anymore read this
  http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070628/blockbust...osing.html?.v=1
  I wouldnt be surprised if they went out of business in 5 years.

  30.6.2007 08:59 #11

• NexGen76

  Originally posted by ematrix:Again you have to realize that regardless if the PS3 can play Blu-ray movies, most consumers bought it to play videogames, not movies and therefore should not be considered as Blu-ray players... record sales show that 5.27 million PS3 games have been sold in the US since its release in November 2006, Resistance: Fall of Man being the bestselling PS3 with 730,000 copies sold, which means that this videogame alone has been bought more than all the Blu-ray movies sold in the same period.
  Please tell where your get this mind less crap that people buy there PS3 for games thats a sad excuse.Its a combo player....lmao I see that HD-DVD fan-boys are making that last effort for HD-DVD.Its software & exclusives that going to make Blu-ray the winner.Plus with HD-DVD player been cheap isn't the issue with customers its the fact that there combo format disc cost more than most Blu-ray disc.Its really sad to see HD-DVD has force this combo disc on there customers.

  30.6.2007 09:31 #12

• Unfocused

  With these prices, I mights start to think about upgrading.

  30.6.2007 12:13 #13

• plazma247

  Cough HD-BETAMAX-DVD hehe, only joking ;)

  30.6.2007 16:03 #14

• hughjars

  3.5 million PS3s sold worldwide (and the handful of BD stand-alones sold) have shifted a total of less than 2 million BD movie discs since BD launched.
  
  Compared to a total movie disc market of over 750million in the last year alone.
  
  That's a very poor attachment rate.
  
  It indicates just how come PS3 is not going to 'win' the high def DVD 'war' in the wider a/v market
  (nevermind the fact it's stalled out as a games console) .
  
  PS3 gave BD a short-term tactical advantage but is now in fact BD's biggest problem.
  PS3 is simply never going to win the 'war' for the BD side & right now to all intents & purposes BD = PS3.
  
  PS3 and therefore BD simply cannot compete with HD DVD prices.
  
  Meanwhile HD DVD prices just continue to drop ever closer to SD DVD pricing levels which will mean a nice easy & seamless transition to high def DVD in the a/v market.
  
  Why pay between $100 - $200 for your upscaling SD DVD player when you can get an excellent upscaling SD DVD player for the same money that also does high def?
  That's the poser come X-mas 2007.
  
  2008/9/10 are going to be a very interesting years.

  30.6.2007 16:26 #15

• ematrix

  I detest when people claim you're wrong when you present proof of the contrary, first of all Blu-ray and HD-DVD are niches within niches, and there's no point in fooling with them, unless you are super hardcore or rich who doesn't mind being a early adapter, a beta tester of a format that might never become standardized.
  
  Consumers are buying more LCD and Plasma TV sets than years ago, but records sales show that buyers preffer a 40" or less LCD/Plasma screen, and aren't interested in using them for playing HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies, rather to play current standart DVD movies, playing videogames and for digital TV broadcast.
  
  While video hardware suppliers continue to re-adjust plans on the Blu-ray Disc/HD-DVD front, consumers appear to be more than content with conventional DVD players, according to recent figures provided in May 2007 by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).
  
  Based on data from the Consumer Electronics Association, retailers, and manufacturers, DEG estimates that 8 million standart DVD players were sold to U.S. customers from January through March of this year, the highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2001. Overall, some 203 million standart DVD players have been sold to consumers since the format launched in 1997.
  
  By contrast, Toshiba announced that it has sold 150,000 standalone HD-DVD players since HD DVD’s launch, plus 155,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD add-ons were sold in the U.S. and even so every HD DVD player or drive is purchased with the intention of playing movies, Microsoft has never claimed or accounted that every Xbox 360 is a potencial HD-DVD player.
  
  According to Consumer Electronics Daily, 100,000 standalone Blu-ray players were sold in the US, although Sony has insisted to account 1.5 million PlayStation 3 game consoles sold in the US as Blu-ray Disc players, when in fact the Blu-ray reading capabilities on the PS3 are forced on their consumers at a high cost, and record sales show that PS3 game console consumers have preferred it for playing videogames rather than movies.
  
  Record sales show that 5.27 million PS3 videogames have been sold in the US since its release in November 2006, Resistance: Fall of Man being the bestselling PS3 with 730,000 copies sold, which means that this videogame alone has sold more copies than all the Blu-ray movies purchased in the same period.
  
  In the other hand, Xbox 360 since its release last year has sold 6.41 million game consoles, and 40.66 million videogames in the US, Gears of War being the bestseller with 2.77 million copies sold. Nintendo's Wii has sold 3.46 million game consoles and 14.66 million videogames in the US since its release in November 2006, Wii Sports being the bestseller Wii with 3.46 million sold.
  
  DVD movies sales are still going strong as well while Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles trickle out of the gate. The 1.2 million Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs sold in Q1 2007 was less than 1 percent of the 414.4 million DVD titles sold in the same period. Since the launch of HD DVD more than a year ago, 2.14 million Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs have sold compared with 1.675 billion standart DVDs in the 10-year life of the format, according to DEG figures.
  
  Blockbuster announced that it will make Blu-Ray movies availible on their online rental and stores, but quickly assured that it will continue to offer HD-DVD movies, and will continue to do so as long as the costumers continue to ask for them.
  
  The newer HD players might offer the best upscaling over the Oppo player line, and if prices for HD-DVD and Blu-ray players drop, it wont be enough to spend more than $200 on a HD upscaling player, if you consider that prices for upscaling SD DVD players are dropping to $100 or less, more improved models are being availible and their popularity is increasing among consumers.
  
  The bottom line is that numbers show that even so there are bigger and better images to be had out there, more than 99% of consumers aren't interested in getting them, nor willing to spend thousands of dollars for HD equipment and movies.

  1.7.2007 00:31 #16