Wal-Mart Offers Toshiba HD DVD Player for Under 200USD Posted by XanTium | October 26 16:30 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From cnn.com: [QUOTE] The battle for the future of the high-definition DVD has taken an intriguing turn: For the first time, mega-retailer Wal-Mart has begun selling a player for less than $200. In various online forums, enthusiasts have reported seeing the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player available in stores for $198, significantly less than its common price of $230-$280. "We reduced our HD DVD Toshiba player, the generation-two, to $198 earlier in the week," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien confirmed. "It's happening now, and that's really all I can tell you. We don't give any information on what we're planning to do for the holidays. We know HD DVD and Blu-ray are going to be popular items this holiday season for some of our customers. ... They will be more popular this year than they were in previous years." O'Brien said rumors that each Wal-Mart store would stock only 18 units of the Toshiba player were false. "There are no limited quantities for stores or purchases." [/QUOTE] Full Story: cnn.com

Saw this on engadget yesterday too. Idk if I'd rather go for this, or the HD DVD add on for the 360 with like what, 8 movies free from amazon?

Wow. a sub-$200 standalone HD-DVD player. I just did a quick search and the cheapest Blu-Ray player I could find was at $377 at RefurbDepot.com for a REFURBISHED ONE.

I think this holiday season could be a deciding factor in this format war. I feel like hitting the border and picking up a cheap VIZIO LCD and a HD-DVD player!!

the price of the player wont be the factor. itll be the movies..
but with transformers, i think it could really help this holiday

you know I always here people talk about the movies, but when you look at the shelves most of the time they get equal shelf space, they each have some good exclusives, and most of the really popular movies have come out on both formats.

but for $200 it's an easy buy to go along with your new HDTV during the busiest HDTV shopping season of the year.

This new low price for a stand alone player COULD provide the boost HD-DVD needs to take the market... or it could just not sell and spell certain doom for the format since they've been banking on hitting this price point first as their main advantage.

im still crossing my fingers that my 360 that i send to get fixed comes back with HDMI, then ill buy the 360 one heh.

Now Circuit city has Toshiba HD-A2 for $197. Buy some batteries for $3 and then the recent 40 off $200 coupon, then you got it all for about $165 w/ 5 free hd dvd's too.

worked for me. love the player in the living room.

I'm going with the Xbox 360 HD DVD. At Best Buy you get Heroes Season 1, plus the other free movies. Thats the best deal.

until u get rrod and u cant watch hd movies

This is great, and all, but how is it xbox news(for front page)?

The bad thing about these standalones on sale for $198 is that they don't do 1080p.

I was shocked to find that out, but apparantly it's true.

I don't understand why it is, but at least my 360 HD-DVD addon does 1080p and over HDMI, too. As much as people criticize the 360 addon, it's really a steal of a deal and always has been. It continues to be a better deal than the A2's on sale for $198 since, like I said, these A2's don't do 1080p. Then again, the 360 addon is -only- a better deal as long as you've already got a 360 (and can take advantage of 1080p like me).

Now then, most consumers won't see a difference between 720p/1080i/1080p. People like me will, though. So 1080p is still a big deal to me.

^ 1080p isn't commonplace enough yet. $200 is the barrier for the bargain shopper. Bargain shoppers as a rule don't have the latest technology, ie 1080p. If they own an HDTV, then most likely it is only capable of 720p or 1080i.

Movie buffs that want 1080p, will spend the little extra money to get it.

Even still, most movie buffs cannot tell the difference between 720p and 1080i or p. They just own the best so that they can say they do.

This price break is a good thing for HD in general.

for those that are interested, this is an amazing price point and should be able to make a bigger dent in the Hi-Def sales this holiday season than last

videophiles don't make trends in the market, consumers as a mass do and they as a whole don't really care about HD resolution but more on price and ease of use and with the HD media still so expensive, I can't really see even cheap players causing much of a trend away from the original DVD format...

personally, i say screw optical media and give me more HD on demand (like what can be obtained on the 360) - i won't buy either format for a good while

I've found the HD-DVD drive for £100 here in the UK though most out of stock for 360.

Discount retailers like Wal-Mart move a LOT of units, and can bring enormous pressure to bear on suppliers.

Also, moving more units means economies of scale that benefit us all?

Me? I'm sick of the equivalent HD-DVD costing more than Blu-Ray, and significantly more than standard def. I only own about 4 HD movies so far and have rented the rest from Netflix. Bring on the $9.99 bargain bin HD-DVDs!

This is great! All coming together as planned. And for all of you who say HD movies are overpriced.....well when DVD's came out they were selling for $30 - $35 a piece. So wait until the discs get cheaper to manufacture like DVD's are and you will see it go down....

As for public knowledge of HD, it is growing. Hell my ex inlaws still had no idea wtf HD was until i showed them. They went out and bought a TV and HD-DVD drive the next day. Spent about $2000 altogether....not a bad deal at all.....

I still believe the key price point is $100, not $200.

First off the HD-A20 is the 1080p model and the HD-A2 is the 1080i model. Secondly... 1080p was introduced to eliminate artifacts and jagged edges in the larger TVs and front projection. You may not notice on a 30 something or 40 something inch screen, but step up to the 60's and beyond and it starts to become an issue. Still the bottom line is if you just want the HD in HD discs you don't care. If you're purposely buying 1080p equipment then it's going to matter to you if you notice or not. Either way.. $197 (our price at my store) is way beyond the $500 unit that was released last year. Think about DVD players... it wasn't really that long ago when $200 was the norm.