HD DVD players hit $99

[sidd finch]

HD DVD players hit $99 at Wal-Mart, Best Buy

Wal-Mart is running a "Secret In-Store Specials" sale this Friday and one of the heavily discounted items is the Toshiba HD-A2 selling for $98.87. as the sale is only good as long quantities last and the Toshiba HD-A2 won't be available at all Wal-Mart locations.

The $99 price tag is sweet, but the deal is even better than that. Toshiba continues to give away five free movies to anyone that buys an HD DVD player

It also looks as if Best Buy is selling the Toshiba HD-A2 for $99 as well. You can't order from Best Buy online, but it seems like if you get to your local Best Buy before they run out of stock, you can nab an HD-A2 for $99.

The cool thing about this other than the price is that you can burn Hi-Def video on a regular DVD for playback in High def on this machine.

Sidd

[Ken Jarstad]

Nice deal, if you can actually get one. Thanks for the heads-up

Walmart does not even list the Toshiba on its website. Best Buy only lists the HD-A3, and for $199.99.

If these discounts keep coming then hi-def projects may be economically viable. But for most folks yet, playing a good quality std-def DVD on an upconverter DVD player to an HDTV is good enough. Commercial DVDs look great - and good enough for most folks.

The prospect of creating HD-DVD disks on standard DVDs is compelling though.

[Bob D]

So not being totally up on all the HD stuff yet I'll ask a couple of questions.

1. If I purchase a HD-DVD player will it play Blu-ray, which is what PE4 supports?

2. What is everyone's opinion on upconverting DVD players? Do they work? If so, which ones are the best?

Bob

[Ken Jarstad]

1. Will NOT. You will have to burn to folder, then use another app to burn to HD-DVD format.

2. I got a Sony upconverting DVD player recently at Costco for 100 usd and commercial DVDs look sensational since they typically use a very expensive film to DVD process. Consensus so far that I have read is any improvement via hi-def media can easily wait until media costs and burner costs come way down.

[Paul LS]

It was Walmart's "Secret Friday" special today. They had 30 per store... all sold out by now. Makes me sick... the cheapest you can get the model here in the UK is for $500.

Haven't said that, the Toshiba is pretty useless in the UK as they run at 30 frames per second and not at 25 frames per second. Toshiba have been promising a firmware update for 6 months but it hasn't been forth coming. I will have to stick to playing my home made HD-DVDs on my HTPC... my wife is getting fed up with it in the room. That is why I was hoping for the Toshoba firmware upgrade.

[Steve Grisetti]

Which is more likely

a) That someone will release a Hi Def DVD player that is both HD-DVD and BluRay compatible.

b) That all movies will eventually be released on disks that contain both the HD-DVD and BluRAy versions.

c) 50% of us will get screwed by buying the Hi-Def DVD format that goes under.

Well, fortunately, even Hi-Def DVD players don't seem nearly as daunting an investment as VCRs did 30 years ago, so maybe it won't hurt so bad when half of us get BetaMaxed.

[Chuck Engels]

I want to know what happened to the 8 track

[Paul LS]

Actually you can buy a hybrid HD DVD/Bluray player... expensive though. And I wont even attempt to get into the HD DVD versus Bluray battle. Perhaps it will end up like standard DVDs... two formats... DVD-R and DVD+R.

[Bob D]

Thanks Ken for the feedback on your upscaling experience. I tried an upscaling DVD player about a year ago and did not notice any appreciable difference. It's hard to tell because I had to keep re-wiring and swapping out the 2 DVD players to try and see the difference. I got the whole family involved, but no one could see the difference. So the $129 machine went back to the store.

So I am interested in if others are getting good results and what player is used. Glad to hear your Sony is working for you. I've heard good things about Oppo, but they get a little more pricey.

[Ken Jarstad]

What kind of TV did you use? You should realize that the HDMI connection to an HDTV is the only one that produces the proper scaling.

The quality picture is quite noticeable on commercial DVDs, perhaps less so on home-made DVDs. With a commercial release everyone SHOULD be noticing the difference in picture quality.

BTW, the November 20 issue of PC Magazine arrived a few days ago and they had a shopping guide on HDTVs. On page 78 there is an interesting sidebar labeled "HDTV Minimum Viewing Distance". It suggests a 10X multiple of inches/feet for an "immersive experience"

So, a 37 inch HDTV "should", according to the article, be viewed at 3.7 feet!

A 52 inch should be viewed at 5.2 feet, and so on.

So, I guess they intend for me to view my new 32 inch 3.2 feet away

The only reason to bring that up, besides pure shock value is perhaps your family views the HDTV from a lot farther away - and therefore loose the effectiveness of having a sharper, more detailed picture? My wife and I view our set at about ten feet away, so the picture improvement ought to be noticeable even at that distance.

[Bob D]

I have a 57" Mitsibushi HD rear projection TV. I was connected HDMI. I do need a new DVD player so I'll be giving it a try again soon. Oh, and we are about 9 to 10' feet away from the screen and we used Hunt for Red October and one of the Lord of the Rings DVD for our tests

[jackfalbey]

To follow up on Steve's question, here's my prediction...

1) Toshiba-backed HD-DVD, being lower-capacity and cheaper to mass-produce will take the role of VHS, getting the home video rental market.

2) Sony-backed Blu-Ray, being higher-capacity and scalable with multiple layers will take the role of Betamax, getting the ENG & Cable TV markets.

3) Both companies will lobby Congress to pass a law prohibiting dual-format equipment.

4)Those of us who produce video for a living will have to have both types of equipment if we want to be able to serve the event-video and local-TV markets, driving our costs way up.

5) Someone (probably Sony) will up the ante with new technology offering 100-Terabyte storage on a 12-inch titanium plated silicon mesh that will display 160,000x90,000 pixel resolution and 4-dimensional color depth. Hollywood will adopt this format for feature films, because they are the only ones who will be able to afford $1 million+ for the camera.

6) The cost to take your family to a movie will exceed a weekend at Disney World. Ticket: $120... Large popcorn: $75... Small Coke: $50... Keeping up with the format wars: Priceless (and impossible!)

[Ken Jarstad]

Well, fortunately, even Hi-Def DVD players don't seem nearly as daunting an investment as VCRs did 30 years ago, so maybe it won't hurt so bad when half of us get BetaMaxed.

Good call. My first VCR was the first JVC 4 head model on the market HR-S6700U and it was built like a tank and outperformed everything preceding it. I was single at the time and was able to pay 1250 usd for it - equivalent to at least double that now with our ever-weakening dollars. So, in that light, 99 usd is a relative bargain! Never have we had so much hi-tech for so little money.

The prediction for Christmas US retail sales is down significantly from last year. The discounting is starting early this year. I suspect we will see more and deeper discounts. It did surprise me though that Toshiba would make such a move. Perhaps their strategy is like Gillette - give away the razor and make money on the blades? Somebody has to win this format war or go broke trying and the HD-DVD camp is apparently firing the first major shot. If you can get a hi-def unit for the cost of an upconverting std-def unit the decision is a no-brainer. Price will determine the outcome because folks can't always see the difference in picture quality (right Bob?).

Toshiba-backed HD-DVD, being lower-capacity and cheaper to mass-produce will take the role of VHS, getting the home video rental market.

BlockBuster video rental, the largest chain I am aware of in my area has committed to Blu-ray Disk.

Some questions:

Sidd, where did you hear about the secret sale at Walmart? I live in the "sticks" and by the time I hear about and travel to town everything is sold out hours before hand.

Bob, have you ever had your 57" Mitsibushi HD rear projection TV adjusted/converged/profesionally setup? I read that sets like those need that sort of care from time to time to get the best picture performance.

[Wheat King]

Hah! We should have a post of the month! Jack has my vote! That's hilarious!

[jackfalbey]

Leave it to a Canadian to get my dry, ascerbic sarcasm! Thanks for the vote, Jamal!