Toshiba's $200 HD-DVD Players Spread to Circuit City

[zekrahminator]

The Toshiba HD-A2, the only HD DVD player to be offered for less than $200USD, is not going to be a Wal-Mart exclusive. Circuit City is already stocking HD-A2s, and Best Buy will likely soon follow suit.

Toshiba HD-A2 is an entry-level HD DVD player capable of HD DVD, DVD and CD playback as well as hardware decoding of H.264 (MPEG4 AVC), VC-1 and MPEG2 (standard DVD) streams. Additionally, the player features Sharc DSP to process audio in Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD (2 channel), DTS and DTS-HD formats. The player can output video in 720p (1280x720) and 1080i (1920x1080) resolutions using HDMI or component interconnection and multi-channel audio using HDMI or S/PDIF connectors.

The players will likely make their way to stores just in time for the holiday season. There are rumors of a $299 package, which includes 5 HD-DVD movies.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[jocksteeluk]

it will be interesting to see how the blu-ray lobby tries to counter this knowing the sony marketing people id expect them to create another marketing campaign rather than trying to compete via pricing.

 

[Ravenas]

it will be interesting to see how the blu-ray lobby tries to counter this knowing the sony marketing people id expect them to create another marketing campaign rather than trying to compete via pricing.

I don't think Sony is worried, I think Toshiba is more worried about the market, that's why they are doing this.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I don't think Sony is worried, I think Toshiba is more worried about the market, that's why they are doing this.

Nah, HD has always been cheaper. Now that they reduced cost to manufacture the consumer also wins. As we get closer to the holiday season (black friday) we will see a lot of discounted prices. If you believe that HD is worried what will BR do when they finally release their Profile 1.1 players at the same price? Who's going to rebuy a BR player just to get an update profile .

 

[kwchang007]

Huh, bad new for blu ray. Bet they're going to be coming out with a lower priced player to.

 

[Ravenas]

Nah, HD has always been cheaper. Now that they reduced cost to manufacture the consumer also wins. As we get closer to the holiday season (black friday) we will see a lot of discounted prices. If you believe that HD is worried what will BR do when they finally release their Profile 1.1 players at the same price? Who's going to rebuy a BR player just to get an update profile .

They aren't identical, BluRay is a slightly better product with a slightly bigger price tag.

Also, it's not like a 200$ HD-DVD player hasn't been around, that price tag has been on the xbox verison for a LONG time. Not only that, they did the same deal for 5 HD movies if you bought the xbox hd-dvd player. This is just a move by Toshiba because they are worried about the market.

BluRay outsells HD-DVD in ratio.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=26397&highlight=bluray

It's a known fact BluRay is selling more, Toshiba is just trying to get their market share back up.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

They aren't identical, BluRay is a slightly better product with a slightly bigger price tag.

Also, it's not like a 200$ HD-DVD player hasn't been around, that price tag has been on the xbox verison for a LONG time. Not only that, they did the same deal for 5 HD movies if you bought the xbox hd-dvd player. This is just a move by Toshiba because they are worried about the market.

BluRay outsells HD-DVD in ratio.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=26397&highlight=bluray

It's a known fact BluRay is selling more, Toshiba is just trying to get their market share back up.

I think you are mis informed. Have you seen BR's spiderman lately?
Look at these comparison between DVD and BR
Here
and
Here
Now since this is movie is by SONY I find it hard to believe that BR is a slightly better product at a higher price. I have to ask, if you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for a BR player and got those results like that how can you call it slightly better then HD?

 

[Ravenas]

I think you are mis informed. Have you seen BR's spiderman lately?
Look at these comparison between DVD and BR
Here
and
Here
Now since this is movie is by SONY I find it hard to believe that BR is a slightly better product at a higher price. I have to ask, if you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for a BR player and got those results like that how can you call it slightly better then HD?

Go work at a major electronics retailer and take some quizzes on the DVD formats. It's a known fact that BluRay is better. There is a slight difference on the top TVs, it just depends on if your willing to pay extra money for a slight difference. If I were you, I wouldn't go trusting those links either.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Go work at a major electronics retailer and take some quizzes on the DVD formats. It's a known fact that BluRay is better. There is a slight difference on the top TVs, it just depends on if your willing to pay extra money for a slight difference. If I were you, I wouldn't go trusting those links either.

It is what it is, BR isn't better and that's just one example why

 

[Ravenas]

It is what it is, BR isn't better and that's just one example why

Either way, you took the topic in a different direction from what we were originally discussing.

Have fun arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

[JoJoe]

I think you are mis informed. Have you seen BR's spiderman lately?
Look at these comparison between DVD and BR
Here
and
Here
Now since this is movie is by SONY I find it hard to believe that BR is a slightly better product at a higher price. I have to ask, if you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for a BR player and got those results like that how can you call it slightly better then HD?

Im so confused.

The BR screenshot looks way better in both examples IMO.

 

[Wile E]

I think you are mis informed. Have you seen BR's spiderman lately?
Look at these comparison between DVD and BR
Here
and
Here
Now since this is movie is by SONY I find it hard to believe that BR is a slightly better product at a higher price. I have to ask, if you paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for a BR player and got those results like that how can you call it slightly better then HD?

You have movies that are just as bad in HD-DVD format as well. Those screens aren't showing a shortcoming of BR technology, they're showing a studio's laziness to do a proper encode. I'm willing to bet SM1 is still encoded in MPEG2 on the BR disk. I've seen this in both formats with older movies. I own both formats, and when you actually have movies that are encoded well, both formats look the same.

 

[Sasqui]

On Paper, Blu ray has higher capacity, higher data transfer and other features. The picture quality won't be any different.

The problem with BR is that SONY owns it (remeber rootkits?). HD is better IMO because it's got a large consortium pushing for it... and it would avoid a SONY Monopoly. SONY stands to make a ton of money on licensing if they get this one.

Go HD!

 

[Ravenas]

On Paper, Blu ray has higher capacity, higher data transfer and other features. The picture quality won't be any different.

The problem with BR is that SONY owns it (remeber rootkits?). HD is better IMO because it's got a large consortium pushing for it... and it would avoid a SONY Monopoly. SONY stands to make a ton of money on licensing if they get this one.

Go HD!

Lol you act like Sony is the evil of the 2, when in reality they are both equally evil. By supporting either company you are supporting a large scale "monopoly". What really matters is which is the better product, and the answer to that is BluRay.

 

[effmaster]

Go work at a major electronics retailer and take some quizzes on the DVD formats. It's a known fact that BluRay is better. There is a slight difference on the top TVs, it just depends on if your willing to pay extra money for a slight difference. If I were you, I wouldn't go trusting those links either.

What kind of software program did he use on his desktop to take those pictures with?

Please don't let it be that $1000+ Movie studio Express thing for Macs

But seriously does anyone see the irony here for Blu-Ray? Circuit City is heavily supporting HD-DVD while Paramount, Intel, HBO, Microsoft, Toshiba, Warner Brothers (WB), and HP only support HD-DVD (except in the case with HP they are now selling the option for a combination disc drive that plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, while still offering the HD-DVD only disc drives and still not offering the stand-alone Blu-Ray disc drives.)

 

[DaMulta]

On Paper, Blu ray has higher capacity, higher data transfer and other features. The picture quality won't be any different.

The problem with BR is that SONY owns it (remeber rootkits?). HD is better IMO because it's got a large consortium pushing for it... and it would avoid a SONY Monopoly. SONY stands to make a ton of money on licensing if they get this one.

Go HD!

Who cares just add another disc....They can fit a whole HD movie on a HD-DVD and it's cheaper.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I dont see why both formats cant exist?

 

[niko084]

Nice to see, now if the prices on HD PC drives would come down a bit, I don't want to buy a lame xbox360 hd drive and mess wiring that up.

 

[effmaster]

Nice to see, now if the prices on HD PC drives would come down a bit, I don't want to buy a lame xbox360 hd drive and mess wiring that up.

Doesnt the 360 HD-DVD add on only need the USB 2.0 cable to work? I dont see why it would need an external power cord since some external disc drives run solely off of USB cables.

 

[niko084]

Doesnt the 360 HD-DVD add on only need the USB 2.0 cable to work? I dont see why it would need an external power cord since some external disc drives run solely off of USB cables.

I read about it once, and the whole operation was not exactly that simple, it was like open the box, and it actually connects ide I think and you need a driver or something...

I don't remember...

 

[Ravenas]

I read about it once, and the whole operation was not exactly that simple, it was like open the box, and it actually connects ide I think and you need a driver or something...

I don't remember...

Yeah, but the HD data is probably taking all of the USB's bandwidth.

 

[Wile E]

I read about it once, and the whole operation was not exactly that simple, it was like open the box, and it actually connects ide I think and you need a driver or something...

I don't remember...

Nope, it has an external power brick, and you can use it with the USB cable. Works flawlessly in PowerDVD 7.1+

 

[niko084]

Nope, it has an external power brick, and you can use it with the USB cable. Works flawlessly in PowerDVD 7.1+

Good to know, I can borrow my friends now and rip my hd movies