HD DVD Player Breaks $100 Barrier

[Sunite]

HD DVD Player Breaks $100 Barrier
By Barry Levine
November 2, 2007 8:46AM

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Analysts had predicted that the public wouldn't pay attention to the next-gen DVD wars until the players dropped below $200. That's why the Toshiba HD DVD A2's new price is so significant, said analyst Michael Gartenberg. Now, he said, the consumer might be looking at spending another $20 beyond a $79 DVD player to get HD DVD instead.

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   HD DVD
   Sony
   Wal-Mart
   Best Buy

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   Like any good movie, the war between the HD and Blu-ray DVD formats has one side up, then the other. Blu-ray had boasted a recent string of good news, but now HD can point to an under-$100 player and some retailer news that might be swinging the war into its favor.

Wal-Mart is offering on Friday the Toshiba HD DVD A2 under $100 in a "Secret In-Store Special." The price includes five free movies by mail. Best Buy also recently offered the same model under $100, although it has reportedly sold out.

Kmart To Drop Blu-Ray

Up until this new price drop, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Best Buy, and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login had been offering the Toshiba A2 player for under $200, down from its original $299 price tag. The least expensive Blu-ray player is about $375, with some industry observers predicting the price will be mid-$300 by the time the holidays roll around.

That's not the only good news for the HD DVD camp. On Halloween, BetaNews reported that Kmart decided to drop the higher-priced Blu-ray players and offer only HD DVD machines for the holiday season. However, Kmart still is expected to sell the PlayStation 3, which includes a Blu-ray player.

Many industry observers had predicted that the public wouldn't really be paying attention until players dropped below $200. "That's why this is so significant," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research.

Now, he said, the consumer might be looking at spending another $20 beyond a $79 upscaling DVD player to get HD DVD instead. This new pricing, plus a continued rollout of popular TV shows and movies, is "not yet a slam dunk" for HD DVD, he said, but "it's the kind of thing that needs to happen if HD is going to win."

Blu-ray Not Throwing in Towel

HD was boosted by a surprise August announcement from Paramount, that it would back the HD DVD format exclusively. Later, there were reports that the studio had received a $150 million cash payment and promotional guarantees from the HD format backers and that the deal was only for 18 months. Paramount had previously been hedging its bets by backing both formats.

But Blu-ray hasn't exactly been throwing in the towel. Home Media Magazine has reported that 2.6 million Blu-ray discs were sold from January to September, with 1.4 million HD DVD discs being sold. Blu-ray has been propelled by its inclusion in Sony's PlayStation 3, but there are also reports that HD has taken a large lead in the number of laptop computers with that format.

In June, Blockbuster said it would sell only a Blu-ray player in its stores, although it would continue to offer discs in both formats. When the word hit at the time that BJ's Wholesale club would stock only Blu-ray discs, some observers had begun to predict HD's demise.