Toshiba HD DVD player for $98 this Friday!

bykes wrote: »

Maybe Ill pick one up so I can finally watch the 3 movies on HD DVD that Id like to see in hi-def. On second thought there all Warner movies....I'll just wait til next year when Warner goes blu-ray exclusive.

loser.

the real question is, does everyone remember to update their firmware?

2.5 is the most recent firmware.

http://tacp.toshiba.com/tacpassets-images/notices/hddvd-downloadingfirmware.asp

Thanks for trying! It's not the end of the world, since I have a Blu-Ray & HDDVD player already.

I was on the road this morning for business. I called the office at 7:30 and gave them my location and told my underling to find me the nearest Wal-Mart. I pull up at 8:00 on the nose and walked out with an A2 about 30 minutes later. There was maybe 10 people in line at the electronincs department. All of them wanted the Acer PC. I was the only one who just wanted the A2. I had them throw a Wii on the order for good measure (something for the kids this Christmas).

BIZILL wrote: »

the real question is, does everyone remember to update their firmware?

I'm starting to do mine now and I guess I have to call Belkin (wireless router) to get some of the settings for it to "see" the internet. As it sits, it sees no conenction. Great...I love stuff like this. lol.

Wallyworld in four cities were wiped out at 1:00 am. BB in Mooresville never had them. CC said quote "We can't carry any HD-DVD at that price."
So much for the 8:00am release!

Picked one up for my grandpa!

Just got back from WM I thought they only had one left from last night but I found that they have 12 left, I couldn't belive it.

I bought three, I already have an XA2, but pondered one for kid use, and one to sell... and one for my brother. My borther's wife picked up three also though!

I think I will try to sell all three for a wee profit. I imagine the market will be FLOODED with them though!

The walmart I went to was in a rural area, and there was hardly anybody there. The manager was walking around trying to get people to buy more than one! I brought three friends with me, and we each bought more than one. I think my walmart had roughly sixty of them.

I bought one of the laptops too. I have wanted a personal laptop with WiFI, so I could carry it around the house and on trips. For the price of a copy of windows vista, I just couldn't pass it up! The jury is out on that though, I may still sell it or take it back.... decisions, decisions!

everyone check out my post in the for sale forum. im not threadjacking i just want everyone in this thread to be able to have a chance. i have an extra a2 i picked up today that i dont need. all i ask is for the person who wants it to pay to get it shipped there.

Wow. Both of the Walmarts in my area still had piles of those late Saturday night. Maybe I should have got one. In a rack next to them were HD dvd's for $14.99.

Sooooo,

My HD-A2 broke already... Watched transformers last night, turned it off. Today the disk drawer will not open, nothing comes up on screen, and i cant get past the "Welcome" message on the front of the player. 30 min on the phone with support yielded, a send in for service. Greeaaat, this sucks.

-Jake

dipiazza wrote: »

Sooooo,

My HD-A2 broke already... Watched transformers last night, turned it off. Today the disk drawer will not open, nothing comes up on screen, and i cant get past the "Welcome" message on the front of the player. 30 min on the phone with support yielded, a send in for service. Greeaaat, this sucks.

-Jake

Sounds like that player will be taking a trip to the Toshiba Depot for service, I've already had to send my A1 in 3 times in the last couple of years.

According to a report in VideoBusiness.com today, Toshiba sold over 90,000 of its HD-A2 and A3 HD DVD set-top players last weekend. The unprecedented sales spike comes as Toshiba in partnership with big-box retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart, absolutely shattered price barriers for HD players by dipping below $100 for the A2 player, and $199 for the newer A3 player.

Competing Blu-ray players, including the “it-plays-every-Blu-ray-disc-made” Sony Playstation 3 Blu-ray-based game system are still priced firmly in the $350 to $500 range, thus creating a barrier to entry for many mainstream users who have been buying HDTV sets by the millions per month yet haven’t invested in either of the HD disc formats to date. Reports from the Blu-ray camp, suggest that consumers should not expect commiserate price drops for Blu-ray players this Holiday season, with $399 being the drop-to-price for a standalone player according to Sony executives.

The surge in sales activity should come as no surprise as tens upon tens of millions of HDTV sets are now installed in the market, and content providers like DirecTV, Dish Network and various cable companies struggle to keep up with the hunger for HD material 24/7/365, from those who have made an investment in a new television. Additionally, by dipping so low – so quickly – HD DVD players have priced themselves compressively with traditional DVD players which can be found in most mainstream retailers including warehouse retailers like Costco for less than $100. With the all-important “HD” moniker, mainstream consumers are willing to make the leap into a new technology when the cost barrier is at such a low level. Some industry experts suggest that within the next six to twelve months, traditional DVD players will be hard to find on store shelves as HD DVD players are completely backwards compatible with legacy DVD discs.

With a spike of 90,000 players entering the market significantly before the “Black Friday” selling season, Hollywood Studios should look toward higher-than-expected HD DVD software sales in December and in early 2008, as consumers will not want to simply play traditional DVDs in their new players and on their brilliant, new HDTV sets. Tempting, feature-laden titles like Transformers, Hulk, Batman Begins, the films of Stanley Kubrick, and beyond will tempt consumers to get into the world of HD discs for the holidays. The question still remains on whether or not studios will drop some of their disc prices from $24 and $30 for back catalog films to lure more mainstream consumers to buy the HD version of their films on home video instead of the lesser priced, traditional DVD versions.