I was suprised to see that this sunday's ads for both Circuit City and Best Buy contained only HD DVD players and did not mention Blu-ray at all. Except for a small mention that discounts did not apply to HD DVD and Blu-ray in the Best Buy ad.

Is it possible Toshiba payed a lot of money for ad space during the Super Bowl as many J6P are buying their HDTVs this weekend?

Also, You can get the A2 for $300 if you buy a 42 inch and up Toshiba HDTV.

Trying to get rid of inventory? :D

Here are the ads:

Trying to get rid of inventory? :D

yeah, by actually selling it, something the BDA wouldn't be too familiar with ;)

Please don't turn this into a flame war. :(

I just wanted to point it out since I am about 65% HD DVD and 35% Blu-ray.

Funny, because over the holiday season there was nothing about HD DVD in either ads, but every week there were Blu-ray Disc full page spreads. Since about the 2nd week of January I've started to notice HD DVD getting mentioned in the weekly ads, but it's usually alongside BD.

In any event, nice to see HD DVD finally coming out of it's cave and letting the world know it exists. :P

Please don't turn this into a flame war. :(

Good luck trying to keep the SDF out of this thread.

I saw a Sumang BD player ad. $300 off is you buy a Samsung 1080p TV and the player. Not sure whether that was in BB / CC or elsewhere.

I saw a Sumang BD player ad. $300 off is you buy a Samsung 1080p TV and the player. Not sure whether that was in BB / CC or elsewhere.

I think that's te best way to get people to buy Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Yet once I can download 720p(really it's FINE for 95% of the world) own it, watch it when ever I want, and it only costs 5 bucks, HD DVD and Blu-ray will be DEAD.

Please don't turn this into a flame war. :(

Anytime you put the words 'bluray' or 'hd-dvd' in the same discussion, its bound to turn into a flame war on here.

Anytime you put the words 'bluray' or 'hd-dvd' in the same discussion, its bound to turn into a flame war on here.

Anytime you sign up for a forum, you read the rules and see that this is a no-flame section. :cool:

Wait a second, I relized I've just been flaming.

Interesting too that they are actually advertising that they will be DEMOING the A2 on the 28th. People that see the ad know it wil be on display rather than having to guess.

That sort of coincides with what I saw at a Best Buy in Bel Air, MD yesterday. They have an XA--1 display inside the Magnolia theater store, but the guy told me the XA-1's sold out and that display was reserved for the A2 when they start demoing it. I guess that's January 28th.

Between that and putting actual movie titles in the ad, I think you're seeing a possible shift in the Best Buy mentality.

I noticed that the ads also said that it outputs 720p and 1080i. I wonder why they didn't mention 1080p? Can the Toshiba do 1080p? I thought my xbox360 add on does 1080p through VGA but I couldn't get it to work correctly with my tv.

I noticed that the ads also said that it outputs 720p and 1080i. I wonder why they didn't mention 1080p? Can the Toshiba do 1080p? I thought my xbox360 add on does 1080p through VGA but I couldn't get it to work correctly with my tv.

Only the A20 and XA2 can do 1080p, which Best Buy doesn't carry (unless it has a Mag. store).

I think that's te best way to get people to buy Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Yet once I can download 720p(really it's FINE for 95% of the world) own it, watch it when ever I want, and it only costs 5 bucks, HD DVD and Blu-ray will be DEAD.

Apple SD movie downloads are 9.99-14.99....

Demoing an A2 or XA2 on the 28th at BB? Where is that? I was in the Danvers, MA BB yesterday. They had 2 A2s for sale and no BDs as far as I could see. Around here they have been alternating their weekend ads with HD-DVD and BD. There was no HD-DVD hooked up yesterday but there were two BDs, the usual end cap and one in the Magnolia section on a Phillips.

Only the A20 and XA2 can do 1080p, which Best Buy doesn't carry (unless it has a Mag. store).



I was quoting it from the Circuit City ad.

Trying to get rid of inventory? :D
I was in Best Buy today and they were sold out of the HD DVD players, but they had plenty of stand-alone Blu-ray players. The sales guy I talked to said that they sell very few stand-alone Blu-ray players. The PS3 is "THE" Blu-ray player and the other manufacturers, Panasonic, Samsung, and Pioneer, have to be pissed that the PS3 has killed their sales. Sony probably wants them to look at the big picture, like the PS3 saving Blu-ray and putting it in so many homes, and then supposedly in the future Pioneer and Panasonic would be able to sell cheaper Blu-ray players to the masses. But for now, Pioneer and Panasonic can't be happy to see their Blu-ray players not selling. Sure, there are many on this forum that own stand-alone Blu-ray players, but that doesn't represent what is happening with the general public. If the PS3 didn't exist then perhaps Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic, and even Sony would sell more dedicated Blu-ray players--or HD DVD players would still outsell Blu-ray players by a wide margin like they did before the PS3.

I saw the Best Buy ad. You get $200 off the price of a Toshiba 42"+ set IF you buy the A2 along with it. Definitely good news for HD DVD.

Well, if most normal people are like me they aren't buying any High def dvd players. I got one for christmas and returned it. My TV is only 720p and I couldn't tell a difference between it and my htpc so I saved a bunch o cash.

Thi smakes perfect sense to me. Before Christmas, there weren't many players available (on the HD DVD side). Not Toshiba is cranking them out and can finally keep them stocked up enough to find.
On the blu-ray side, the $1000 players are not going to sell. We already know this. So why bother advertising? Especially now that the PS3 is prettymuch available all over the place.

It's a paid Toshiba promotion just like the Sony Blu-ray B1G1 the other week.

Yet once I can download 720p(really it's FINE for 95% of the world) own it, watch it when ever I want, and it only costs 5 bucks, HD DVD and Blu-ray will be DEAD.

You will not get a 720p Movie to own for $5. You probably never will (except for junk movies). Afterall SD movies cost more.

There is an important distiction between movies and music that people don't pay attention to. You can download single tracks that you like for 99c. But with a movie you need the whole movie - and that won't cost less than the actual movie - just like an album costs almost the same as the CD.

So, I won't expect a HD movie download to own for less than $20 ... may be $15 for catalog.

And ofcourse there is no way for most people to watch the movie on the TV. That is where set top boxes and XBox score ... they solve what I call the "last meter" problem.

You will not get a 720p Movie to own for $5. You probably never will (except for junk movies). Afterall SD movies cost more.

720p60 or 720p24 will not be $5, given that 640x480 films are not $9.99 for catalog releases and more for new releases.

There is an important distiction between movies and music that people don't pay attention to. You can download single tracks that you like for 99c. But with a movie you need the whole movie - and that won't cost less than the actual movie - just like an album costs almost the same as the CD.

It might be a bit cheaper or a bit more, but it will be in the same league.

So, I won't expect a HD movie download to own for less than $20 ... may be $15 for catalog.

I think Apple will not charge more for 720 content and in one to two years, I think they will not charge extra for 1080 content.

And ofcourse there is no way for most people to watch the movie on the TV. That is where set top boxes and XBox score ... they solve what I call the "last meter" problem.

Playstation 3, Xbox360, TiVo Series 3 and Apple TV all solve this problem.

/carmi

Trying to get rid of inventory? :D Wow it seems everyone thinks the same ;)

someone acually think there is enough players in the market that its worth it to advertise .. good sign that Toshiba is already doing mass production of its HD DVD players :)

someone acually think there is enough players in the market that its worth it to advertise .. good sign that Toshiba is already doing mass production of its HD DVD players :)You need to look at it in context: it's on the same page as the Toshiba HDTVs. It's very likely Toshiba paid for this advertising.

So far BD definitely gets the lions share of promotion in these weekly ads.

You need to look at it in context: it's on the same page as the Toshiba HDTVs. It's very likely Toshiba paid for this advertising.

So far BD definitely gets the lions share of promotion in these weekly ads.

erm .. agreed. Toshiba will only advertise the players if they think they are capable of putting enough players in the market :)

In my area there are no PS3's for sale, that may be part of it.

Although you must realize that these ads are prepared weeks in advance

This is part of a push from Toshiba, that has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum. They are pushing their TVs, and giving price breaks if you buy an HD DVD player with their TVs. Pre-Superbowl is a good time, since TVs tend to sell very well just before the game.
J