Just curious how prevalent this strategy is in America.

I don't think any have really.

I would expect the manufacturer's to partner with stores this fall though to offer a discount if you buy a HD DVD or Blu-ray player at the same time as your new HDTV (likely will need to be of the same brand). Up to now, BD player are just too expensive to try to bundle, and Toshiba just hasn't seemed to use the bundling possibilities of their cheaper players to their advantage. Although, since Toshiba TVs make up a relatively small percentage of the HDTV market in America, they may just not have had much success getting a store to partner with for an advertisement/discount.

Futureshop have done a Samsung LCD (1080p) + Samsung BP1000 quite a few time here in Canada

What kind of a discount did FutureShop offer?

In the U.S. I know there were Best Buy ads that showed a Sony TV with their Blu-ray player. ButI don't think there was any kind of a bundle discount.

What kind of a discount did FutureShop offer?

In the U.S. I know there were Best Buy ads that showed a Sony TV with their Blu-ray player. ButI don't think there was any kind of a bundle discount.

If i remember they offered a 400$ discount off the 1199$ Price... was either 400 or 300... it was between September and Decembre.. remember seeing it near the Xmas season.. in store

CC has one this week. Toshiba 42" 1080p LCD, HD-A20, Free instal for $1999

Best Buy had promos of buy any 1080p Samsung TV and get the BD-P1000 for $300 off for awhile. This was about 3 or 4 months ago though.

Sony in New Zealand have started giving away PS3s with their largescreen LCD HDTVs.

CC has one this week. Toshiba 42" 1080p LCD, HD-A20, Free instal for $1999

Right on page one too. Most other 1080p LCDs of that size are over that price.

I've been "advocating" this for a long time. With expected sales of nearly 20M HDTVs this year, even if a fraction of them came with a HiDef DVD player, that would advance the cause of HiDef DVDs ...

IIRC CompUSA did it with the PS3 when it launched (buy a Sony HDTV and get a PS3 free or some such). And Toshiba did it for the holidays IIRC. I don't believe Toshiba is that high up on the HDTV sales rankings, but I would hope Sony, Panasonic, and Pioneer are considering it for 07.

I expect Walmart to start doing it this year with HD DVD players, maybe even throwing in a couple of HD DVD titles as well for $999.

AVS (site) had a TV- free PS3 thing some time ago

IIRC CompUSA did it with the PS3 when it launched (buy a Sony HDTV and get a PS3 free or some such).

That's incorrect. The CompUSA deal was that, if you bought a Sony HDTV, they'd allow you to buy (at full MSRP) the PS3. This is during the release month, when PS3's were tough to come by and sold out. Those were the days my friend, Sony thought they'd never end... :rolleyes:

I thought this avenue of sales would be taken up more by CEs, at least with their higher priced ticket items, ie screens over 50" and projectors.

It's disappointing that is isn't, and I would of thought it was have been a great strategy to use since 1) the lower adoption rate of HDTVs at the moment 2) Helps to educate the public and lets them get the most out of HiDef 3) HD flat panels are enjoying great sales volumes at the moment, so it would make sense to piggyback on that and 4) you'd be appealing to the right demographic.

In some overseas countries which don't have HD tranmissions, HiDef players are the only way you can get the most out of your HD flat panel, so a lot of people end up getting a worst picture than their old CRT. I wonder how many people in America have got a HD flat panel main for the style, spacesaving and status reasons rather than picture quality.

In the Dallas area Star Power has run several free specials involving Blu-ray and HD DVD. The most recent was a few weeks ago when they were giving away Toshiba HD-A1’s for free with the purchase of a Toshiba TV 42” or larger.

They have run similar specials on Blu-ray.

The radio spot I heard this week is crazy. Buy a 50” Pioneer Elite 1080P Plasma and receive a 50” Pioneer Plasma (1366x768 I assume) and a DVR/DVD-R recorder for free.

Here's a link to the site Starpower (http://www.star-power.com/)


I'm not pimping Starpower and I've never even purchased from them, but they do give away a bunch of stuff. Just look at the specials from time to time and I'm sure you'll see a Blu-ray or HD DVD give-away before long.