they should promote the future movies to come,this would be a great idea.
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Toshiba cuts prices on HD DVD players
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22649735/
updated 9:31 a.m. PT, Mon., Jan. 14, 2008
NEW YORK - Toshiba Corp. on Monday announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99.
The HD DVD camp suffered a serious blow on Jan. 4, when Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would stop publishing movies on HD DVD in May, to focus on Blu-ray and regular DVD.
That leaves only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, still supporting HD DVD, while five support Blu-ray.
Toshiba on Monday slashed the suggested retail price of its cheapest player, the HD-A3, from $299.99 to $149.99. The price for the HD-A30 was also halved, from $399.99 to $199.99, while the price on the high-end HD-A35 went from $499.99 to $299.99.
HD DVD players have been cheaper than Blu-ray players for a while, and sales of standalone players have been strong. But Blu-ray has benefited from Sony's cachet among video enthusiasts, as well as the ability of the PlayStation 3 game console to play Blu-ray discs.
"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president of digital audio and video at Toshiba America Consumer Products.
Toshiba also said it planned an extended campaign of TV, print and online advertising to promote the format.
updated 9:31 a.m. PT, Mon., Jan. 14, 2008
NEW YORK - Toshiba Corp. on Monday announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99.
The HD DVD camp suffered a serious blow on Jan. 4, when Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would stop publishing movies on HD DVD in May, to focus on Blu-ray and regular DVD.
That leaves only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, still supporting HD DVD, while five support Blu-ray.
Toshiba on Monday slashed the suggested retail price of its cheapest player, the HD-A3, from $299.99 to $149.99. The price for the HD-A30 was also halved, from $399.99 to $199.99, while the price on the high-end HD-A35 went from $499.99 to $299.99.
HD DVD players have been cheaper than Blu-ray players for a while, and sales of standalone players have been strong. But Blu-ray has benefited from Sony's cachet among video enthusiasts, as well as the ability of the PlayStation 3 game console to play Blu-ray discs.
"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president of digital audio and video at Toshiba America Consumer Products.
Toshiba also said it planned an extended campaign of TV, print and online advertising to promote the format.
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I hope this drives Microsoft to lower the price on its xbox360 external HD DVD!
These prices will consistantly make hd dvd affordable to the more mainstream customer. This has happened before with the $99 fire sale but it will nice to see these prices on a more consistant basis starting with the $149 A3. With sales this player will approach $99. This will make some of the blu ray only studios want to get into the hd dvd market, hopefully to make some cash.
I for one want the hd dvd format to survive. So I am going from format neutral to hd dvd exclusive until it gets a stronger footing again (I may rent blu but no blu purchases).
wont do much... today i was at a futureshop where the salesperson told a poor old man enquiring about hd-dvd and was told that paramount was leaving, MS is gonna support blu-ray, universal is jumping ship, and that theres no studio support etc... I feel that the speculation that followed the warner move possibly destroyed any hope of hd-dvd coming back. For nearly a week you had outlets like CNN, New York Times, reuters declaring hd-dvd having lost or that the remaining studios were leaving (all speculation).
You couldnt buy the amount of bad and false info the media had against hd-dvd and my experience at futureshop shows that salespeople are also misinforming potential consumers away. Its all hd-dvd group and toshibas fault not issuing public statements within hours, cancelling the CES show, not getting paramount or universal to release positive statements etc...
You couldnt buy the amount of bad and false info the media had against hd-dvd and my experience at futureshop shows that salespeople are also misinforming potential consumers away. Its all hd-dvd group and toshibas fault not issuing public statements within hours, cancelling the CES show, not getting paramount or universal to release positive statements etc...
Shame on you for not piping in, although I dont see how one misinformed old guy is gonna turn the tide. Did the sales rep then lead him to a 1000.00 Pioneer elite blu ray and say..... "Now this is what you really need"
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Madness /forum/post/12814736
wont do much... today i was at a futureshop where the salesperson told a poor old man enquiring about hd-dvd and was told that paramount was leaving, MS is gonna support blu-ray, universal is jumping ship, and that theres no studio support etc... I feel that the speculation that followed the warner move possibly destroyed any hope of hd-dvd coming back. For nearly a week you had outlets like CNN, New York Times, reuters declaring hd-dvd having lost or that the remaining studios were leaving (all speculation).
You couldnt buy the amount of bad and false info the media had against hd-dvd and my experience at futureshop shows that salespeople are also misinforming potential consumers away. Its all hd-dvd group and toshibas fault not issuing public statements within hours, cancelling the CES show, not getting paramount or universal to release positive statements etc...
Shame on you for not piping in, although I dont see how one misinformed old guy is gonna turn the tide. Did the sales rep then lead him to a 1000.00 Pioneer elite blu ray and say..... "Now this is what you really need"
hmm. were you talking to the same guy at Futureshop who told me Disney and Sony had just switched over to Blu?
i do hope the prices go down so i can Re buy an HD DVD player for cheaps...yeah i'm a bad person i returned my HD DVD player this weekend..and they took it without the UPC! go figure
i do hope the prices go down so i can Re buy an HD DVD player for cheaps...yeah i'm a bad person i returned my HD DVD player this weekend..and they took it without the UPC! go figure
i wanted to tell the old guy dont listen to the BS... but honestly, for one week following warners move, if you searched "hd-dvd" on google, all you got was a million sites all proclaiming hd-dvd loses the war, paramount is leaving because of a so-called opt-out clause, universal wont renew etc...
I think we will see Toshiba marketing the HD-DVD players more as Upconverting players than HD-DVD players. Basically, you are buying an Upconverting DVD Player, that also plays HD-DVD, instead of vice versa. It might actually turn out better for them. *Shrug* Who knows though.
Funny though, we might see those people who retuned their HD-DVD players go back and buy it again because it is a very decent unconverting player.
Funny though, we might see those people who retuned their HD-DVD players go back and buy it again because it is a very decent unconverting player.
wont do much... today i was at a futureshop where the salesperson told a poor old man enquiring about hd-dvd.
Some people make purchasing decisions without the help of sales people and that just happened to be a blu-ray fan boy who works there. If management learned thats how one of his sales people conduct themselves he would be fired. The goal of sales is to sell not, "not to sell." Plus the price drops are not effect here in Canada yet. Do you think someone considering to buy a $150 dollar player is going to buy a $499 player because a sales person tells them to. All he will probably do is stop a sale which is bad for their business.
actually the prices have changed in canada... i see the a3 going for 249.99 on futureshops website...
True, but $249 at futureshop is a sale. In the states the msrp is $149 just like it is $349 in Canada. A sale on the msrp of $149 could be approaching the $99 when there is a sale just like the one day fire sale. HD DVD players are just above upconverting players now and should be marketed as upconverting players and hd dvd players (As I believe Toshiba is starting to do). Any one interested in an upconverting player has basically no reason to pass on toshiba hd dvd player. Toshiba has always delivered top-notch up-conversion as I noticed on my first generation A1 and my 2nd gen hdxa2.
Nope, prices haven't dropped in Canada.
$250 is a sale price until january 17th, then will go up to $350.
BestBuy still is $350.
For $50 more, you can get a PS3. So much fror better prices on HD-DVD.
If prices are lower on discs, why aren't they lowering the disc prices? Personnally, I don't care much about player price; I care a lot about disc price: they amount to a lot of money very fast.
When I see $28 to $35 price for HD DVD (and Blu-Ray), I don't feel like jumping in any time soon.
$250 is a sale price until january 17th, then will go up to $350.
BestBuy still is $350.
For $50 more, you can get a PS3. So much fror better prices on HD-DVD.
If prices are lower on discs, why aren't they lowering the disc prices? Personnally, I don't care much about player price; I care a lot about disc price: they amount to a lot of money very fast.
When I see $28 to $35 price for HD DVD (and Blu-Ray), I don't feel like jumping in any time soon.
Unfortunately for us Canadians the effective lower prices is only in the U.S. You would think Toshiba Canada should soon follow.
Studio support can change as you have seen before. Besides the bad publicity warner still produces hd dvd till June as well as Universal and Paramount exclusively. Sony's pockets must be getting thin.
Despite official statements they did not receive pay offs. Some kind of hidden deal was struck to make them pass downs royalities on the hd dvd combo disc. From what I understand warner receives royalities for the original dvd format.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cattledog /forum/post/12815512
Who cares how cheap it is if you don't have anything to watch.![]()
Studio support can change as you have seen before. Besides the bad publicity warner still produces hd dvd till June as well as Universal and Paramount exclusively. Sony's pockets must be getting thin.
Despite official statements they did not receive pay offs. Some kind of hidden deal was struck to make them pass downs royalities on the hd dvd combo disc. From what I understand warner receives royalities for the original dvd format.
Now let me see, there are more than a few thousand standard DVD disks that look absolutely wonderful on the Toshiba machines and, of course, they have more than a few HD DVD disks available. How is it that you would have nothing to watch on a Toshiba HD machine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cattledog /forum/post/12815512
Who cares how cheap it is if you don't have anything to watch.![]()
Now let me see, there are more than a few thousand standard DVD disks that look absolutely wonderful on the Toshiba machines and, of course, they have more than a few HD DVD disks available. How is it that you would have nothing to watch on a Toshiba HD machine?
What Toshiba is probably hoping for is with reatil prices permanently in the sub $150.00range and consistant stock on-hand to sell at that price, this will quickly bring in more consumers who may in turn put pressure on the studios to release content on the format.
I think it's a good move, because bringing low price points was the plan to win the war all along. We'll see if they can move enough that the studios have to pay attention.
I still think they need to hit $99 or less everyday, with ample stock on-hand to accomplish their goal.
I think it's a good move, because bringing low price points was the plan to win the war all along. We'll see if they can move enough that the studios have to pay attention.
I still think they need to hit $99 or less everyday, with ample stock on-hand to accomplish their goal.
1 - 20 of 49 Posts
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