November 1, 2007 10:09 AM PDT

Posted by Matthew Moskovciak

Earlier this week it was big news that HD DVD broke the $200 price barrier. Well, in the same week it looks like HD DVD has broken the $100 price barrier as well. As previously reported, Wal-Mart is running a "Secret In-Store Specials" sale this Friday and one of the heavily discounted items is the Toshiba HD-A2 selling for $98.87. Of course, this isn't a true price drop, as the sale is only good as long quantities last and the Toshiba HD-A2 won't be available at all Wal-Mart locations. On the other hand, it is representative of HD DVD's significant advantage in hardware pricing -- the least expensive Blu-ray player is the $400 PlayStation 3, which also hits stores tomorrow.

The $99 price tag is sweet, but the deal is even better than that. Toshiba continues to give away five free movies to anyone that buys an HD DVD player--all you need to do is fill out this form (PDF link) and mail it in. If you're not thrilled about Toshiba's selection of free movies (we're not either), Wal-Mart is also running on a sale on HD DVD movies tomorrow, priced at $14.96 each. That's a pretty significant discount, as most of the HD DVDs we saw at Amazon were priced from $20 to $30.

Not to be outdone, it also looks as if Best Buy is selling the Toshiba HD-A2 for $99 as well. You can't order from Best Buy online, but it seems like if you get to your local Best Buy before they run out of stock, you can nab an HD-A2 for $99.

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If there is one thing that Wal-Mart is keenly aware of, it’s the notion of price sensitivity. No matter how good a product may be, the common consumer will not consider purchasing it unless it is at a price that is comparable to similar, even if inferior, products.

Such is the case with high-definition movies. Even if the common consumer knows that HD movies are noticeably superior to DVD, he or she will not likely invest in the technology until it is deemed affordable.

Although the price of the cheapest HD DVD player is still many times more than that of a budget DVD player, Wal-Mart has determined that a sub-$200 price is right for its customers.

As spotted by a user of the eProductWars website, Wal-Mart had on display the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player priced at $198. According the user post, Wal-Mart will formally begin selling the Toshiba HD DVD player on November 3.

[...]

(10/30/2007)
ERIK GRUENWEDEL

The Blu-ray Disc Association this week is rolling out the stops for a pre-holiday marketing blitz. Select retailers have dropped the retail price of Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player below $200.

But new Jupiter Research indicates just 24% of consumers even consider high-def packaged media when upgrading their home entertainment systems.

The report found that an abundant supply of standard DVD movies, compared to a relative limited number of titles in HD DVD and Blu-ray, has resulted in little motivation among consumers to adopt.

In addition, the study found that the same consumer electronics manufacturers attempting to forward HD packaged media have undermined efforts by flooding the market with inexpensive players that claim to up-convert standard DVD movies to HD quality resolution.

“The real competitor that both of these formats face is not each other, but rather [these] low-cost DVD players … that pass the ‘good enough’ test for most consumers,” said Michael Gartenberg, VP, Jupiter Research and author of the report.

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Battle rages for HD movie supremacy
But costs, incompatibility keeping consumers away

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff
October 30, 2007

Greg Kushmerek of Jamaica Plain likes high-definition television so much, he custom-built a computer just to record HD versions of his favorite shows and play them back in his home theater.

In a replay of the Betamax-VHS war that plagued the early era of home videotape machines, the consumer electronics industry has served up two incompatible systems for high-definition movie disks. A consortium that includes Microsoft Corp. and Japan's Toshiba Corp. is backing a system called HD DVD, while a group dominated by Sony Corp. developed the rival Blu-ray system.

Kushmerek, 39, a senior technical trainer at The MathWorks in Natick, said he wants no part of the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray battle until the industry settles on a unified standard used by all studios because the losing systems will "ultimately turn into glorified door stops."

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HD DVD and Blu-ray: Toward an Endgame
By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews
September 26, 2007, 3:56 PM

In a recent survey of HDTV owners by NPD Group, a full 73% were satisfied with the picture quality provided by upconverted DVDs for them to become too interested in a high-definition disc player of either format. Other figures are equally shocking, suggesting that the high-def format war may already be over. BetaNews spoke at length with the NPD report's lead analyst, Ross Rubin.

If there were just one universally embraced format for high-definition video discs, it would most likely have been introduced just over two years ago, probably at the $1,200 price point. By the spring of 2006, the budget-priced versions would have appeared at around $699.

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