$198 Toshiba A2 at Wal-Mart?

[TheGizzard]

What does this mean for the Format war?

[DealsR4theDevil]

It's a clearence item making room for the next wave of HD DVDs, not really a sale.

[jw]

not much,by the way I hate trolls, hddvd doesnt have studio support, and I guessWal-Mart employees are told this as I got a speech from one of them and obviously he had no actual clue to what blu-ray was."They have disney"

[TheGizzard]

Originally Posted by DealsR4theDevil

It's a clearence item making room for the next wave of HD DVDs, not really a sale.

Rumor has it that Walmart has a ton of these stock piled and coming in tho. It doesn't seem like your typical clearance item, but something more orchestrated than that. People keep saying that $199 is the magic number. And Walmart is about the biggest retailer there is. I dunno. It could make a pretty big dent.

[aphex]

These are limited and will probably sell out. Howver they won't even touch 40gb ps3 sales.
But it would be nice if a bd player did the same.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by TheGizzard

What does this mean for the Format war?

absoultely nothing. you've been able to get an a2 from amazon for 220 off amazon and that hasn't spiked any turn around. remember this is a clearnece item at wal-mart/ joe 6 pac,k shops at walmart and doesn't have an hdtv yet, much less the $ to spend on a dvd player. a walmart employee over at eproductwars.com posted saying that this was in a contract signed with toshiba that has to be done in order to fulfill the contract, but wal mart is done with hd dvd after this and they are all blu-ray.

[aphex]

Altho not a huge blip, these will ALL sell out at that price. But if walmart goes blu after, then it's a more than fair trade!

[stockstar1138]

and don't think for an instance that wal mart is subsidizing these to help hd dvd out, because for some illogical reason they are on their side. toshi has sold these to wal mart at an extreme loss hoping to sell them. toshiba is litterly taking a couple hundred dollar loss on each player at the hopes of selling 30k of these, which wont even remoetly put it at where blu-ray is. most ppl who buy them will run sd dvd on them out of ignorance. its absoutley pathetic and won't make a difference. also remeber this is only in the US and with a limited supply. in the rest of the world blu-ray is completley dominating.

[aphex]

definitely, not to mention these are very shitty 1080i players.

[TheGizzard]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

toshiba is litterly taking a couple hundred dollar loss on each player at the hopes of selling 30k of these

huh? how much do you think they are losing on each one?

[stockstar1138]

ok. heres my reasoning. blu-ray is winning, therefore CE and retail companies are making about equal profit off it. since the lowest blu-ray player goes for 500, it costs the CE 400 to make it, it sells it to the retail for 450, the retail sells it for 500. since hd dvd is cheaper to make, but doesn't have the same economies of scale blu-ray has, it also costst the same for the cheapest model (A2) which is 400, it then is selling it to walmart for 160 min. and wally world sells it for 198. wal mart doesn't take losses on non-loss leading items. they are losing about 140 per player IMO.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Hey TheGizzard. Dude why would you come here? We've already made our decision based on research. You probably rushed out and bought a hd dvd w/o making sure it was a wise investment. Now you're coming to blu-ray.com w/ the obvious intention of steering people towards your mistake knowing deep down that hd dvd's days are numbered. You guys are always saying that cut throat player prices and gimmicky interactive features are going to overcome the overwhelming industry and studio support that clearly favors blu-ray. Never mind your better selection of movies and players blu-ray people we have attach rates and replication costs, fun. You don't really believe all this nonsense, do you? I think if you did you wouldn't be here.
Really, dude, move along. Feel free to come back when you have come to grips w/ the truth.

[TheGizzard]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Hey TheGizzard or whatever part of the chicken you came from. Dude why would you come here? We've already made our decision based on research. You probably rushed out and bought a hd dvd w/o making sure it was a wise investment. Now you're coming to blu-ray.com w/ the obvious intention of steering people towards your mistake knowing deep down that hd dvd's days are numbered. You guys are always saying that cut throat player prices and gimmicky interactive features are going to overcome the overwhelming industry and studio support that clearly favors blu-ray. Never mind your better selection of movies and players blu-ray people we have attach rates and replication costs, fun. You don't really believe all this nonsense, do you? I think if you did you wouldn't be here.
Really, dude, move along. Feel free to come back when you have come to grips w/ the truth.

Whatever Richard. Just asking how you guys felt about it. No need to jump all over my back and get all defensive. You wanna kick me out because I asked a question about something which sounds like a big deal. No problem. I'm out. Enjoy your day.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Hey TheGizzard. Dude why would you come here? We've already made our decision based on research. You probably rushed out and bought a hd dvd w/o making sure it was a wise investment. Now you're coming to blu-ray.com w/ the obvious intention of steering people towards your mistake knowing deep down that hd dvd's days are numbered. You guys are always saying that cut throat player prices and gimmicky interactive features are going to overcome the overwhelming industry and studio support that clearly favors blu-ray. Never mind your better selection of movies and players blu-ray people we have attach rates and replication costs, fun. You don't really believe all this nonsense, do you? I think if you did you wouldn't be here.
Really, dude, move along. Feel free to come back when you have come to grips w/ the truth.

i just checked out his profile and his other posts. he is a troll. i reported him , u shoudl do the same.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by TheGizzard

Whatever Richard. Just asking how you guys felt about it. No need to jump all over my back and get all defensive. You wanna kick me out because I asked a question about something which sounds like a big deal. No problem. I'm out. Enjoy your day.

what a shame that we lost another blu-ray supporter. oh wait your a troll. bye bye.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Come on TheGizzard, not literally, 4 posts by you on cheap hd dvd players. 3 posts claiming Xbox superiority and stability better than what the statistics say. 2 posts on profile 1.1 inefficiencies. Act innocent all you want you're not fooling anybody.

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Come on TheGizzard, not literally, 4 posts by you on cheap hd dvd players. 3 posts claiming Xbox superiority and stability better than what the statistics say. 2 posts on profile 1.1 inefficiencies. Act innocent all you want you're not fooling anybody.

Now I hate trolls, but is that really what he is doing. I would like to think if I went to an HD DVD forum I could say postive things about Blu-ray and negative things about HD DVD and have a discussion about it. In this thread at least all he is doing is trying to find out how we feel about it. I never really post in HD DVD forums but I am sometimes curious about what they think. I dont really think anyone should be banned unless they are harassing someone are posting things that arent true as facts. Asking questions and stating opinions shouldnt get somone banned IMO. But I guess its not up to me.

[GasCat]

This is the second time this has been posted today. Why do they come here though? I don't believe anyone should go to their forums but they continue to come. How immature.

[w_tanoto]

unrelated to BD. should be moved to off-topic.

[JonasK]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

ok. heres my reasoning. blu-ray is winning, therefore CE and retail companies are making about equal profit off it. since the lowest blu-ray player goes for 500, it costs the CE 400 to make it, it sells it to the retail for 450, the retail sells it for 500. since hd dvd is cheaper to make, but doesn't have the same economies of scale blu-ray has, it also costst the same for the cheapest model (A2) which is 400, it then is selling it to walmart for 160 min. and wally world sells it for 198. wal mart doesn't take losses on non-loss leading items. they are losing about 140 per player IMO.

As far as I have seen, the cost for CE to make low-end Blu-ray players are below $200, excluding R&D costs. The difference between a low-end Blu-ray and a low-end HD DVD player is insignificant even neglecting the economics of scale the Blu-ray have for the optical drives. And that's why HD DVD is doomed... Worse performance, same cost (for the CE).