Archived: Insiders Thread

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Rio

Is there any new technology that initially introduced at $1000 level then hits $100 level only one year since inception? Toshiba is indeed destroying eco-system of the industry by artificial pricing tactics...

Do I hear $49.99 for the next NOS (new old stock) HD DVD player plus two free HD DVD discs?

At this point, it is getting rather amusing.
Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

[maximus2323]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do I hear $49.99 for the next NOS (new old stock) HD DVD player plus two free HD DVD discs?

At this point, it is getting rather amusing.
Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

[Bombthroat]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

You'll probably only have to wait another week or two to get a buy one for $29.99 get two free plus 15 free movies and a $29.99 mail-in rebate.

[bluflu]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do I hear $49.99 for the next NOS (new old stock) HD DVD player plus two free HD DVD discs?

At this point, it is getting rather amusing.
Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

And I bet a boat load of other manufactures are just waiting for Toshiba HD DVD players to fall below $30 so they can jump right in.

[jsb_hburg]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

Alas, an intervention may be in order.

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do I hear $49.99 for the next NOS (new old stock) HD DVD player plus two free HD DVD discs?

At this point, it is getting rather amusing.

I agree, but I hope the various decision makers are less fooled by all this than many forum users.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

For $29.99 I'll bite too, but only if I can get one at the pharmacy counter.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do I hear $49.99 for the next NOS (new old stock) HD DVD player plus two free HD DVD discs?

At this point, it is getting rather amusing.
Truth be told people, I may just bite when they get down to $29.99 because I need a player for the little TV in my garage.

Im glad you're amused, but please tell me the BDA has a way to counter this.
The BDA cant sit by and do nothing like they did with Paramount

[Ben]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Im glad you're amused, but please tell me the BDA has a way to counter this.
The BDA cant sit by and do nothing like they did with Paramount

I seriously doubt the BDA "did nothing" about Paramount. That's pretty presumptuous of you.

If Mercedes started selling the C class at $10,000 and BMW refused to match that price with the 3-series, would they be doing nothing too?

Pricing things so low and so far below cost that you aren't even allowed by law to sell them in certain states is the definition of bad, shortsighted business. Toshiba is essentially goading lower income customers into becoming their trash dump for a product no one wants. How wonderful of them.

[zed0118]

Originally Posted by Ben

I seriously doubt the BDA "did nothing" about Paramount. That's pretty presumptuous of you.

If Mercedes started selling the C class at $10,000 and BMW refused to match that price with the 3-series, would they be doing nothing too?

Pricing things so low that you aren't even allowed by law to sell them that way in certain states is the definition of bad, shortsighted business. Toshiba is essentially goading lower income customers into becoming their trash dump for a product no one wants. How wonderful of them.

I agree. Let's just consider Toshiba the Trailer Trash of the Hi-Def arena.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Ben

I seriously doubt the BDA "did nothing" about Paramount. That's pretty presumptuous of you.

If Mercedes started selling the C class at $10,000 and BMW refused to match that price with the 3-series, would they be doing nothing too?

Pricing things so low and so far below cost that you aren't even allowed by law to sell them in certain states is the definition of bad, shortsighted business. Toshiba is essentially goading lower income customers into becoming their trash dump for a product no one wants. How wonderful of them.

Hey, calm down. Im not saying they need to lower the price down to $100, but Im just saying I hope they have some really good promotions up their sleave to neutralize this firesale by Toshiba.

In fact, I have one GREAT idea:

Why not get all the CEs to throw in a free (or at least heavily discounted) 1.0 spec bluray player with the purchase of every HDTV from those brands (ala have Panasonic provide a Panasonic brand bluray player). They may also want to give Vizio a call and see if they can be enticed for this promotion. Toshiba would not be able to effectively counter this because they are one and the BDA is many. If Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic and of course Sony all ganged up for this Toshiba would not be able to do anything about it.

Afterall, HDTVs are supposed to be the hot item this season and that is a crowd that needs to be taken advantage of.

Just a thought or something along those lines.

Many sources tell me the BDA is getting ready to play hardball and I just hope they do it sooner rather than later.

[Papi4baby]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Hey, calm down. Im not saying they need to lower the price down to $100, but Im just saying I hope they have some really good promotions up their sleave to neutralize this firesale by Toshiba.

In fact, I have one GREAT idea:

Why not get all the CEs to throw in a free (or at least heavily discounted) 1.0 spec bluray player with the purchase of every HDTV from those brands (ala have Panasonic provide a Panasonic brand bluray player). They may also want to give Vizio a call and see if they can be enticed for this promotion. Toshiba would not be able to effectively counter this because they are one and the BDA is many. If Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic and of course Sony all ganged up for this Toshiba would not be able to do anything about it.

Afterall, HDTVs are supposed to be the hot item this season and that is a crowd that needs to be taken advantage of.

Just a thought or something along those lines.

Many sources tell me the BDA is getting ready to play hardball and I just hope they do it sooner rather than later.

Great idea, at least a 50% off discount towards a BD player purchase...are you reading this BDA???

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Why not get all the CEs to throw in a free (or at least heavily discounted) 1.0 spec bluray player with the purchase of every HDTV from those brands (ala have Panasonic provide a Panasonic brand bluray player).

I would be happy if they just did something like, "Buy Ratatouille or Cars on Blu-ray and get $100 off a player" for the 1.0 players, or even just the Sony player, next week starting on Tuesday. One tactic is to do big promotions in weeks that are weak, another is to use a strong week to push real hard and try to push lots of people into taking action. I think starting Monday or Tuesday would be a great time for Blu-ray to make a real push with players, just before some better titles show up on HD DVD and also just before Panasonic's 1.1 player that can bitstream DTS-HD MA comes out anyway. And I think it would be good timing right after Toshiba has a few days of glory. I would ask insiders if anything like this is going to happen next week, but I doubt anybody could say anything even if it was. I think even one of the manufacturers (Sony, Sharp, or Samsung especially) matching the $399 MSRP of the 40GB PS3 soon with one of their current players would go a long ways toward keeping HD DVD from gaining too much momentum. People may be justified in calling HD DVD's moves desperate, but if they work and they are allowed to gain momentum these last 2 months of the year, they won't be in a desperate position after that (and beating them will then get very expensive, IMO).

--Darin

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

For $29.99 I'll bite too, but only if I can get one at the pharmacy counter.

Dude,
Are you an elitist ?
You mean you won’t stand in the long lines with the common folk buying a year's worth of toilet paper ?

My only reservation is that once I walk out the door of Wal*Mart and get home, somebody announces an HD DVD player for $19.99 at BestBuy and I'll feel like a fool for pulling the trigger too soon.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Im glad you're amused, but please tell me the BDA has a way to counter this.
The BDA cant sit by and do nothing like they did with Paramount

I’m not worried.
The BDA isn’t worried.
You shouldn’t be worried.

The Blu-ray Grand Counsel is not complacent.

[Elandyll]

Some poeple are going to feel like suckers when Those HD DVD players end up at a Walgreens near the cashier among the chewing gums and mini laser pointer Leds, at $5.99 + Free disc

this being said

You shouldn’t be worried.

That we cannot know Penton
We don't have much infos on this end, only one weird anounce after the other that "the sky is falling", from HD DVDs at $199, Kmart exclusivity, and now those same players at $98...
Wait ... If I had bought a $299 HD DVD player just a month aggo I'd be royally pissed ...

But yeah, I guess we could use some cheerin' up about the BDA plans for Nov/Dec.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Seretur

Thanks for the Zsigmond question, Paidgeek.

If I can generalise a bit -- how important is it for Sony and other encoders to have a given film's cinematographer actually consult on the transfer and encode? We're seeing a lot of director approved transfers recently, and while it's a step in the right direction to be sure, the DP is usually the ultimate authority on the way a film was meant to be seen.

As an example, I spoke to Chris Doyle last year, and he assured me he had nothing to do with any of the DVD transfers of his Wong Kar Wai titles. Therefore, there isn't a single home video version of, say, In the Mood for Love -- one of the most gorgeous films ever -- that actually looks the way it was meant to look. Disheartening a bit, isn't it?

This is a long topic that I am fortunate not to deal with day to day. From what I can gather from the folks that handle the transfers, the director has the final say in who supervises the transfer on his behalf. These days, there can be a lot of adjustment done in the transfer step or in digital intermediate, so it is important that the right persons are involved. I think the DP involvement really depends on the relationship between the director and the DP, but my impression is that it is the DP's job to capture the director's intention for the shot. If the director want to make tint it blue and take the wrinkles off the actors face in DI, that is his prerogative.

[aristotles]

Calm down. HD DVD is the laughing stock of the industry. If the harry potter collection costs more than an HD DVD player, do you think that people are going to buy it and HD DVD titles for it?

Wal-mart sells DVD players for less than 40 bucks Canadian but that does not mean every buys those cheap brands.

[aphex]

Warner is what's important. They'll see a hundred thousand or so Hddvd players sell and be impressed. Then they'll see a few million ps3's sell and go bluray exclusive.

[hoser]

While considering this Toshiba pricing "strategy," I find it difficult to believe HD-DVD will be a viable future format.
From my POV, it appears that Toshiba is dumping their product for a few bucks before THE DEATH becomes official.

If Universal goes neutral or WB becomes exclusive, it will be time for the fat lady to roll out on stage....

[FTX]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

The disc will also include all the major subtitled languages:

English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (for hearing impaired), Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovene, Swedish, Turkish.

The disc will be coded for all regions.

I would have expect Spanish to be included too? Anyway, have agreement with the wife, not buying any title that doesn't have Spanish subtitles for her.

F