DailyTech - Update: Why Wait for Wal-Mart; Circuit City Lists Toshiba HD DVD Player for $197.99

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Hardware Update: Why Wait for Wal-Mart; Circuit City Lists Toshiba HD DVD Player for $197.99
Brandon Hill (Blog) - October 29, 2007 8:20 AM

44 comment(s) - last by wallijonn.. on Oct 31 at 12:15 PM

Toshiba HD-A2 available for $197.99 right now

Yesterday, DailyTech reported that Wal-Mart was preparing to drop the price on Toshiba's 1080i HD-A2 HD DVD player. Images were taken of a Wal-Mart aisle end cap with the HD-A2 listed for $198. According to user who posted the picture online, the new price is to take effect on November 3.

Well, it appears that Circuit City has beaten Wal-Mart to the punch and is currently offering the HD-A2 for $197.99. The player is available online with free shipping or if having the player in your hands right now is a priority, you can choose in-store pickup.

Toshiba's HD-A2 was originally released in December 2006 with a $499 price tag. Over the past year, the price for the player has steadily dropped to $399 in April and to $299 in July. Toshiba's long-running five free HD DVD movie offer [PDF] has also been available to give customers more bang for the buck.

The Toshiba HD-A2 supports a 1080i resolution and comes equipped with an HDMI 1.2 port. The player features a SHARC DSP and supports Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, DTS 5.1 and DTS HD audio formats.

Updated 10/29/2007
$197.99 appears to the be the new retail price for the Toshiba HD-A2. Amazon.com is also showing the lower price tag. Other retailers are likely to follow.

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Nice...

By mdogs444 on 10/27/2007 10:38:17 AM , Rating: 5

Get a $2 filler item, and match with a $40 off $200 coupong (found on slick deals), and get a heck of a deal!

RE: Nice...

By jtemplin on 10/27/2007 10:42:27 AM , Rating: 6

Who reads DT on saturday morning??

Oh...crap

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RE: Nice...

By MatthewAC on 10/27/2007 11:05:17 AM , Rating: 2

LOL, I am ROTFL XD.

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RE: Nice...

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 10/27/2007 12:02:32 PM , Rating: 2

Same. =(

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RE: Nice...

By therealnickdanger on 10/29/2007 10:31:31 AM , Rating: 2

Perhaps another update:

Sears and Sears.com will be selling the NEW HD-A3 for $169.99 on Black Friday:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=92...

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RE: Nice...

By borowki on 10/27/07, Rating: 0

RE: Nice...

By mdogs444 on 10/27/2007 2:40:01 PM , Rating: 3

No im not euro. Coupons are only good for the total price - BEFORE TAX. Thats everywhere dude, where have you been?

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RE: Nice...

By MGSsancho on 10/27/2007 7:37:27 PM , Rating: 2

playing WoW

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RE: Nice...

By Oregonian2 on 10/29/2007 3:07:49 PM , Rating: 2

Here in Oregon, there's no sales tax anyway!

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RE: Nice...

By akugami on 10/27/2007 3:29:36 PM , Rating: 3

Can we get this a 6?

And let's drop it into the classic comments below all the posts.

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RE: Nice...

By Spuke on 10/27/2007 1:01:34 PM , Rating: 2

Couldn't find the coupon you were talking about.

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RE: Nice...

By Mitch101 on 10/27/2007 3:32:24 PM , Rating: 5

JPG Version
http://www.pulverizer72.com/scans/ccitycoupons.jpg

PDF Version.
http://www.pulverizer72.com/scans/cc_40_off_199_co...

I have the sunday paper ask your neighbor if you threw it out or dont get it that will have the best success rate. Most of the time they have the flyers at the front door of the store or ask a sales rep to see a flyer.

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RE: Nice...

By Spuke on 10/27/2007 9:21:15 PM , Rating: 2

Thank you!!!!!!! I'd rate you up if I wasn't logged in.

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Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By Mitch101 on 10/27/2007 12:13:22 PM , Rating: 3

Quick google found the $40.00 off $200.00 coupon so its $160.00. All three of my local stores have it.

The printable coupon is good till 3/31 it appears to be a sunday paper run coupon. Not sure how long the price of the HD-DVD player will be but with Walmart selling it for the same soon I imaging its going to stay this price.

Cant get there till monday here's hoping they still have them.

Thanks DT.

RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By FITCamaro on 10/27/2007 12:48:09 PM , Rating: 2

Uh...mind telling me where that coupon is. Because the one I found was good from 2/1/07 - 3/31/07. So its about 7 months too late.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By SunAngel on 10/27/07, Rating: -1

RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By FITCamaro on 10/27/2007 1:39:49 PM , Rating: 3

It's hardly a subpar product. It just doesn't support 1080p. That's really not that big of an issue. Especially for people (like me) with a 720p TV. And any good 1080p can easily and flawlessly convert a 1080i signal to 1080p (and LCDs and Plasmas do this anyway).

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By Mitch101 on 10/27/2007 3:22:54 PM , Rating: 2

Doh! you right SunAngel my bad typo 10/31 and no edit function.

As for 1080i vs 1080P I have a 65" HDTV and my Buddy has close to that (61" or 63" I think). Mine is 1080i and his 1080P. In Movies we both agree mine looks better than his especially wood tones. I calibrated mine. In sports we both agree again his looks better than mine (High Contrast?). Im betting its how we have ours calibrated more than anything else.

Both look incredible and for the record both are technically 1080 lines of resolution.

Funny we think my 720P projector beats both of them in a near pitch black room and that runs at 108". Fitcamaro is right its not that big a deal being 1080i over 1080P.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By BansheeX on 10/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By BMFPitt on 10/29/2007 12:35:11 AM , Rating: 2

So explain why the vast majority of us who have non 1080p HDTVs should care? I'll surely be able to buy a much nicer and cheaper player in this (or the next) format by the time I buy another TV that supports 1080p (or higher.)

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By SunAngel on 10/29/07, Rating: -1

RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By masher2

(blog) on 10/29/2007 12:21:06 PM , Rating: 5

> "man, i'll tell you. noob postings on the 1080i/1080p issue is getting stupid"

The "noobs" are those who don't understand that there are differences in an interlaced signal between broadcast video and an HD disc player. A 1080i signal from such a player has the frames synched in the temporal domain, which means it can be bit-identically deinterlaced to the original 1080p signal. No image quality loss whatsoever; just a simple "bob-and-weave" operation.

In fact, all the original "1080p" BD players are doing just that deinterlacing anyway...its' just happening within the player, rather than your TV. The original 1080p source is output as 1080i by the chipset, then reconverted to 1080p just before being ouptut by the player.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By bplewis24 on 10/29/2007 2:28:44 PM , Rating: 3

The "noobs" are also the ones that assume that just because a 1080i signal can be deinterlaced bit-indentically, that it will be always. For example the current generation of HDTV flat panels have a minority of TVS that actually pass 1080i film resolution loss tests.

Brandon

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By masher2

(blog) on 10/29/2007 2:44:35 PM , Rating: 3

> "For example the current generation of HDTV flat panels have a minority of TVS that actually pass 1080i film resolution loss tests"

I'd be interested in seeing that link. Here's a link to loss test between a 1080i source (HD-A2) and a 1080p source (BDP-S300), in which both players scored equally in both film resolution loss and video reconstruction.

http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2007/06...

In any case, the primary point is such tests are done with reference disks and evaluated by professionals. Your average consumer viewing movies isn't going to see a difference regardless, even if their HDTV "screws up" the deinterlacing. Anyone who says 'I won't buy 1080i' regardless of other factors is being sadly misinformed.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By BansheeX on 10/29/07, Rating: 0

RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By Locutus465 on 10/30/2007 10:12:11 AM , Rating: 2

Well, unfortunetly I'm going to lose my mods in this artical to post this... but seriously, downscaling and deinterlacing? You do realize that all HD video is stored in progressive? and all players support 720P? Just so you stay informed, my HD-DVD collection looks much better on my 50" Toshiba 720P TV than upscaled DVDs which are which some times look really nice and other times look like absolutly horrible (particularly with fast movement on screen).

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By Spuke on 10/27/2007 1:06:40 PM , Rating: 2

Did a quick Google search and found no such coupon. Please post a link.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By teng029 on 10/27/2007 5:53:35 PM , Rating: 5

so i tried this just now. the saying that if something is too good to be true, it probably is applies here.

the coupon is in store only. circuit city will not match their own price for the hd-dvd player. the excuse i got was that it was too much of a price difference for them to price match. they want you to purchase it from the website and pick it up in the store.

the problem with this is that the website will not accept the 40.00 off coupon because its in store only. so they basically told me it was either the coupon or buy the player from the website and void the 40.00 off. and this was from the store manager.

so i told him to go f**k himself.

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RE: Printable Coupon $40.00 off $200.00

By StillPimpin on 10/29/2007 9:21:31 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
so i told him to go f**k himself.

Great! I logged in just to rate you up on that one.

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Hmm...

By andrewsdw on 10/27/2007 1:16:25 PM , Rating: 2

I thought HD-DVD couldn't do Dolby and DTS True HD because of limitations in the format (can't remember but it was either due to the size of the disc or the processing power in the player)? That's cool if it does.

RE: Hmm...

By andrewsdw on 10/27/2007 1:21:37 PM , Rating: 3

BTW does this come with 5 free movies like the BR players?

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RE: Hmm...

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 10/27/2007 1:31:47 PM , Rating: 2

Yes, you can still do the five free movies. PDF link is in the article.

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RE: Hmm...

By DesertCat on 10/27/2007 3:15:22 PM , Rating: 2

As far as Dolby TrueHD, the devil is in the fine print. When you look at the detailed specs page at Toshiba here:

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvr/product.asp?model=...

you will see that it lists "DTS® HD (core only)". From what I read at other sites, the "(core only)" means that it is really only doing the equivalent of regular DTS.

The difference between full DTS-HD and only the core is explained, to some degree, here:

http://www.dtsonline.com/dts-hd/better-sound-today...

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RE: Hmm...

By DesertCat on 10/27/2007 3:16:50 PM , Rating: 2

Sorry crossed over thoughts on DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD. According to my latest Crutchfield catalog, Dolby TrueHD is only available through HDMI.

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RE: Hmm...

By bplewis24 on 10/28/2007 12:53:09 AM , Rating: 2

You were probably misled by some blu-ray fans who didn't know what they were talking about. There is no such limitation for HD-DVD. The only thing I can think of that you may have heard is that a particular release didn't have enough size left on the disc for a lossless track compared to blu-ray. But in most circumstances that's not the case.

On another note, Circuit City continues to be very aggressive in pricing. If you keep tabs on it you'll notice they have some of the better pricing around for B&M stores, and constantly have drastic price drops for no apparent reason.

Brandon

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$197.99 = $197?

By Lonyo on 10/27/07, Rating: -1

RE: $197.99 = $197?

By FITCamaro on 10/27/2007 12:50:26 PM , Rating: 1

Does a dollar matter when you're spending almost $200?

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RE: $197.99 = $197?

By xphile on 10/29/2007 3:46:56 AM , Rating: 2

Nobody could ever say a dollar matters - but what I'm confused about is how a $500 HD-DVD player can go to under $200 in well less than one year and there aren't a million people screaming blue murder and demanding that the Toshiba CEO writes a personal apology on his web site and give them all at least a 100 store credit ;-)

Sorry just couldn't resist.

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RE: $197.99 = $197?

By StillPimpin on 10/29/2007 9:30:30 AM , Rating: 2

Because it didn't happen in just 2 MONTHS!

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RE: $197.99 = $197?

By wallijonn on 10/31/2007 12:15:38 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I'm confused about is how a $500 HD-DVD player can go to under $200 in well less than one year

Isn't that exactly what happened when the $1000 Sony BR player went down to $500?

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RE: $197.99 = $197?

By mikefarinha on 10/27/2007 1:39:57 PM , Rating: 1

You must never have taken "Marketing Math 101"

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RE: $197.99 = $197?

By SunAngel on 10/27/2007 2:13:25 PM , Rating: 1

LOL!, or he fail his studies at the College of DailyTech.

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WAIT WAIT WAIT, why wait you say?

By ChipDude on 10/28/07, Rating: -1

By ChipDude on 10/28/2007 6:40:51 PM , Rating: -1

Today you can get an upscale 1080p for less then 100 bucks!

If you simply can't wait then I guess go out and blow about twice that for a HD-DVD. I guess you get a little resolution pop, but the selection of movies don't make it a sales for me, even at 200 bucks.

Rest assured by black Friday prices will be even lower and by next Christmas you'll have your pick of players from all manufactures below 100 bucks. Now at a hundred bucks I'll be willing to spring for a new player!

Except for proving your ability to spend more then you need there is simply no reason to rush out and get a next generation DVD player. Todays upscale generation of players are more then acceptible for most HDTVs up to 50".

Between BR and HD-DVD at somepoint in the next couple years one will fold. The Targets, Walmarts, Costc, BestBuy etc. simply are NOT going to devote the floor space to two different formats. People say you can never have too much memory or in this case storage, to those I say nothing is for free!

Who ever gets to 199 and 99 bucks first will win. The laws of numbers can't be overcome. BR must match HD-DVD price and quickly. Today there is still too much confusion and price will still be the final swinger.

Just ask sony marketing monkeys about the power of having the largest or smallest installed user base.