We posted a story last week regarding Kmart’s decision to support the HD DVD standard somewhat exclusively. Kmart has fired back to the media announcing that they are not picking sides in the battle, and they are happy to carry both formats in their stores.
I once worked for Best Buy, so I’m more than familiar with some of their less-than-honorable practices. They’ve developed a rather tarnished reputation over the last few years for things like bait-and-switch tactics and constant mis-prints on their website, so it’s refreshing when they actually do something nice for a change.
They recently had the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player marked down to $99 (yes, the same as Walmart did). Unfortunately, they quickly ran out of stock, and many customers got stuck with a backorder notice. However, that particular player has been discontinued, so there won’t be anymore coming.
When I’m contemplating the purchase of a high-end electronic device, Kmart doesn’t exactly top the list of places I’m going to look. Honestly, it doesn’t even make the list at all, I’m not even sure when I last graced the door of my local Kmart. The sad thing is that I pass it on a regular basis, I just feel no need to stop in.
Just when you thought one day of death and mayhem on the Friday after Thanksgiving was too much, Wal-Mart goes and decides to do it every Friday in November with a few deals each time that are likely to incite rage on par with the T-Virus. One of the deals for this Friday is that fames Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player for $98.87.
Take that Blu-Ray Disc Association! The cheapest Blu-Ray player is still sitting at about $400 and that’s on sale.
One of the major requirements for a HTPC is silent operations, and the system noise usually comes from fans and other moving parts in computer such as optical drives. Asus introduced the HR-0205T, the quietest HD DVD drive in the market.
Remember that sub-$200 HD DVD player that we told you Walmart would be carrying? Well it supposedly won’t be hitting their shelves until November 3rd, however, you don’t need to wait that long to get your hands on one.
If you head over to Circuit City’s website you’ll find Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player being sold for $197.99. That’s the same model that Walmart is rumored to be selling for roughly the same price.
So first there was a rumor floating around about a new Xbox 360 SKU that would include an internal HD DVD player. Sometime afterwards Toshiba stepped up and denied the rumor, smashing any hopes that we would be able to minimize the number of cables in our home theater setup. Now Toshiba is back saying that they were misquoted.
In fact they are going to be selling them for about $198 each. That would make them the cheapest standalone HD format player available.
They aren’t some cheap knockoff’s either, they are the real deal Toshiba A2 HD-DVD players. So if you have an HDTV and don’t have an Xbox 360 that you could just buy and HD-DVD drive for, I’d highly recommend getting one of these.
Take two high-definition DVD players into the shower? Not me – and here’s the science bit. Samsung are gearing up to release their “Duo HD” player, the BD-UP5000, in the USA come December; it’s capable of playing both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles in delicious full 1080p quality.
There have been some rumors floating about the interweb of yet another Xbox 360 SKU. This time it would include a built-in HD DVD player in the console, rather than having to rely on an external unit for your high-def needs.
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