HD DVD Will win and this is why:

Of course nobody here knows the answer to that. I wouldn't be surprised if there were even making money still. Who really knows how much it costs to make one of these things. With normal DVD players selling for $30 it's not out of the question to think an HD DVD player selling at $100 could make a profit.

What surprises me is that this sale is for the A2, not the A3. As best I can tell the A3 really doesn't offer anything significant over the A2. So my guess is that it's really just a cost-reduced version of the A2 with maybe a little tweaking. I'd guess that the A3 is significantly cheaper than the A2 for Toshiba to build, thus higher profit than the A2 if selling for the same price. But it's the A2 that's on sale. Maybe they just haven't ramped up A3 production enough to cover he expected demand.

Check Toshiba for specs. There are a number of improvements in the A3 vs A2. I Suspect that Walmart is selling these as a special and to eliminate inventory.
 
Did you guys read the link I posted. According to Bill (good source) Toshiba made a deal with WalMart (and BestBuy) to dump these players, "You may have heard by now that Toshiba has made pre-Black Friday arrangements with Wal-Mart to effectively dump its HD-A2 HD-DVD player starting this Friday (this weekend only) for just $98.87. You may also have heard that Best Buy has followed suit.". If you haven't read the entier link I'd recommend it for a good reason why Toshiba is doing this.
 
Did you guys read the link I posted. According to Bill (good source) Toshiba made a deal...
Trusting Bill on HD/BD issues is the same as trusting Microsoft on how reliable Windows is... or Sony on what DRM should be allowed to do... :D

Diogen.
 
You are telling me that you know how much WalMart paid Toshiba per unit?
And now they are taking a $150 hit on this single item even before Xmas sales?

Sorry, I don't believe it...

Diogen.

I prefer to believe the person who actually has the numbers in front of her and has access to Walmart's complete inventory system. If you choose not to believe that is your choice but that is the truth.
 
Read my most recent posts and you'll see how.

Yeah, I did since posting.

No offense to you or your spouse but I don't believe it. I don't think they are going to take a hit of $150 per unit without Toshiba reimbursing them to at least break even. To which, Toshiba is eating the cost. Think about it... Walmart could keep them at $198 and only take a $50 loss and the darn things would move. They could move them at $300 over time and make some $$$ off them.

My thought is that maybe they originally paid $250 each with Toshiba, as they had a suggested retail of over double that, but that Toshiba has worked out some kind of deal with Walmart, whether it be a credit back to Walmart or whatever. But Walmart isn't going to eat it on thousands of units across the country.
 
My thought is that maybe they originally paid $250 each with Toshiba, as they had a suggested retail of over double that, but that Toshiba has worked out some kind of deal with Walmart, whether it be a credit back to Walmart or whatever. But Walmart isn't going to eat it on thousands of units across the country.

This actually makes sense. The cost my wife sees is what Walmart originally paid to Toshiba when the units first arrived and is the cost an individual store pays. But it won't reflect any special deals made at the home office where Toshiba gives Walmart the corporation a wad of cash. But the individual stores will show a loss for this which affects their individual bottom line which affects employees profit sharing bonus checks. But the big wigs in Arkansas bonus' are better because the overall corporate bottom line isn't affected.
 
FYI

the following are 1080p



And once again, for the millionth time, No Toshiba player is outputting plain old "1080i" like comes from your D* or E* reciever. It is outputting 1080i60 which converts to 1080p24


Thanks for the info... sorry for my ignorance on the issue.

Looks like I have the ok to try and find one of these things tomorrow (or maybe at midnight if I'm still up...).
 
Did you guys read the link I posted. According to Bill (good source)...
I did read that post you linked. I've never heard of this Bill Hunt person before. Just reading his words, he did not strike me as being a good source about much. It read more like a rant of some kind. He sounds a bit pompous. He comes off as "I'm right, I know everything, and the rest of you are idiots." It's obvious that he's stating his opinions (which is fine), but he's presenting them as if they were facts. That's annoying and condescending. I'm sorry - just the way he worded things gave me an instant feeling of "yeuch" for the guy.
 
Wow not really a BD or HD fan (I'm not a huge DVD watcher) but even for me at $100 pretty good DVD player is a bargain and I would go grab one now. I have to say the first shot in the last battle has been fired and it looks like HD-DVD is on the winning side. Good thing Sony has strong sales from TVs because it looks like they are going to lose both the Gaming side and the Media side of this war.

BTW it has been reported that each store had 36 in stock * ~4000 US stores = 1.4 million HD-DVD A2's sold today. That is a rather quick jump in the installed base. This also doesn't include the CC and BB price matching that is going on right now as well.

EDIT [ $1.4 ] million NOT it is 144,000
 
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BTW it has been reported that each store had 36 in stock * ~4000 US stores = 1.4 million HD-DVD A2's sold today.
I think there is a footnote, "in participating stores only".
So you can safely cut that number in half...

Diogen.
 
3 stores in my area each had 36 players. The one I was at, they were selling very fast.
 
If they only sell 0.5 mln, including price matching from other retailers, it would be a big step for HD in the right direction.

And by the time this is played out, Microsoft should drop the price of their add-on to $99...
The Elite effect is subsiding, something has to be done on that front, too.

Diogen.
 
You guys should check your math ;)
But even if they sell around 100,000, this is not a small number for one day. At this price they could sell several times more if they wanted to.
 

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