HD DVD Extends Five Free Movies Offer
Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:02AM EDT
See Comments (10)
It's about time. After many pronounced HD DVD all but dead following the addition of five free Blu-ray discs with any Blu-ray player purchase, Toshiba has extended its own "get five discs" free offer for HD DVD for another few months, intensifying the war between the two bitter rivals. (Toshiba called after I posted this to ask me to note that it has been running this promotion for some time now and that the Blu-ray folks copied the deal, not the other way around. Fair enough; sorry if that was originally unclear.)
Fifteen titles are available, including Apollo 13, Seabiscuit, and Casablanca. (I dare say the titles are better looking on the whole than the Blu-ray freebies. The full list can be found here. [PDF link])
So, putting aside the contentious quality question equal, how do the prices and bundles measure up? Toshiba's cheapest HD DVD player, the HD-A2, can be had for about $210. But that player doesn't include 1080p; you'll need to upgrade to the HD-A20, about $300 at its least expensive, to get the best resolution currently available. The cheapest Blu-ray players I can find are $400 and up; the Samsung BD-P1200 includes 1080p, as well. So HD DVD is still a much better deal. Of course, that's pretty meaningless if it vanishes in the next 12 months...
It's also important to note that the Blu-ray offer applies to any brand of Blu-ray player, while the HD DVD offer is Toshiba-only. Both offers expire on September 30.
So, HD DVD isn't giving up the fight so easily. But how about you: Does this offer sway you toward HD DVD?
(A reader writes in to note that this deal is now being offered by Microsoft with its Xbox 360 HD DVD attachment, too.)
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2 Posted by jnjenfield on Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:33PM EDT Report Abuse
The whole HD vs Blu Ray thing kind of irks me. Why cant there be just one format? It's the VHS vs Beta Max war all over again. I guess I'll wait until one format wins. By then, there should be several models of the winning format-playing machines out there that don't cost an arm and a leg. If klacour is right and the PS3 winds up being the cheapest Blu Ray player so much the better since I'd like to get a PS3 when their price drops a bit more. $499 is still too much for a beefed up PS2.
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3 Posted by rogueist on Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:59PM EDT Report Abuse
I think that when the HD VMD player----- the market at $120 for a player the HD wars will end. They are already the international standard for HD, the US is the only holdout.
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4 Posted by larrysgiantyankees on Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:33PM EDT Report Abuse
I just wish this war would end and that HD would give up already. Sales show Blu Ray is being favored by more then 2 to 1 and with the current Blu ray sales and major 4th quarter releases it should reach 3 to 1 and 4 to 1 by the end of the year.
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5 Posted by tmitchell30@rogers.com on Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:55PM EDT Report Abuse
I love HD DVD. The web-enabled extras and In-Movie-Experience on "300" and "Blood Diamond" are amazing I must admit (Blu-ray can't even do the things that HD DVD can do), and I can't wait now that all of Universal's future HD DVD titles will have these features. HD DVD is also region free, so I can buy HD DVDs from anywhere in the world (a lot of Blu-ray movies are on HD DVD for import from Europe). It's great that Toshiba has extended its 5 free promotion, it really gives the buyer tremendous bang-for-the-buck (worth about $150) so buying a Toshiba HD DVD player is a no brainer imo, especially when it upscales as good as if not better than some of the best upscalers on the market. It makes all of my old DVDs look fantastic. :)
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1 Posted by klacour on Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:43AM EDT Report Abuse
It looks like a menu in a chinese restarant! One from column A, one from colum B, etc. The list of movies is good (except for Constantine and Dukes), some very good to excellent (Casablanca!). Unfortunately, you can't pick any five from the list. BTW - I am still on the sidelines in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war. I have a very nice Samsung DVD recorder, with HDMI upconvert. I'll be happy with that for the foreseeable future. What will be interesting (to me at least) is to see what the price cut in the PS3 60gb has on market share. Rumor is Sony will allow the 60gb stock run out, then kick down the 80gb price (possibly around Christmas?) Based upon your current research into prices, the PS3 could become the cheapest Blu-Ray "player" on the market. But, I'll still wait and see. I didn't make the jump into CDs until after I won a bunch of Beatle CDs froma local radio station. "What am I going to do with these?" Shortly after, someone bought me my first CD player.