Toshiba Price Policy Announced

[Rob.D.inToronto]

The off sale prices of the A2 and A20 will be reset to what last months sale prices where.

"In other HD DVD news, the company said that promotional pricing levels on its HD DVD players in May and June will become standard suggested retails July 1. The HD-A2 is now $299, while the HD-A20 is $399. The top-of-the-line HD-XA2 continues at $799."

I guess that means the sale price of the A2 will finally drop below 200, which hopefully means we'll see a sub 150 CDN price model soon.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6456373.html

...now if only we can get the BD guys to sell me their stuff at 199.00!

[Rob.D.inToronto]

also from same article...
Toshiba also said that it will add 24p frame-rate output to its HD-AX2 and HD-A20 through an update planned in September.

[nickdalodger]

Whats the chances of Europe getting these prices

Low I imagine......But I can dream

[tranzparentl]

Can't you guys in Europe order one online from a US dealer?
I know some sites probably won't ship to Europe but there has to be someone that will.

[KaneRobot]

Very nice. I wish they'd drop the XA2 but I'll take what I can get.

Once I track down a sale on a A20, it's going to be pretty tempting to upgrade from my 360 add-on.

[hogie]

Originally Posted by Rob.D.inToronto

...now if only we can get the BD guys to sell me their stuff at 199.00!

I don't see that happening any time soon. I've heard Sony is loosing money already with their blu-ray players, how much further can they go before their stock holders jump up and say "we aren't making any profit here...cut and run, or your fired!"...makes me wonder?

Plus, Toshiba is still making a minor profit at $299...who's to say they can't do what Sony is doing and offer a $75 stand alone player?

[DrMaustus]

Wish we had a retailer in Canada that offered anything close to these prices. Last time I checked, Futureshop and BB had the A20 at $599 or so, which is ridiculous. We should be paying something like $429 or so at most. It's too bad we don't have much competition, as we can't order electronics from places like Amazon.

[nelll]

I have a feeling that we'll see an HD DVD player at 199 or 189 for the holidays. I am planning to get me another one for my second room.

[gtr]

Amazon never raised prices back up. It's been $299 since the s300 was released. Current player rankings on amazon. A2 (sold by amazon) #7 (continues to drop from like #3 earlier this week), s300 $499 (sold by vanns on amazon) #15, bdp1200 $488 (sold by etronics on amazon) #19, a20 $393 (sold by amazon) #20, xa2 $603 (sold by amazon) #25. Yep, that's right. The more expensive s300 AND bdp1200 while being sold out at amazon have kicked the cheaper a20 to the curb and the a2 at $299 continues to drop. It's a desperation move especially since they know the blu-ray 5 disk promotion is just around the corner. Who would have thought that blu-ray players could take the #2 and #3 spots away from toshiba on amazon while sold out at that...Toshiba is so desperate,they have no choice,the bluray stand alone players are selling great.Toshiba is sweating bullets

[Swearengen]

Ken Graffeo, co-President of the HD DVD Promotions Group told Video Business that his organization has found that price is the biggest motivating factor for consumers when it comes to buying a high-def disc player.

So he did huh!?!?

I would reckon content in the form of movies, beeing a motivation factor quite a lot more valuable to people. I have an XA2 (actually the european equivalent XE1) a great player, but I'm not the least impressed by the overall quality of this years HD-DVD releases. A 19$ HD-DVD player with 20 boring mainstream movies thrown in, is not an incentive for watching more movies. You got to deliver the goods, the content, that people will watch. This year has been dull in terms of content and I'm watching in envy at the increased pace of quality Blu-ray titles, beeing released.

Yes, I would indeed like the XA2 to get 1080p/24 and even more to be able to decode DTS-HD MA, but Universal has to take this as seriously as Toshiba has been strugling impressively with the hardware. Instead of acting promptly in a time, where Blu-ray where inactive due to serious issues, Universal laid low with the releases.

[Liqwid]

Originally Posted by gtr

Amazon never raised prices back up. It's been $299 since the s300 was released. Current player rankings on amazon. A2 (sold by amazon) #7 (continues to drop from like #3 earlier this week), s300 $499 (sold by vanns on amazon) #15, bdp1200 $488 (sold by etronics on amazon) #19, a20 $393 (sold by amazon) #20, xa2 $603 (sold by amazon) #25. Yep, that's right. The more expensive s300 AND bdp1200 while being sold out at amazon have kicked the cheaper a20 to the curb and the a2 at $299 continues to drop. It's a desperation move especially since they know the blu-ray 5 disk promotion is just around the corner. Who would have thought that blu-ray players could take the #2 and #3 spots away from toshiba on amazon while sold out at that...Toshiba is so desperate,they have no choice,the bluray stand alone players are selling great.Toshiba is sweating bullets

If you want to argue about this, go to the "Smackdown" section. This is HD DVD only. Leave BD out of this.

[KaneRobot]

Originally Posted by Swearengen

Ken Graffeo, co-President of the HD DVD Promotions Group told Video Business that his organization has found that price is the biggest motivating factor for consumers when it comes to buying a high-def disc player.

So he did huh!?!?

I would reckon content in the form of movies, beeing a motivation factor quite a lot more valuable to people. I have an XA2 (actually the european equivalent XE1) a great player, but I'm not the least impressed by the overall quality of this years HD-DVD releases. A 19$ HD-DVD player with 20 boring mainstream movies thrown in, is not an incentive for watching more movies. You got to deliver the goods, the content, that people will watch. This year has been dull in terms of content and I'm watching in envy at the increased pace of quality Blu-ray titles, beeing released.

Yes, I would indeed like the XA2 to get 1080p/24 and even more to be able to decode DTS-HD MA, but Universal has to take this as seriously as Toshiba has been strugling impressively with the hardware. Instead of acting promptly in a time, where Blu-ray where inactive due to serious issues, Universal laid low with the releases.

If "content in the form of movies" is so important, then HD DVD is doing fine thus far, and have almost certainly released a higher percentage of quality titles.

I'd also disagree with you - price is paramount here, because once they get into the sub-200 dollar range (which almost certainly HD DVD will do first), it will start attracting attention of "regular people" who won't know/won't care about what studios are aligned with what format. They'll just want one of those gol-durned HD players for their Wal-Mart purchased HDTV.

[McPasta]

WOW. I'm a huge Disney/Pixar fan so I'm trying to hold out for a Blu-ray player for my HD fix, but DAMN $300 for an HD-DVD player is awesome!!

*edit* I just noticed the $300 player is only 720p/1080i. That seems pretty lame IMO.

[DanzBorin]

Originally Posted by McPasta

WOW. I'm a huge Disney/Pixar fan so I'm trying to hold out for a Blu-ray player for my HD fix, but DAMN $300 for an HD-DVD player is awesome!!

*edit* I just noticed the $300 player is only 720p/1080i. That seems pretty lame IMO.

i think a lot of people need to realize that 1080i player is 99% as good as a 1080p player... 100% as good if you don't have a 1080p television...

[JAG1977]

Originally Posted by hogie

I don't see that happening any time soon. I've heard Sony is loosing money already with their blu-ray players, how much further can they go before their stock holders jump up and say "we aren't making any profit here...cut and run, or your fired!"...makes me wonder?

Plus, Toshiba is still making a minor profit at $299...who's to say they can't do what Sony is doing and offer a $75 stand alone player?

A profit at $299, really?

If they could make aprofit at that price why weren't prices much lower months ago, rather than selling them off in a fire sale now.