Get a Toshiba HD DVD player and 7 movies for $129.99
(Credit: TigerDirect)Welcome to the HD DVD Deathwatch, Day One. TigerDirect has the Toshiba HD-A3 player with 2 movies in the box (300 and The Bourne Identity) and 5 more by mail, all for just $129.99. That's practically a Black Friday price, which begs the question: Could this be the beginning of the end for HD DVD?
As you've no doubt heard by now, Warner Bros. Entertainment has decided to put its high-def eggs in Blu-ray's basket. It remains to be seen whether HD DVD can survive this move--the format's not much good if there are no movies available for it--but it could produce some killer deals on players. Like this one.
CNET hasn't officially reviewed the HD-A3, but you can check out a summary and some user ratings (7.2 out of 10 on average). The key thing to note here is that the A3 tops out at 1080i, not 1080p. I don't consider that a major shortcoming (my eyes can't see a difference between the two), but videophiles will no doubt raise the red flag.
What do you think? Good time to scoop up a clearance-price HD DVD player? Or is there no sense spending money on a doomed format? I'm eager to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, don't wait if you want this player; I guarantee they won't last long.
A technology writer for more than 15 years, Rick Broida is a regular contributor to CNET and the author of more than a dozen books, including How to Do Everything with Your Palm Powered Handheld. He writes The Cheapskate for the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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The only postive for tiger is that they seem to be exclusive sellers of Ultra products.
Sure, you can watch that new french indie flick about the little baguette boy, but you wouldn't get excited watching it in 1080p
Now, what do I think of this deal? It's awesome, there is still a lot of hope for HD DVD and people need to stop saying it's dead. Toshiba has delivered on all of it's promises and HD DVD has a lot more cool stuff than Blu-Ray for a cheaper price.
Go buy it if you can, I sure would.
I feel bad for the first batch of people that fell for the Toshiba $99 hd-dvd firesale. Who the hell would buy HD-DVD now that it's 2 months from being gone.
Well, if people don't mind having two players in their house, I think this is a good deal. I mean sure, only movies released now and till May may give the player a purpose, but no sense in going back and re-buying every single movie you already bought on HD-DVD. I say if you have a universal remote and room in your home theater, snap this deal up and just make use of your HD-DVD collection now before Blu-ray fully picks up it's killer momentum after May.
http://www.techconsumer.com/2008/01/12/hd-dvd-price-drops-while-blu-ray-screws-early-adopters/