Best Buy Gives Customers $299 HD DVD Player for $99

[Jimmy 2004]

After Wal-Mart decided to sell the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player for just under $99 today, Best Buy decided to follow suit and was offering the same player for $99. However, the company met a problem when it let more people order than it had stock for - and Toshiba has now discontinued the HD-A2. You might expect a firm like Best Buy to simply cancel the orders and apologise to customers for the mistake, but Best Buy decided to go one better. Instead, every customer that ordered the HD-A2 after the stock was gone is having their purchase upgraded to the new Toshiba HD-A3, retailing at $299, for no extra charge! Best Buy does say that if you don't want the new HD DVD player you can have a refund instead, but as that's a saving of $200 I doubt too many customers will be interested in that option.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[zekrahminator]

That's awesome, a very good move on Best Buy's part, and a lot of very lucky HD-A2 customers.

 

[nflesher87]

wow, impressive

 

[d44ve]

Damn, I knew I shouldve picked one up

 

[patton45]

damn i tried to order the a2 this morning but wasnt on the site that would explain it damit should have woken up sooner lol

 

[jocksteeluk]

Hd-Dvd for the win hopefully!!!

 

[DaMulta]

I havent seen no blue-ray player that cheap.....HD-DVD FTW

 

[Easy Rhino]

i want the best technology to win so... best tech FTW!

 

[MilkyWay]

WTF thats £50 in UK god i want one even if i dont have a HD tv in my house yet thats still a bargain, at least the way i see it because a cheap dvd player is about £19.99 and a hdmi dvd player is about £40 god i hope HD DVD wins not only because it seems cheaper just coz i hate Blu Ray and its crappy quality disks that have serveral problems, i cant wait for this new technology i read about to come out were they can write data to normally unusable portions of an ordinary DVD to increase its volume http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH-DVD

 

[bassmasta]

I think for movies, HD-DVD should be adopted, but I heard blu-ray had like 50 gb storage, right? I would love that instead of a flash drive

 

[Sh3ngLong]

Fry's is also selling the Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD Player for $99. I just picked up two today during my lunch hour.

 

[jocksteeluk]

i have to say i think Blu-ray may have lost this battle because there is no way they can match the production costs of Hd-dvd which means i cant see them making any price cuts to match. Oh well another Sony format bites the dust possibly, maybe?

hd-dvd for the win hopefully!!

 

[ChaoticBlankness]

As much as I want Blu-ray to win, I work at a BestBuy.. I open in the mornings... and I have a big discount.. It is really tempting to get one before customers can for even less than $99.

 

[Helvetica]

As much as I want Blu-ray to win, I work at a BestBuy.. I open in the mornings... and I have a big discount.. It is really tempting to get one before customers can for even less than $99.

I guarantee you 99% that you won't get it for less than $99. You get cost + 10%. BB is most likely taking a loss, and if they're taking a loss, you get no discount.

 

[ChaoticBlankness]

I guarantee you 99% that you won't get it for less than $99. You get cost + 10%. BB is most likely taking a loss, and if they're taking a loss, you get no discount.

Actually I get cost plus 5%, then again it would be my business to know that and not yours.. so don't feel bad. Also, BestBuy wouldn't take a loss just cause they want to to help HD-DVD.. we're doing it (and so is every other store) because Toshiba is literally paying us to do it.

BestBuy is making money on every sale because for everyone one we sell Toshiba pays us more.

The only real benefit of my discount I mentioned is that I can get the player for $5 cheaper and movies for 5-10 bucks less.

 

[OnBoard]

So American version is already going to third generation and in Europe we have just first "TOSHIBA HD E1 HD-DVD Player". Oh how I wish toshiba would want to sell them here also cheap Not that I need one, but for that price I want one even if I don't really need it

 

[0elemental0]

i bought the hda2 at the wallyworld.... the a3 would have been nice..but im not complaining.......hddvd ftw.....hopefully

 

[patton45]

best buy has the a3 for 200 right now 100 off the normal retail of 300

 

[hotrippr]

so whats the difference between a2 and the a3????

 

[WarEagleAU]

Holy shit. I wish I would have done that and got me the HD-A3. Thats the 1080p one right?

 

[SK-1]

I lucked out and bagged the 299 one for 99!!!!
Plus 7 free DVD's!
What is the exact difference between the 199 and 299 model anyway?

 

[suraswami]

Holy shit. I wish I would have done that and got me the HD-A3. Thats the 1080p one right?

This model too is 1080i.

 

[spy2520]

i got an A2 from walmart. HD DVD is cool and all, but they are gonna have to get some better movies, so many people getting these players and all we can get is frickin spiderman 3 and transformers (which is fine). but go to blockbuster and see all the cool blu-ray movies versus the HD DVD ones (yes you can still get HD DVDs from blockbuster). eh....good thing this is for my parents' room. i like the affordability of HD DVD but it seems to be as good as it will get, where as quad layer 100gb blu-ray discs are being developed. wtf...

 

[patton45]

the a2 is discontuned it had a few problems with it orgianlly that were worked out the dvd tray on the first revision stunk not sure about the new ones but the a3 is the new model its still just 1080i unlike every blu ray that 1080p from what i understand most hd-dvd movies are still not in true hd format there in 1080i still there are a few 1080p the a3 is basically just a new design most of the same features and the tray is really sturdy other than that i dont know any other differences. the a2 has the hdmi output right? i know the a3 does

 

[spy2520]

the a2 has HDMI. i figure the reason HD DVDs are only 1080i is because there are way more 1080i displays sold. And there are more 1366x768 displays sold with "1080i" on the box selling for dirt cheap as well. On top of that, HBO, Shotime, Cinemax, TMC, etc. only output HD movies in 1080i, sports broadcasts only going up to 720p for the most part. 1080p might be the latest and greatest, but the buy-in for displays is pretty high, and the content is mostly limited to just blu-ray movies. Parents room = 1080i display + 1080i HD DVD player. my room = 1080p display + most likely a ps3 in the next few months (already had the 360 elite)