Walmart orders 2 million $299 HD DVD players, in stores soon!

[Mintmaster]

Blu-Ray is barely selling any standalone players anyway, and of those only a few from Walmart, IMO.

The point is not that the difference goes from $550 to $600, but that there should be more volume at sub-$300 compared to $350. Of course $199 would be even better, and the hope is that the price would reach that point by the end of the year.

If Sony got some players out at that price this year, however, the war would be over for sure.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Well, I understand that, which I guess was really the point of my confusion. WalMart isn't selling many BluRay players, and though volume will pick up with a $50 price drop on HD-DVD I don't think it would be like lighting the Saturn V or anything.

But some of the initial posts in this thread were like OMGWTFBBQ WALMART IS GOING TO KNOCK HDDVD THROUGH THE ROOF!@! I could see someone making an argument that a $50 drop would help HD-DVD make up a little ground, but people were talking about Walmart single handedly deciding the format war by placing such an order. I just didn't get it.

 

[quest55720]

Blu-Ray is barely selling any standalone players anyway, and of those only a few from Walmart, IMO.

The point is not that the difference goes from $550 to $600, but that there should be more volume at sub-$300 compared to $350. Of course $199 would be even better, and the hope is that the price would reach that point by the end of the year.

If Sony got some players out at that price this year, however, the war would be over for sure.

You are right that is why the chinese hd-dvd players are so important. I just don't see any blu-ray CE able to even come close to matching the price of these players. Sony is already selling the PS3 at a loss so I doubt they could afford to sell a standalone blu-ray player at a loss.

This has been the fundamental difference between the 2 camps. HD-DVD has always been about keeping costs low as possible. The blu ray group is all about technology and high margin players for a small circle of CEs.

I can't wait for the chinese players to come out it should be a boon to the HD formats. The more players in homes the more movies that will come out on HD. Also the more players that get produced the cheaper they become. Even a small e-tailer like value electronics wants to get there hands on thousands of these players under their own branding.

In the end the consumers will win instead of having to wait several years for players to get to a reasonable level like when DVD was young they will get cheap players less than 2 years in.

The difference won't be 50 bucks but more like 150-200 dollars. I see 199 hd-dvd players vs 349-399 blu ray players this holiday season.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

I guess I just assumed that if retail prices were as low as $350 now, they would naturally drop to around $200 by the holiday (maybe less?). And I assumed that this would happen by way of eastern manufacturing of cheap players. So whether this particular announcement has merit or not I don't see being particularly important... such a player will be produced, and WalMart will certainly sell an inexpensive version of it. WalMart can order as many as they like, but it is up to consumer demand at the set price to decide how many are sold (thus, an order for 2 million really means nothing to me other than they are being produced in bulk, which is going to happen anyway).

On the other hand, had this turned out to be about BluRay orders for $299... now THAT would have been something really significant!

 

[Ty]

You are right that is why the chinese hd-dvd players are so important.

Yep, I think it was Archie or Faf that brought up the importance of those Chinese OEMs some months ago.

I just don't see any blu-ray CE able to even come close to matching the price of these players. Sony is already selling the PS3 at a loss so I doubt they could afford to see a blu-ray player at a loss.

Well the PS3 is so much more than a BR player; it's got a HD, a decent chunk of RAM, expensiv GPU, etc.

Has anyone ever broken down the cost between a HD-DVD player and a BR one? Just what is it that makes the latter more expensive?

 

[Bigus Dickus]

And just for reference, these are the kinds of comments or quotes I was speaking of... you'd think that WalMart had announced that it would never sell a BluRay player or any content.

"2 million is huge. To put things in perspective, to date 100,000 standalone HD DVD players have been sold..."

"That would be a MASSIVE win for the HD DVD camp.... I'm just tired of this format contest and would like to see it over..."

"Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner..."

"Big win for HD-DVD. I'm sure this will further persuade BD only studio's... to reconsider their stance and perhaps go neutral."

"I hope this greatly speeds up the end of this stupid format war."

"Wow. HD DVD needed a miracle to survive this year. Looks like Walmart took it upon themselves to provide that miracle."

 

[patsu]

According to this article: http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/070420/8/d6ex.html

The rumor was about Blu-ray player (Notice mention of 50Gb). The "news" seems to have hit local TV.

Nonetheless, Walmart has denied the rumor. So... nothing to see here.

EDIT:

WalMart does not run sales except for the rare "specials" on holidays (and these are often items that aren't in their normal inventory). Their policy is "always low prices" and once an item is priced low, it does not rise back up during a "not on sale" period as happens at other retailers. It also does not, from my memory, play the MSRP game. Many of their electronics (most, actually) are made custom for WalMart, and they set both the retail price and margin for the manufacturer before the contract is ever signed.

So to the best of my knowledge, any press about a $299 player (fake or not, rumor or not) would be speaking of WalMart's actual selling price.

That's correct. Walmart is famous for its "Everyday low price" strategy as you mentioned above. OTOH, Safeway uses the "Hi-lo" strategy, where goods are priced for higher tier shoppers, but with promotional prices to drive traffic to the stores.

 

[patsu]

Pioneer $299 Blu-ray *Drive*

... for PC. Plays Blu-ray movies too.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/press/release/detail/0,,2076_310069589_439711429,00.html

 

[Rangers]

Wal Mart has (sort of) denied the rumor but I believe most people think they are obviously in negotiations.

And it would be for HDDVD.

 

[patsu]

Given that they already sell HD-DVD players around $350, it'd be regular business to explore $299. However this does not mean that Walmart can't explore similar deals with the Blu-ray camp assuming that the Taiwanese firm is doing Blu-ray player according the Yahoo link above, and also Pioneer will be offering $299 drive next month.

 

[Ty]

Wal Mart has (sort of) denied the rumor but I believe most people think they are obviously in negotiations.

How did they "sort of" deny this rumor?

 

[Random Digital]

... for PC. Plays Blu-ray movies too.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v3/pg/press/release/detail/0,,2076_310069589_439711429,00.html

That goes on sale in the US next month. Too bad it does not burn Blu-ray as well. Although if you are building a new HTPC that would be a sweet option.'

Myself I will wait until I can at least get a burner at that price.

 

[Maintank]

I think this format war will be determined by cost. Whichever format gets a cheaper price point and sells millions of players, the movie studios have to follow. Nobody buys a player so they can watch a movie produced by Fox or Universal. They buy it because it is the freaking best bang for the buck.

 

[Rolf N]

How did they "sort of" deny this rumor?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2122715,00.asp

Wal-Mart denied rumors that it had placed a substantial order with a Taiwan supplier for ultra-cheap HD DVD players that could swing the format wars in that direction.
<...>
"The article… was full of inaccuracies and we had no participation in it," the spokesman said in an e-mail to PC Magazine. "Most of the facts, including the purchase, were untrue," she added. "Not sure how it originated."
<...>
On Thursday, the following statement appeared on Fuh Yuan's site:

"We are sorry to correct the statement that we have two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart and manufactured by China Great Wall Group," Fuh Yuan said. "The actuality is that we had not received yet.

 

[Ty]

Not Walmart per se but still pretty damn cheap...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/deals/dealzmodo-toshiba-hd-dvd-players-with-100-to-200-rebate-260970.php

If you're looking to get into the HD DVD game, Toshiba's got a set of rebates coming up that'll sweeten the pot. Starting May 20, if you buy a Toshiba HD-A2 (lowest price, $295 on Froogle) you'll immediately get a $100 rebate in store. Whether that means online store is qualified, we're not sure yet.

Three weeks after that, for the final week of the month-long promotion, Toshiba will offer you $200 back on any player Toshiba sells (like the HD-A1, which is slightly cheaper) if you buy a 42-inch Toshiba HDTV at the same time. Oh, and the Matrix Trilogy is being released May 22 as well, if that provides any more incentive. – Jason Chen


Update: We're hearing word that Amazon's participating as well, so it's not just B&M stores.

 

[Capeta]

Also the 5 free HD DVDs promotion is still ongoing.

 

[Rangers]

Also the 5 free HD DVDs promotion is still ongoing.

They're nearing practically giving the MF's away at this point.

Okay not really, as the cheapest in a B&M you're going to find is $399, which is high for casuals. That's still where the price needs to be attacked.