Viper187

I'm wondering if I should pickup a 2nd player or an HD-DVD ROM drive before the end of the year. I'll probably grab one of those Xbox addons when they drop to $50. I'd prefer an SATA drive for my PC over using a USB device, but apparently none's gonna sell those as cheap.

Gizmo

No.

Engel07

There's a high possiblity based on report that Toshiba will stop production. I guess you have to wait and see. Why waste more money on something that there are no more movies being produce in that format? if Paramount and Universal decide to just release blu-ray. Any CEO can look at numbers and get rid of area where no profit is being made...see this all the time in corporation.

You probably want to wait to hear more news. Toshiba already losing money at selling players for $149. The only reason we saw that price was because they had to take action and try to capture mass consumers to buy their stuff. Why continue to lose more money?

DonkeyKong

I hope not. I don't have a huge collection, but I would still like to play my HD DVDs in a regular set top player -- if and when my current HD-A2 wears out.

The thing that helps is that BD and HD discs are exactly the same size....so why not make a player that can play both?? --- the extra money? I wonder how much more it'd be to just add HD support....

The DVD players out now support all kinds of formats = mp3, DVD+/-, div-x, CD-R/RW, etc.

Gizmo

Go out and buy an extra one. I can get an A30 for $99 at Best Buy.

RoboDad

Anyone who wants to buy one for the next month or so should have no trouble finding one. After that, my guess is that eBay will be the only route, and who knows what prices will be like there.

bunkaroo

I might pick up an XA2 if I seen a open box somewhere on clearance (doubtful), but you couldn't give me a 3rd-gen player with all the reports I've heard of lockups. My A1 and A20 will suffice.

Adam Tyner

I'm tempted to grab one of those hundred dollar players, but I'd kind of like to wait a week or two to see if there are any fire sales.

RoboDad

I just have a feeling that you'll be able to find an A30 for between $50-60 before they're gone.

Jay G.

Once the current HD-DVD only players and drives go out of production and sell out, there's always the possibility that dual-format players and drives will stick around a bit longer. It's also more likely that at least a handful of dual-format drives will stay around, since the mechanics for the drive don't have to be drastically different for HD-DVD over BD, unlike with LD, which was a much larger physical format than DVD.

mbs

How is that? I'm seeing $199.

Lord Rick

Or on ebay shortly thereafter, when some of the buyers realize they don't really need that 3rd player.

RoboDad

With virtually no software to be expected after the next 2-3 months, the number of potential customers for dual-format players and drives will be very small. I doubt there will be any on the market by the end of summer.

Engel07

Wait a minute...why are people talking about buying an extra HD-DVD player? Is Toshiba known to produce players that work for a year or something before it goes bad? I have a very old Toshiba DVD players for 5 years now in the bedroom that it's still working once I find my remote control for it. I wish Toshiba allow me to play it without the remote because it's useless right now. I just need to find that remote.

RoboDad

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but historically speaking, I've had more problems and failures with the Toshiba DVD players I've owned than with any other brand. So to me, owning a back-up player just seems like good common sense.

DivxGuy

Why would LG pull their hot-selling drive from the market? How much extra does it cost them to include HD-DVD compatibility?

Adam Tyner

I want to buy another one because my HD-A1 is slow and unreliable, and I have 225 HD DVDs in need of a player I'd want to keep around.

RoboDad

Hot-selling? Regardless of how much it costs them, it's a customer perception issue.If there are no new customers looking for HD DVD compatibility by summer (and there won't be), anyone seeing that touted as a feature will assume that a) it had to cost something to add it to the player, b) they will never have a use for that feature, and c) they would be better served by buying a different player for less money that doesn't include the unnecessary feature.

Gizmo

Sorry, I meant to say Open-Boxed. My local BB has at least 8 of these for $99 (with remote, ac, av cables). VERY tempting....I could probably talk them down to $80 as well.

RoboDad

I've never bought any open box items at BB. Are they usually pretty flexible on price negotiations?

Gizmo

You still have over 1 Million people that own HD DVDs that may or may not want to buy into Blu-ray. Selling their HD DVD player and getting a dual player is something that will happen. Regardless if HD DVD software comes to a end on...lets say May 31s, there is still tons of people with software that will want to use. I imagine any of the current Dual players will see a pick up in sales.

Gizmo

It depends who you go to.

When they have only 1 of a certain product, they usually won't discount. But when they have 8 open-boxed items of a potential item that may or may not be supported in the next few weeks....well, shouldn't be too hard to get a discount I will wait till its "Buy an HD DVD player get X instantly" and then buy one. The free movies also pertain to open-boxed players as well as they are still a "new" sku.

I should add the A30s I looked at are literally hidden under some TVs. Unless you are an 8 year old or a midget, you won't see them.

Lord Rick

There aren't going to be any more dual format players. Mark my words.

Manufacturers are not going to waste marketing, research and technical support dollars on a dead format. It will not happen - please be realistic!

It doesn't matter if it costs $50, $10, or $1 in component costs to add HD-DVD to a player. It's not going to happen because of the other costs.

You should be able to buy players on the used market for years to come, so no worries if you want to keep your HD-DVDs.
And used HD-DVDs are going to get dirt cheap in the coming months. Especially once titles like Transformers, etc are released on BR.

RoboDad

I mean no disrespect to you, but I don't believe for a moment that there are over a million HD DVD owners. There have been slightly over a million players sold, but my belief is that a significant number of HD DVD owners purchased two or more players (especially during the Walmart deal). Heck, I own two myself, largely due to my frustrations with the A1.

So let's say, for the sake of discussion, that there are really about 750,000 HD DVD player owners. How many of them already own a Blu-ray player (at least in the form of a PS3, if not an SA)? Maybe 25-35%? If it is 25%, that would leave a little over half a million HD DVD-only owners/potential dual-format customers. But how many of them will be interested in a dual-format player? Certainly the more savvy owners, such as those who visit enthusiast forums would, but will most other consumers be interested? Will they even know that the players exist? And if they only own a handful of movies (less than 10, most likely 4 or 5), will they think it might be better to save the extra money that the player would cost, and replace the discs as they become available on BD?

Obviously I am just speculating, but I hope you can see why I came to the conclusion that there will probably not be much of a market for the players beyond the next 3-5 months. And, of course, I could be completely wrong.

Jay G.

It's not so much a question of whether the feature makes the unit cost more than it would without it, but whether the feature makes it cost more than comparable units. For example, some DVD players have VCD support, some don't. Those not interested in VCD support don't care whether a DVD player that has VCD support would've theoretically cost less without it, but instead care whether it costs more than comparable DVD players.

Never say never. There may be some who may be interested in grabbing up HD-DVDs cheap. Also, as this thread points out, while there may eventually be no new software, there will always be a market for players. There are people who still buy LD players. And opposed to LD, which requires an extremely different construction for a player, adding HD-DVD compatibility to a drive requires little more than a slightly altered laser pickup and a firmware upgrade. If that work's already been done, it might not make much sense for a manufacturer to work to remove the feature, rather than leave it in.

This point is only valid if there actually is a different player for less money. Like my example with VCD support, some of the cheapest DVD players have this "unnecessary" feature. There are some really cheap DVD burners that still offer DVD-RAM support. As long as there's at least a tiny market for it, and the cost of including it is minimal, then these features stay included.