After recent news of the impending death of the high-def disc format HD DVD, I wrote: “If you bought an HD DVD player, especially during the recent price drops, figure that you got a good deal on a decent upconverting player that will make standard DVDs look sharp on your HDTV.”

Apparently, Toshiba, the major backer of HD DVD, is thinking the same thing. The company announced today that it has cut the price of its new line of HD DVD players by 50 percent of their original price just a few months ago — from $150 for the entry-level HD-A3 to $300 for the slick HD-A35. And, get this — as observers such as High Def Digest and Don Lindich were quick to point out — it also played up the fact that the players do a nifty job of making standard DVDs look swell on HDTVs by up-converting their resolution. Just keep in mind that you’ll see the benefits of this feature only if you send the video signal to your display via an HDMI cable.  

Amazon is already selling the HD-A3 for $132 with free shipping. Don notes that Costco has it for $129. Plus there are all kinds of rebates to get 5 to 7 free HD DVDs with a player purchase. The retail price of those free discs exceeds the price of the player. Heck, pretty soon, Toshiba just might pay you to go HD DVD.Â

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 5:23 pm and is filed under CES, DVDs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.