Clearance on HD DVD players at CC?

[MrPorterhouse]

Reports are coming in that Circuit City has put up the Toshiba HD DVD players on clearance, with the A3 going for $100.04 and A30 for $149.99. I don't know what this clearance sale means, but usually clearance means clearing the inventory. Does this mean new models are coming, or does it mean anything at all? Either way, it is a great price to get a very good upconverting DVD player.

[MrPorterhouse]

Well, I had some time tonight to sneak over to the CC in Schererville, IN. I can confirm that the A3 was marked clearance at $100.04 and the A30 marked clearance at $149.99.

[SteveCallas]

Schererville? I'm from around that area.

If this is clearance to get rid of them for good, I think CC may be jumping the gun a bit soon.

[JDRoberts]

from what i've read it's a move to make room for either a new SKU# with 2 different movies in box(right now is 300 and bourne ultimatum)supposedly to put 2 bourne movies.
or it's a move for the 4th gen players.
as far as I know the HDDVD player are still in the pipeline for reorder.
but right now it's all just speculation.

[MrPorterhouse]

Now, its being reported that the players have moved back to the retail price of $149.99 and $199.99 and that the "clearance" was a national programming glitch.

[Funkmonkey]

Now if we could just get a "national programing glitch" on the PS3, and the Onkyo 875 I would be stoked!

[HomeTeam]

MrPorterhouse wrote:

Now, its being reported that the players have moved back to the retail price of $149.99 and $199.99 and that the "clearance" was a national programming glitch.

I wish a lot of the sites that initially reported the "clearance" would come back and say something about this, instead, we get a lot of editorial saying more things like "HD-DVD dead" and all that instead of just reporting. I'm pretty tired of that. Sure, its pretty bad for them right now, but lets hold off until Toshiba or Microsoft actually declares it.

Sorry, just had to vent about that.

Wish I could've taken advantage though, wouldn't mind getting a second one just in case the other one breaks down, and after watching a couple of regular DVD's on it, a really good upconverter.

[JDRoberts]

I've Actually grown accustomed to the "HDDVD Is Dead!" Rhetoric.
Its Been shouted so loudly for so long I almost don't hear it anymore.
Methinks HDDVD has more lives than a cat.

[wbassett]

Sounds like the 'glitch' was CC dumping inventory because they deemed it was 'all over'. If a person steps back and thinks about it, do you blame them or any company? What would you do if you owned a business and thought something was a dead format? You'd blow out your inventory while you could.

Sounds like something may be up seeing that CC raised them back to the regular price (which is still a good deal).

I still feel Toshiba has to pull something out of the hat soon like an announcement of more studio support. Not exclusive support mind you, just dual format support. Without more studio support HD DVD is losing ground week by week.

One possible thing Toshiba/HD DVD can do is to start mass marketing older titles in HD DVD, that would open things up a bit as far as content. Both formats are only barely touching the tip of their movie libraries and older titles are just as good as some of the newer releases coming out. Still, they have a limited inventory to go with so it is a hard battle now anyway you look at it.

The bottom line is almost a month has passed now and nothing major has been announced other than price cuts... and if the war really is over, HD DVD prices were going to plummet anyway as inventory is dumped. I saw two recent ads in my latest editions of the HT mags I get... both for HD DVD and BD. Toshiba has a big set of companies at the bottom, but most are hardware/non-studio type companies, while Bluray loaded up the bottom of their full page ad with just studios supporting the format.

Content really is king and with only limited support I honestly can't see Toshiba pulling this off. Warner won't go back on their announcement. I'm sure there are clauses in the contract that would cost them a fortune if they did... so what Toshiba has to hope for is record player sales and then they can 'romance' a studio into going dual format. Like I said though, they are losing ground every week and Sony is really pumping up the PS3 as a Bluray player both in printed ads and on TV as well.

It will be interesting in the next few weeks/month to watch Circuit City and Best Buy and see what they do.

[louthewiz]

I have an hd-dvd player , But until the bd players drop in price I won't bite.

[bonehead848]

To those still hot on hd dvd looks like a number of retailers are dropping prices like crazy. Check out these slickdeals threads for some awesome deals.
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...ghlight=hd+dvd
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...ghlight=hd+dvd
Enjoy!