Toshiba HD-A2 Prices Dropping Under $200

Toshiba looks to be making an aggressive play for the holiday market, with retailers dropping the price of its HD-A2 HD DVD player towards $200...and under.

Toshiba appears to be making a move aimed at getting HD DVD players into as many homes as possible this holiday season: although Toshiba itself still lists it for $299, U.S. retailers appear to be shifting the price of the compay’s HD-A2 HD DVD player towards $200, with some retails dropping below the $200 price point. U.S. retailers Circuit City and Amazon.com have cut its price on the unit to $198, with Best Buy and Wal-mart apparently ready to follow suit (if they haven’t already).

Industry watchers see the price cut as significant, since cost has been cited as one of the major reasons consumers have yet to strongly embrace any high-definition disc format (whether Blu-ray or HD DVD). By being the first to offer a player below $200—viewed as a critical pricing threshold for consumer adoption—Toshiba may give the HD DVD format additional momentum. And the fact the first sub-$200 player is from Toshiba rather than an unknown electronics brand, consumers might buy the systems with more confidence.

Toshiba is also still running its promotion of five free HD DVD movies with the purchase of an HD DVD player, although the selection of titles is very limited.

The HD-A2 is Toshiba’s second-generation HD DVD player; the company launched its third-generation HD-XA2 HD DVD player back in August. The HD-A2 only offers output resolutions up to 1080i—true high-def fans will no doubt want 1080p output—but has been generally well-reviewed, supports HDMI, offers and Ethernet jack for accessing interactive content, and handles Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio, Dolby TrueHD, and the core of DTS HD audio.