Blu-Ray Promo Answers HD-DVD Price Cut

By | January 22nd, 2008 comments icon (1)Comments


bestbuy blu ray promoWhen shelling out over two grand for a TV, a few freebies are nice: a warranty, perhaps having two big guys walk into the house with muddy shoes to haul in and set up the new TV, sometimes even an instruction manual that hasn’t obviously been poorly translated from Japanese.

However, today there is an HD format war being waged and “freebies” have to get beefed up to win. Sony is offering up a $400 rebate to cover the cost of Blu-Ray players with the purchase of a few select HDTV’s, starting at $2300 MSRP. Also, Sharp is collaborating with Best Buy, offering a $500 rebate to cover the purchase of its Aquos BD-HP20U player on any Sharp TV over 42″. For a consumer looking to buy right now, it looks like an excellent deal; for someone following trends in the HDTV format war, it looks like an Oxy Clean infomercial desperate to sell as much as possible, especially in the next 15 minutes.

This aggressive incentive comes as no surprise; Despite Blu-Ray seeming to have the edge with the vital Warner Brothers announcement to only support Blu-Ray in the future, HD-DVD proponents are fighting back. Toshiba decided to not even bother with rebates and demolished the prices of their HD-DVD players down to $150, forcing Blu-Ray supporters to get their feet off the table and stop planning their vacations. With the massive price cut, Toshiba has created enough competition to force the Blu-Ray crowd to offer their own massive discounts and promotions.

While the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps duke it out amongst themselves, the consumer can sit back and watch the expansion of online HD movies and computer to TV streaming. There’s more of a format war than just HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray going on; the industry has yet to see if the fancy coaster is going to be eliminated entirely with the innovations of online entertainment. For now, the fight continues and the prices continue to drop in both camps, putting the DVD oriented consumer in a win-win situation.





Filed in: Industry Buzz

  • dale

    this war is not over yet. a lot of the so called sales last week were buy a tv and we’ll give you a new blu-ray player. well this week look at e-bay and craigs list. they are full of blu-ray players the tv owners didn’t want. so much for all the blu-ray sales last week. kinda shoots a hole in blu-rays answer to hd-dvds low prices.