Toshiba HD-A3 at Costco (Brandon, FL) for 79.99 with 2 DVD's and 5 more by mail.

I know HD-DVD is dead and I even cracked a joke about the CC post a couple of days ago. But my only mission with this post is to let those people know who may be interested that there is a good deal out there. So be please be kind. So if anyone is interested in an HD-DVD with upconverting to near HD with 7 free movies (5 by mail) then this beats the CC deal provided you have a Costco membership.

Good Luck!!!

It is $139.99 on costco website. Where did you get the price?

It was $129.99 at Sunnyvale, CA Costco.

I just picked one up in Auburn Hills, Michigan at the $79.99. Although, it was the HD-D3 with the free HDMI cable. The format may be dead, but the upconversion and free movies make a worthwhile venture.

I was at Costco last night and the price was $129.

I just picked two HD-D3's up here in Portland, OR for $79.99 each. Now I have one of these on each of my LCD TV's. Great deal even if you do not plan to own HD-DVD's, and it comes with a free HDMI cable.

The HD-A3 and the HD-D3 are the same model, the D3 is just a version with HDMI cable in box, along with 300 and the Borne Identity. Also it still qualifies for the 5 free HD-DVD's via mail-in rebate.

The A3 and the D3 do not support the Divx codec, but we can always hope hackers are working on modding the firmware to support it.

Just an FYI. I've been waiting since 11/02/2007 for my 5 freebies. I'm pretty anal about filling out the paperwork correctly.

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Luckily I only paid $95 for my (now all be defunct) HDDVD player. And only bought 1 movie. But at $95, I got a good upconvert player I guess.

This was a friday-stand-in-line-they-only-got-25-units sale at WalMart back in November. Gleefully, I never felt compelled to pay $200 - $500 for a hddvd player.

But man, I've taken it on the chin at work...for my betamax choice.

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granadaCoder said: Just an FYI. I've been waiting since 11/02/2007 for my 5 freebies. I'm pretty anal about filling out the paperwork correctly.

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Luckily I only paid $95 for my (now all be defunct) HDDVD player. And only bought 1 movie. But at $95, I got a good upconvert player I guess.

This was a friday-stand-in-line-they-only-got-25-units sale at WalMart back in November. Gleefully, I never felt compelled to pay $200 - $500 for a hddvd player.

But man, I've taken it on the chin at work...for my betamax choice.

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well the nice thing about hddvd might be the secondary market where it's possible you can score a veritable collection of HDDVDs cheap on eBay. It's kinda like buying a dreamcast or a jaguar back in the day,

JHJ said:

a little sensitive, aren't we?

A few of us are just tired of anytime there is a HD thread, BR kiddies have to come over and fill up every thread, its been going on for months. I would hope HD people were not doing the same in regards to problems with BR.

Yes, we know HD is ending, but to hear the continual postings of the Blu-Tards that invade every HD thread, you would think this is just going to stop working one day, or will not play DVDs, or will just be a doorstop. Some of us are happy with the A3 we have, and while we are disappointed how this turned out, still have no regrets buying it, and no desire to go buy a BR either.

Frankly, this was a couple of days away from BR being on the losing end. It didnt have to do with being better, just Sony had a lot more to lose and absolutely had to make sure BR did not lose, because that would not bode well for the PS3 either. So they doubled Toshibas ante, got Warner Bros, and well the rest is history.

But I really cant understand having some kind of emotional attachment to a company or data format. I know probably most of the BR owners probably actually do have a life and do not do this, but for some, they remind me of the worst of the Ron Paul fanatics. They both show up where not wanted, say things that are not entirely true, and insult you if you dont adopt their views.

chronotrigger said: Maximuh said: I just picked two up here in Portland, OR for $79.99 each. Now I have one of these on each of my LCD TV's. Great deal even if you do not plan to own HD-DVD's, and it comes with a free HDMI cable.

that sounds like a different model then, since the a3 i picked up did not have hdmi cable. is it hd-a3 or this hd-d3 as someone else mentioned above?

My local B&M Costco has the D3 for $129 when I was there 2 days ago. There were quite many left. Maybe the price on these will drop soon.

HD-DVD FTW!!!

Death to blu gay

Thats still a faulty comparison with Betamax, because either this would have to ONLY play HD DVD for this comparison to be true. It still plays standard DVDs, and comes with some HDs too. Its not like there are only two formats, HD and BR, there is still standard, which this plays, which still makes up the vast majority of disc sales, with no end in sight.

So its really rather fallacious to bring up Betamax. If someone posted a thread for an upconverting DVD player with no movies and no HD ability, would you tell them that is dead technology too and a bad deal too?

cameronj said: How can it be a good deal if it basically is a hundred dollar device that won't play movies that come out in the future?

As long as they keep making regular DVD's, it'll play movies that come out in the future.

Can't you people understand we're not buying it because it plays HD-DVD's, we're playing it because it's the best upconverting DVD player out there for the money. That's like saying "how can there be a good deal on a regular DVD player when there's BR players out there?" The rest of us will buy BR players in the future when they're more affordable and a more mature technology.

That's just not a fair statement. For $100 you get a great upconverting dvd player with the latest upconverting technology that can play any standard definition DVDs that come out in the future. And it comes with the added bonus of some free movies and the ability to play any HD DVD's that have been published or may be published, and those HD DVD's will be available at DVD prices.

This isn't Betamax vs. VHS situation since the Toshiba player can play both standard DVD's and HD-DVD's. The format war between HDDVD and blue-ray may be over, but there are other formats coming. .

Eventually Blue-ray disks will find their way into the garbage bin along with DVDs, HD-DVDs, Mini-discs, Betamax, floppies, Vhs, 8track, LP, etc. . . Personally, I'll feel better chunking my HD-DVD's and remembering that I got them at 50% off!

aussie2u said: Thanks for the info and glad to see you posted the caveat about HD-DVD being all but dead. I just read more articles about the rest of the backers getting ready to pull the plug so it really appears it will be the next BetaMax for those old enough to remember that.

I am sick of the BetaMax references. It was funny the first 10,000,000,000 times but it is getting a little old now.

Also note that the comparison isnt entirely accurate. BetaMax was actually somewhat successful before it expired. HD-DVD never got to that point.

"Eventually Blue-ray disks will find their way into the garbage bin along with DVDs, HD-DVDs, Mini-discs, Betamax, floppies, Vhs, 8track, LP, etc. . . Personally, I'll feel better chunking my HD-DVD's and remembering that I got them at 50% off!"

I'm not chucking my LP's or R to R Tapes. They may be in my casket with me though. My HD player will probably stay as long as it plays my bargain HD's and upconverts then it becomes parts for play.

philmont said: Thats still a faulty comparison with Betamax, because either this would have to ONLY play HD DVD for this comparison to be true. It still plays standard DVDs, and comes with some HDs too. Its not like there are only two formats, HD and BR, there is still standard, which this plays, which still makes up the vast majority of disc sales, with no end in sight.

So its really rather fallacious to bring up Betamax. If someone posted a thread for an upconverting DVD player with no movies and no HD ability, would you tell them that is dead technology too and a bad deal too?

Good point - so is a good quality upconverting DVD player and 5 movies a good deal at $80 with rebates?

I just get the feeling that this deal is being defended by people because they like HD DVD, not because it's a good deal on its merits.

Thanks OP, green! Based on your post, I stopped by my local Costo (NNJ) looking for this. sure enough it was $79.99. Picked one up. Little disappointed it didn't come with 300 (2 Bourne movies instead). Might pick up another one for the bedroom, but I'll wait 2 weeks to see if it drops further. Hope they don't get cleaned out, or they all get shipped back to Toshiba, by then.

Based on some reports, Toshiba is planning to pull the units from store shelves next month. What does that mean exactly? Does that mean Toshiba is buying all units back from all retailers?

reever9 said: I know HD-DVD is dead and I even cracked a joke about the CC post a couple of days ago. But my only mission with this post is to let those people know who may be interested that there is a good deal out there. So be please be kind. So if anyone is interested in an HD-DVD with upconverting to near HD with 7 free movies (5 by mail) then this beats the CC deal provided you have a Costco membership.

Good Luck!!!

cameronj said: philmont said: Thats still a faulty comparison with Betamax, because either this would have to ONLY play HD DVD for this comparison to be true. It still plays standard DVDs, and comes with some HDs too. Its not like there are only two formats, HD and BR, there is still standard, which this plays, which still makes up the vast majority of disc sales, with no end in sight.

So its really rather fallacious to bring up Betamax. If someone posted a thread for an upconverting DVD player with no movies and no HD ability, would you tell them that is dead technology too and a bad deal too?

Good point - so is a good quality upconverting DVD player and 5 movies a good deal at $80 with rebates?

I just get the feeling that this deal is being defended by people because they like HD DVD, not because it's a good deal on its merits.

Look at my post history, As I mentioned above - I have never defended HD-DVD as a format. This player comes with 7 HD movies, not 5. If the 7 movies were movies that you were going to buy anyway, it's hard to argue that $80 isn't a good price for just the movies.

cameronj said: philmont said: Thats still a faulty comparison with Betamax, because either this would have to ONLY play HD DVD for this comparison to be true. It still plays standard DVDs, and comes with some HDs too. Its not like there are only two formats, HD and BR, there is still standard, which this plays, which still makes up the vast majority of disc sales, with no end in sight.

So its really rather fallacious to bring up Betamax. If someone posted a thread for an upconverting DVD player with no movies and no HD ability, would you tell them that is dead technology too and a bad deal too?

Good point - so is a good quality upconverting DVD player and 5 movies a good deal at $80 with rebates?

I just get the feeling that this deal is being defended by people because they like HD DVD, not because it's a good deal on its merits.

See, thing is, an equivalent quality up-converting DVD player costs over $100 itself. Sure, there's tons of up-conversion DVD players for less than $100, but you gotta realize this was originally an expensive player w/ high quality build that was made to sell people on HD-DVD. No one's trying to sell anyone on DVD at this point. It's a very good player on it's own merit and basically is the equivalent of someone posting an OPPO up-converting DVD player w/ 2 DVD's in box and 5 by mail for $80 OTD. If you saw that deal, you'd probably be flying out of your front door now pushing people aside to get one. This deal is being attacked because it's an HD-DVD player, not defended because of that fact. This player is very near the quality of an OPPO...

I received my 5 free hd dvds today, but they duplicated BOURNE IDENTITY which was included in the box. Anybody want a swap, send me a private message.