HD DVD May Be Dead, But It’s Still a Good Deal

Given the recent NPD numbers that prove Blu-ray is seeing incredible post-CES success, I think I’m ready to give up any hope on HD DVD winning this format war. While I still believe it’s the superior format (see some of my previous posts), it’s obvious that marketing and corporate manuevering mattered more than a quality product when it came to deciding a winner.

So HD DVD is dead. Finished. Kaput. At the same time, I’m seeing some incredible deals popping up while retailers rush to get rid of their HD DVD stock. For example, it’s not uncommon to see the Toshiba A3, the lowest end HD DVD player, available for around $100 with at least 7 free movies (5 mail-in discs + 2 in the box). I think even the most ardent Blu-ray fanboy can admit that that is a stupidly inexpensive price to pay for an HD disc player.

It’s slightly more than you would pay for a typical upconverting DVD player, but I think the extra cost is worth it given what the A3 can accomplish. From my experience, I think the upconversion on HD DVD players is far superior to sub-$100 upconverting DVD players. In that case, it doesn’t really matter if the HD DVD format is dying since the player will still get you a lot of mileage with your current DVD library.

In addition, I think the format will have a fairly rich afterlife for the next few years. HD DVD owners can still take advantage of lowering disc prices and a healthy backlog of readily available content.

Let’s not forget that it’s currently the cheapest way to jump onto the HD bandwagon. If you’re holding out for a Blu-ray player, you’re going to have to wait several months, perhaps even until the end of this year, to find one around $200. And also, you’ll have to wait until fall to get the 2.0 profile players.

Of course, rather than wait for the Blu-ray player confusion to sort itself out, you can always get a PS3. (Somehow I don’t think this particular conclusion is accidental, but that discussion will have to wait for a future post.)

For now, I suggest that you not be afraid of jumping into the HD DVD fray if you find a good deal. This dying format will remain a source of cheap high-definition goodness for years to come. Just don’t spend much more than $100 on it ;)