Comments on: Tightening the noose — Toshiba cuts HD DVD player prices in Oz

By: james

james — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:41:44 +0000

WE get new years first as well :)

happy new year!

happy chinese new year too!

By: David D.

David D. — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:01:00 +0000

I got the XBOX add-on drive in the post Christmas sales from JB HiFi for $195.

I can't help thinking what a missed opportunity this was for Microsoft and Toshiba. If only their players were normally sub-$200 and/or included more than the crappy King Kong (OK, it's visually great but it sucked as a movie) or included the HD drive in one of the XBOX 360 models it would not have come to this and they would be toasting to blu-rays remains.

After going most of the year not spotting any HD DVD stuff locally (JB HiFi basically pretended it did not exist), then in November JB HiFi is demo'ing HD-DVD on their biggest screens and my local Video Ezy started renting HD DVD disks. Things were just picking up momentum. Transformers and 300 is awesome in HD. Oh and it is great to be able to get the region free disks from Amazon so I only paid US$27 for the 5 disk version instead of the AU$90 locally for the plain DVD 5 disc version.

I just hope it continues as a data format at least so we can still get players for the disks we already have in case of a breakdown. Still, to date I have only invested $380 (XBOX add-on + 10 movies including Transformers, 300, and Blade Runner pack) in the format so no great loss but I would prefer not to have to re-purchase these titles.

By: Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:19:22 +0000

I plan on buying a HD DVD player next Thursday. The reality is that I as a consumer have decided that HD DVD will still exist and I wont be bullied by propaganda.

Rememeber, there is more than one standard in video games and no single third pary company supports PS3 or Xbox 360 only, they both exist and copetition is strong.

Support HD DVD and you will see cheap prices.

By: rangott

rangott — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:24:14 +0000

Bloody hell. If they dropped the prices earlier I would have bought one and maybe they would have won the format war.
Im starting studying this year and will be strapped for cash so I wont be buying both formats especially if I had to keep a HD player for a few titles.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:34:46 +0000

We get skin cancer before the rest of the world…

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:28:39 +0000

do we get anything before the rest of the world?

It seems we get some operating systems first! yay.

IIRC, Win 95, and a few Mac OS's... yep, that's about it.

By: Dexxie

Dexxie — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:34:26 +0000

That's awesome news for AU.

I think I just invest in one now :)

I have the 360 HD-DVD Drive, but a proper set-top unit will be much handier - Plus 11 free movies!