Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player. £119.99

malcyplop

At Play.com
7 free HD-DVD's too.
This will stir up the format war!
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3497129/Toshiba-HD-EP30-HD-DVD-Player/Product.html

Official MoneySavingExpert.com insert:

This machine is also available at Amazon for the same price.

Who's this for?

This deal is only relevant to you if you've already invested in a high-definition TV with an HDMI input. If you've got an older telly you simply won't notice the difference, because it won't be able to display enough 'lines' of picture.

What's good about it?

Aside from playing the new high-res HD-DVDs, this box'll also 'upscale' the DVDs you already own, changing their resolution to fit your screen's. This can make a substantial difference, as many flat-screen TVs (especially LCD models) only look really good in their 'native' resolution, and on other settings shapes can appear blocky or lack sharpness.

The inclusion of 7 HD-DVDs in the price is another major selling point; they usually retail at around £15 (or more) each, and you get to choose 5 of them yourself (you get a voucher with the player). The two that are included are The 300, and The Bourne Supremacy.

Why's it so cheap?

The reason for this low deal price (well, for such up-to-date technology) isn't that the player's sub-par; according to reviews it actually does the job really well.

The issue here is that there's a format war between HD-DVD & Sony's Blu-Ray discs (think Beta v VHS all over again) and HD-DVD is losing. This means in a few years nobody'll produce the high res discs it plays. Thus, Toshiba's trying to push the hardware into people's homes so they'll invest in the HD-DVD format as a whole.

Yet, at this price point, with 7 free high def films and great upscaling capabilities, even if HD DVD disappears in 5 years this still won't have been a bad buy (the cheapest Blu-Ray players still cost upwards of £200, without freebie discs). That said, it's not something to lavish the last of your paycheque on; if you can't easily afford it, play the waiting game; high def player prices will undoubtedly keep dropping this year.

- MSE Lawrence


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stephen25uk

excellent find,good price i ordered 1.i know there is a lot of debate and that blueray now looks like the winner,but 120 quid with 7 free films,what more do you have to say

Save_Me_3

B*ll*cks I just paid £180 to Empire Direct for this on tuesday

*Storms off muttering how many HD DVD's he could have bought with the spare £60*

Save_Me_3

Thinking about buying this and sending it back to Empire Direct

felix65

it wont stir it up,its already lost thats why they are going cheap

blu ray has won

warner bros are to stop makin hd dvd in may are going blu ray.

70% of movies will be blu ray only from may

Save_Me_3

felix65 wrote: »

it wont stir it up,its already lost thats why they are going cheap

blu ray has won

warner bros are to stop makin hd dvd in may are going blu ray.

70% of movies will be blu ray only from may

Not true in the UK. The studios that are tied to BlueRay are US studios, When they are released in the UK they go thriugh local distributors, and they have no such ties.

read here for more details

pingu

felix65 wrote: »

it wont stir it up,its already lost thats why they are going cheap

blu ray has won

warner bros are to stop makin hd dvd in may are going blu ray.

70% of movies will be blu ray only from may

is it worth buying then?

i need a dvd player:D

also anyone seen hddvd recorder with 250gig hd in netto reduced to £99:D

felix65

Warner drops HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray

In a potentially major upset in the conflict between movie standards, Warner Brothers today said it would drop its support for the HD DVD format, switching all its future titles to the competing Blu-ray standard for HD versions. The move is prompted by an evident shift by movie buyers towards the Blu-ray format and is meant both to consolidate Warner's efforts and prevent users from having to choose between competing formats for the same title. The choice is a reversal but a necessary one in an industry where the field appears to be destroying itself, Warner says. "Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices," says Warner chief Barry Meyer. "[But this] is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want. The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger."

HD DVD versions of movies will continued to be produced until May 2008, when Warner switches to producing only Blu-ray titles as well as lower-resolution DVD discs.



The decision could prove fatal to the primarily Toshiba-backed HD DVD format both for movie players and computers. As noted in previous leaks that have now been confirmed by the announcement, Warner's switch is expected to lead to 70 percent of all HD movies shipping only in Blu-ray, giving customers little incentive to buy either HD DVD movie readers or equivalent drives in computers. This is expected to have indirect repercussions for Microsoft, which has heavily endorsed HD DVD for both Windows PCs and through the Xbox 360's HD DVD add-on.

Sony is often considered the chief proponent of Blu-ray but has also received support from several large AV and computer firms for the standard, including Dell and Pioneer. Other firms such as Apple and HP have so far remained relatively neutral and have either declined to commit to a particular format in hardware so far (in Apple's case) or have supported both (such as HP).

Save_Me_3

Blue Ray are not allowing Adult Movie producers to publish in BR so they are all going to HD DVD, and they have a very large operation.

Macktv

Save_Me wrote: »

Not true in the UK. The studios that are tied to BlueRay are US studios, When they are released in the UK they go thriugh local distributors, and they have no such ties.

read here for more details

Actually, the decision is for Warner worldwide, not just in the US, which is why Toshiba are cutting prices outside of the US.

Personally, I'd kinda stay clear as they're simply trying to get rid of as much stock as possible before May and then I imagine they'll just abandon the whole thing. There's really no way they can win now. Buying this is like buying up a Betamax player when they were going out; it is a bargain but the support will be very limited.

Oh, and there are !!!!!! films on Bluray anyway. Can't remember how but they've managed to get around that so HD DVD has nothing really.

Macktv

Since this is a money saving site, here's a few links to the latest weekly sales figures for HD sales, the first full week after the Warner announcement.
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Industry_Trends/Disc_Sales/Blu-ray_Dominates_Disc_Sales_Chart_Post-Warner_Announcement/1383
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/18/bluray-squeezing-out-hd-_n_82247.html

This is for US only. In a nutshell though, Bluray sold 85% of the HD discs for the week ending the 13th. This leaves HD DVD with only 15%, meaning sales are down 24% since before xmas, when they'd had a steady 39% share.