Best Buy, Wal-Mart Offer Sub-$100 HD-DVD Players

First, reports surfaced this week that K-Mart will not carry Blu-Ray equipment this holiday season because the price of those players was too high compared to HD-DVD equipment.

Then, about the same time that Wal-Mart planned to offer a 1-day special for Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player for under $100, Best Buy announced it will match the price -- permanently. Well, at least as long as Best Buy's supply lasted -- which wasn't very long.

The only Toshiba HD-DVD player listed on Best Buy's Web site Friday was an HD-A3 player for $299.99. Wal-Mart's Web site Friday didn't offer any HD-DVD players, only a Sony BDP-S300 for $469.54.

Calls to three Best Buy stores on Long Island confirmed the HD-A2 player was sold out in those locations as well. Best Buy was offering a non-HD Toshiba DVD player for $79.99.

The sub-$100 player illustrates a battle between two big-box superstores, but also the continuing HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war.

With the price delta diminishing between HD and standard definition (SD) players, including HD upconvert models, many industry watchers believe the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is starting to escalate for the holiday season.

A retailer utilizing a product as a loss leader has the potential to cause challenges for other retailers and resellers, said Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H Distributing, Harrisburg, Pa.

"The side benefit however is that this will drive major visibility around HD-DVD video which has been lacking. Long term, assuming rational price stabilization, events such as these help ramp up the technology adoption curve dramatically which is a positive."