I haven't been to K-Fart since my college days. K-Mart is owned by Sears, so does that mean??? I wonder....Mumm. Ok back to work.

Are they still in business? Who cares. If Best Buy or CC go exclusive that would be news. K-Mart is even more ghetto than Wally World. NASTY!!!

Who cares? No one shops at K-Mart anymore!

Decide on something already people jesus already. They still need a player that plays both and says FU all. I mean really whats the big deal out there? I for one think BLue Ray is too expensive and overkill for the purpose of what you need it for. HD DVD is all you need to push your Plasma or LCD TV to see movies in what they were recorded in. No reason to spend tons of money on a bloated bluRay Disc and Player that you get nothing but more space to store junk on.

They will still be selling PS3, The best selling Blu-ray player anyway. So there's no real excusive here.

So let me get this straight. Now Toshiba is unloading their discontinued 1080i machines to K-Mart, who's gonna sell them for $100 more than Walmart sells them? Doesn't make too much sense.

Can anyone tell me where the nearest K-Mart is 'cause I honestly don't know? I haven't been in a K-Mart since before the last time I walked into a Sears store. And that was many years ago.

nothing because they are done.

From what I remember, Kmart never had BR players....

its the same things as sbc buying at&t
now they are at&t and kmart is sears essentials.
they bought company to take their name.
and yes no one shops there and it is more ghetto as much as anything is ghetto. that word is possibly the most misused word there is......

Actually, Sears is owned by KMart holding. And Wally World is DEFINITEY more ghetto and redneck than KMart. Still, this seems kinda moot in the whole HDDVD/BluRay war.

HD-DVD for the lower class and Blu-ray for the mid to upper class. From all the press lately, is seems the Toshiba is actually all for this dichotomy. But I guess business is business and they don’t really care who buys them as long as they make money. It still seems like they are devaluing there own brand name though.

I don't think people that shop at kmart have HDTVs...

K mart alrady pulled out of houston area.
so it's not like I can find one to get some HD DVD.
They were so small now after getting beat up by
walmart you hardly can find a store.
And for the K-Mart customer......that is most likely of lower income ...how many of them
can afford a HDTV? and so you sell them a $100, $200 HD DVD player.....how many of them can
afford a $26.95 HD movie when they can get the
DVD version for $14...and plus they can rent for
$5 a pop at the local block bluster?

I'll bet they still sell more PS3 systems this Christmas than the cheap HD-DVD player. Who buys high end electronics at Kmart anyway?

All i want to know is how many people goes to Kmart and buy consumer electronics?

so stop saying that they are actually selling them for that much normally. It's just a gimmick to get people in the store so they are probably selling them at-cost.....secondly, how many units will each Walmart even have to sell? That's another question....

Its only a matter of time and HD DVD will beat the crap out out of the other camp.

Go here for quality proof: http://www.tlasop.com (thelookandsoundofperfect.com)

When I read the news about Warner Bors. possible going all Blu a few days ago, I was thinking: Its all over!!! But now with all this good Wal-Mart news of the $98 and $198 Toshiba player, I am VERY HAPPY!!!

Gotta love it when BD boys come out trolling. Okay...K-Mart is one of the largest retailers in the US, but okay...nobody shops there...such morons. Walmart's news release is of course going to drive Best Buy, and other retailers to offer price cutting deals on HD-DVD. I've been saying for months that Toshiba would launch a huge offensive, and now that they have, the BD boys are screaming about Toshiba bieng desparate. Okay junior...with PS3 sales lagging like crazy, and serious delays on the format in GTA and Snake...you thhink HD-DVD is in trouble...lol...denial denial denial.

K-Mart is everywhere!!!

If you live in so-cal, ALOT of people. We have a huge population of different ethnic backgrounds and alot of them buy their electronics at Wal-Mart and K-Mart. If HD-DVD is available and affordable (sub $200) at these stores they are going to sell very well this Christmas here. It's funny that some of you mention the phrase "high end electronics" up, because that is exactly why HD-DVD is starting to make some noise. It is being marketed towards the masses and has become affordable quickly which will transform it from being a "high end electronic" to a "household electronic" such as the VCR. Unless Blu-Ray comes down to a price that appeals to the masses (once again, sub $200) it is going to be left in the "high-end electronic" category. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that low-end electronics outsell high end electronics by a HUGE margin.

Cheap TV Cheap audio system = not much point getting a HD player.

In order to make a player so cheap they have must have cut back on many things. (eg maybe lower quality digital to analog converters or maybe less steady construction so that the laser cant read the content so well and there has to be more error correction done by the player).

Also chances are that the person that gets the cheapest player will also get the cheapest TV and the cheapest sound system. They may not be poor, but they will obviously value their home entertainment system less (maybe in favour of other ways to spend money eg travel, restaurants, car, house, furniture etc...).

... HD-DVD FTMFW!

Not to be insulting but you have to be really stupid or just plain ignorant to think HD-DVD is done. In order for either of these formats to win they will have to have full support of ALL studios as well as full support from all electronic retailers. Not to mention until high def discs make up even 10% off all disc sales this war hasn't even really began. The only people who think that Blu-Ray has won are PS3 owners who are lying to themselves to feel reassured they didn't get bent over for a $600.00 pile of high tech rubble. There might be many who think BD is the superior format, yet they also know this war has just begun. Besides if the war were to be over now, you could forget ever seeing a high def disc sell for under $20. That will be the true deciding factor between the two formats, whoever can sell the media at the cheapest price. If Toshiba or Sony were to announce they would be selling their HD discs at $20 or under this X-MAS it would be a critical blow to the other format.

That question could be asked when suuround sound first arrived on the home audio scene but now cheap surround sound systems are a dime a dozen and they sell ALOT. They same thing will happen with HD. Right now it is considered high-end but slowly it is becoming mainstream and soon it will be cheap. Of course you will always have your high end systems but the masses wil buy the cheap stuff.

Maybe you missed the part a couple of years ago when Kmart had to close a good 60% of their stores because...yeah...NOBODY WAS SHOPPING THERE. Sure, Kmart still exists, and yeah it still sells, but not nearly as much as Target or Wal-Mart, and --especially-- not in the electronics market.

So in other words, the denial would be a river that -you- are going up, without a paddle at that. PS3 sales lagged only during the month that Halo 3 came out and every other month they've been increasing. The price drop saw a sharp incline in the sales of PS3s.

Or maybe you missed the fact that a lot of features that were once HD-DVD exclusive are now available on the Blu-ray? Or maybe you missed that fact that Transformers, the 3rd largest grossing film of this year, was only available on HD-DVD...and yet, despite that, Blu-ray still has sold more than HD-DVD -every single week that the war has been going on-. Usually at a 3-1 ratio, sometimes as low as 2-1, and occasionally as high as 5-1.

So yes, kudos to Toshiba for launching their new offensive. Now watch as it doesn't matter in the least.

I havent seen any in my area for a long time

My biggest complaint is the cost of HD movies. On average HD DVD and BluRays are $30 with very few selections and scarcity at rental places. I have both the XBOX 360 which I upgraded with a used HD DVD player... and also have the PS3 bluray player. The 360 is inputted into using component and the PS3 via HDMI. No major differences viewing through a 42" HD LCD. On my projection which I have scaled to 115" both look great but I notice artifacting equally on both. Who really cares about which will win, both are great for large screens. I can't wait till the HD movies are about $5-15. That's when HD media will really kick in.

By the way... I play my XBOX 360 2X more than the PS3 only because I've had it longer... but anyone who thinks the XBOX 360 is cheaper is a moron. Add a wireless adapter, bigger hard drive, and HD DVD player and you are much more expensive than the PS3. I like the PS3 since it does hold the future and new games coming out at a steady pace. Since I was an early adopter of the 360, I know there were identical issues/problems associated to the PS3 including price when it first got started.

I can just see it now, Sony adding Blu-ray to their long list of failures which include mini discs and beta tapes. Oh well, poor Sony, you try so hard but you cant help repeating the mistakes of the past again, and again.... and again.

Toshiba is learning from NES. You aren't going to win a market by selling to snooty, arrogant aficionados (no offense intended, since I fall into this category myself). You dominate a market in the low end. It all about volume, baby!

Once the blue light specials are up and people are buying HD-DVD in droves at the X-marts, the price of HD-DVD movies will come down (it's all about volume) and BD will slowly fizzle out and enjoy a few sips of Cognac in the retirement home with Betamax, LaserDisc, and DAT. (I didn't include MD because that never even really made a good effort). Oh, and remember when they had movies on 8mm tape that were higher quality than those lousy new DVD things (and they didn't get ruined with scratches)? It lasted for about 2 months, come on, you don't remember?!?!

NES is wiping up the floor with Sony by selling to the masses, soon Toshiba will be, too.

For a minute I was thinking that Sony might have had a chance for a change. They still could grab the professional market where the extra capacity could come in handy, just like they did with Betamax.

Sony blu-ray, even though it may be better has just lost the war. The everyperson Hi-def DVD player is hitting the street and is afforadable by the common person. And market share will define the winner.

if you can't find movies to rent it's because you're still going to blockbuster. netflix has both hd and blu-ray movies at no extra charge. let the masses sort out the formate war via rentals.

they are only selling it for $100 for a day...
with very limited amount...just to get you to the store...it's not going to be a big difference.
it's just to clean up inventory for new stock.
so they sell a few thousand...so what...

Since the porn indsutry had chosen blu-ray sooo where i have i seen this before?

vhs chosen by porn industry beta dies.....

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125618-page,1/article.html

As a BR owner (ps3) and a HD-DVD owner (A30) with 30 media between the 2 I can say this strait up...

Blue Ray is going to win this.

The Toshibas are racked with poor quality. Both my units are $400 units and I would take a PS3 over another Toshiba A30 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR as far as hardware goes. The Toshiba features the "WELCOME" screen on its 2 minute load up... ok.. my Sony VHS tape player from the mid 80's looks better and is better quality. Don’t even make me go into the broken English in the menus.

You get what you pay for!

This is a one day sale. Best buy has been out of stock for a week and I spoke to several Wal-Mart employees that said each Wal-Mart only has 15 to 20 units each, so if you want one you better be there at 8:00am. I'll bet the farm Sony sells far more PS3's today. This is just another article which is trying to give the illusion that there is a war when the reality is the Blu-ray Camp is dug-in and have comment Billions in Blu-ray and will never walk away from that investment, ever. It's like people aren't listening, and don't realise Toshiba have chosen to go it alone. Toshiba and GE are co-developers of HD DVD and GE owns Universal. Paramount went exclusive because they could make 150 million for releasing Transformers and a few others on HD DVD which is a lot of money for not much. Once they fulfil their obligation they will start making Blu-ray disc's again. That time is getting close, maybe 10 months from now when Paramount will begin releasing their titles on Blu-ray. That means nobody came out for HD DVD in the industry except Microsoft which also has a vested interest as they went HD DVD because the Blu-ray camp wouldn’t accept the VC 1 Codec. Intel came out at first for HD DVD but back tracked once they found out that Toshiba was planning to compete directly with Intel with there new cell processor. As far as Wal-Mart and K-mart are concerned they are clearing out stock of a discontinued A2 which wasn't selling anyway according to Wal-Mart Employees. Both K-Mart and Wal-Mart sell the new 40GB PS3 and will continue to do so as it is by far the best selling HD player on the market. It is also the best value as it has all the features including 1080p/24/60, HDMI ver. 1.3b and it’s a WIFI enabled game player to boot. I think it goes without saying and let me be clear, there is absolutely no way HD DVD is going to make it as it is alone and nobody is going to risk the billions necessary to keep it going when they’re up against the entire industry. Businesses don’t take risks; they will try to pick out the winner in the first place. Panasonic for instance is Matsushita Electric which makes 80% of all the consumer electronics in the world are committed to Blu-ray along with 160 other manufactures and retailers. Don’t you think 160 to 3 is a losing battle for HD DVD? Blu-ray has been out selling HD DVD 2 to 1 in North America and 4 to 1 in Europe and thanks to the PS3 has a consumer base of approximately 7 million units world wide which is expected to grow to 11 million by March 2008 compared to Toshiba’s 170 thousand standalone players and 180 thousand Xbox players with the HD DVD drive add-on which by the way has been selling at or below the $150.00 dollar mark for the last 6 months and it’s simply not selling. Don’t forget Sony has sold 100 million PS2’s which will eventually change up to a PS3 as Sony has garnered a lot of brand loyalty over the years. If you were watching the World Series on Monday you would have seen Wal-Mart in a Blu-ray commercial with Target. Do you no what it cost for a commercial during the World Series. Who invests that kind of money when you’re planning on walking away from the product let alone being in the commercial promoting it? Warner Brothers VP said earlier this week that they are currently evaluating going Blu-ray exclusive. Don’t forget Blu-ray is also the superior format which is really where all the support came from to begin with.

K-Mart will sell thousands more PS3's than they will ever sell HD DVD Players. HD DVD has had a $150.00 dollar HD DVD player for tthe last 8 months and they still don't sell.

Blu-ray Camp is dug-in and have comment Billions in Blu-ray and will never walk away from that investment, ever.

Ever hear of mini disc, sacd, or the obvious, Beta. Sony has invested in formats that no one except antique stores can play now before.

The desperation never ends. At the very least, Toshiba, you can tell your customers the truth.

Read this:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-02-2007/0004696858&EDATE=

That article is OLD is outfdated. From what I've heard, most of the porn industry is going HD-DVD, because of the cost and added features which were avialible on HD-DVD. So, you might just be right in your assertion.

See:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/12/porn-industry-leaning-toward-hd-dvd/

Helps to check your sources...like in dates!

The player is worthless without content! That's like Blockbuser saying it's going Blu-ray....errr....they still have HD-DVD thru mail, just not on shelf racks.

i dont know about you but the k-mart i lived near had the same dusty ps3 in its case for about 6 months before i moved. we dont even have a k-mart close enough by but for the stores we do have, when i asked about buying a xbox 360 for my gf they said they didnt have any in stock and asked if i wanted to buy a ps3. it was used as a display unit and would be discounted. they said they didnt sell anough ps3s to keep stocking them up. the real crazy part is the game stop near by tried talking me out of a 360 because they still have ps3s from over 6 months ago.

The fact that this was going to happen has been predicted by numerous 'in the know' columnists, trade research papers and even companies caught in the format war. HD DVD is going to win this one and it has nothing to do with what player is in consoles, that is absolutely meaningless. This war is fought in the Walmart isles pure and simple. Blu Ray simply cannot compete economically for the mass market. Game consoles don't matter as far as movie formats are concerned.

I find it so funny that the biggest thing killing HD DVD is the fact that nobody is willing to pay for it. $98.00 and 9 free movies is a death sentence. I heard a lot of people claim that with a price like that Toshiba will kill Blu-ray, however, this couldn't be further from the truth. At $98.00 HD DVD players represent a complete loss as none of these people are going to buy movies as 3 movies cost as much as their new player. With no money to be made nobody will manufacture the players or the movies, unless of course you do what Toshiba has been doing and pay them to do so. The biggest mistake a business can make is going to war on price, because very quickly the profit margins disappear and everyone exits the market. My guess is there’s no hope for HD DVD unless people are willing to pay between $400 and $500 a unit for the entry level player. Funny thing is as soon as these same people who think $98.00 is a far price to pay for a player have to pay $500.00 for the same unit they get a lot more fussy and take a much harder look at what they are buying with much higher expectations on quality, reliability, capacity, performance, and security in how long their investment in the new technology will last. Not really something you care too much about when you’re spending $98.00. That being said, I want to congratulate Toshiba on a fantastic job of getting people to except a free HD DVD player. That’s very impressive indeed. Sony, isn't making much money either, but there customers have shown that their willing to purchase the product at a price point Sony and the 170 other manufacturers will able to make a good profit from once they get the initial start up costs covered and manufacturing costs come down further once the sales volume increases. When the price comes down as the cost comes down that's healthy. When you have to take huge losses far below cost to sell a product that's been on the market for 2 and a half years during which you only managed to sell less than 190 thousand Units, (stand alone players). It's time to exit the market and cut your losses. It's a good thing those $98 HD DVD players play DVD's.

Recently Warner Bothers VP said that they are current reviewing their position on supporting both formats and that they will be watching HD DVD sales closely over the next few weeks. If the new low prices for HD DVD hardware fail to translate into significant HD DVD sales, they will consider going Blu-ray exclusive.

OK, name the plusses that Blu-Ray has over HD-DVD. Need a hint? Only one: Slightly more space for data (not movies, only data!)

OK, now the plusses that HD-DVD has:
- virtually same movie space as Blu-Ray (HD-DVD = 8 hours Blu-Ray = 9! so what!)
- Ethernet/Internet connectivity required for content additions (not required on Blu-Ray)
- Dual decoders for PIP and other options (Not on Blu-Ray)
- HD-DVD Can play HD content from old fashion DVD-R discs. So you can make HD home movies easy and cheap. Can't do this on Blu-Ray. Just trying to find recordable HD discs right now make this a big deal.
- Dual sided/Dual format discs on HD-DVD, not Blu-Ray
- Higher audio standards (Blu-Ray has a higher output available, but not standard)
- Cheaper.

There's more, but that is more than enough to show how much better HD-DVD is.

So, which one is better?

Washington, D.C. (November 5, 2007) -- Kmart has contradicted a reported statement from Toshiba that it will support HD DVD exclusively in the high-def disc format war.

Home Media Magazine last week quoted Toshiba spokeswoman Jody Sally as saying that Kmart had decided to carry HD DVD instead of Blu-ray because of its lower price.

The Toshiba entry-level HD DVD player retails for $299, but is now available for $198 at several stores including Circuit City and Wal-Mart.

A standalone Blu-ray player (HD DVD's rival in the format war) starts at $499, although the Play Station 3, which has a Blu-ray player inside, is now available for $399.

Kmart issued a statement on Friday from Jonathan Magasanik, a vice president at Sears, which owns Kmart, that says the Home Media Magazine report is not true.

"There have been numerous statements in the media today, attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD-DVD format in Kmart stores. These statements are false," the statement said. "Kmart intends to support both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively."

Kmart did not elaborate on how it would support both formats, but it's now selling both standalone HD DVD players and the Play Station 3 in most stores

ML, you made a lot of blanket statements with absolutely no credible evidence or facts. You’re misinformed, and truly unable to comprehend the information you have available to you.

Although they call it Bata cam, it's used in professional studios around the world. Fact is far more of Sony’s inventions make it then don't like DVD, CD, VCR, Trinitron TV, Walkman, cordless phones, HDTV, and many more. Bata failed primarily because it had 60 minutes of recorded time compared to 4 hours the VHS tape had. This time around it's the Blu-ray disc with the greater capacity and now a $399 PS3 to boot. You should also be aware that Toshiba lied to the lot of you as K-Mart never said they were going HD DVD exclusive. They lied to get the weak minded to run out and buy their discontinued inventory of the A2 HD DVD player. Get your fact straight

I just read an interview with the VP of Universal where he claim,s HD DVD is out selling Blu-ray per player because he does't consider PS3 a Blu-ray player. He also quoted that Marketing report that claimed 70% of PS3 owners said they didn't know the PS3 played Blu-ray movies. Yes, thta's that same report that was found to have interviewed childer as low as 5 years old to get their results. Mr. VP, I don't think the studio's care how the HD sales are comprised of as long as they can sell their movies, and so far Blu-ray has out sold HD DVD every single week since the PS3 was launched less than one year ago. Blu-ray has been out selling HD DVD 2 to 1 in the US and 4 to 1 in Europe. That's the bottom line. Stop with the Bull shit and the lies.

nate, K-Mart and Wal-Mart just don't sell anything that costs that much money because most people who shop there can afford it. Ask anybody who works for these stores, they'll tell yah, the only thing in electronics your going to sell in these stores are $49 DVD players from china. Any one who thinks Wal-Mart or K-Mart are going to have apart in deciding the format war is incorrect as this technology will be around for years before the prices go low enough to sell it at a Wal-Mart or a K-Mart. That includes the cost of the movies because most people won’t buy a HD DVD player to watch HD DVD’s if they can’t afford to buy the movies. Anyone who purchased the $98 A2 will most likely be using it as a DVD player. If HD DVD player sales don’t translate into HD DVD movie sales it’s a waste of time. Go see for yourself, if you put anything that costs over $100 at Wal-Mart and especially K-Mart it won't sell.

The recording time had little to do with VHS success. It was all about the price. The recording time was a bonus. The price for players set the path forward. People with players rented movies. Movie Rental Stores stocked the format that people had the boxes for. The Adult industry started the pace, but the mainstream followed because of price. I had several friend bet on the superiority of Betamax.

It wasn't until Top Gun that prices for buying movies became affordable ($24.95 with a Pepsi commercial). Alien sold for $89.99, that'd be a few hundred in today's cash.

Now all the studios know that volume is better than price and that's how they'll vote.

The BD group needs to get units out there and PS3s don't count because only Sony will buy that they'll be used for anything but cursory movie watching, and Sony wants to sell games for PS3 not movies.

Dan, Google "Blu-Ray's dirty little secret" and you'll find out that Blu-Ray sales are based on movie title, and all studios carrying Blu-Ray also print and sell HD DVD of the SAME MOVIE! So the sales figures are wrong, as they count HD DVD sales as Blu-Ray sales too! So, who's lying to us? You seem to be part of the lie.

I just can't believe a complete ignoramus like you is making blanket statements about something you no nothing about. Do your research first. It's you that doesn't get it; it’s all data, Movies, Photo's, Music, and Text; zeros and ones that's it. You’re not stupid enough to think if you look really really closely at an HD DVD disc you would see the picture frames of the movie are you?

The latest working and approved Blu-ray disc holds 100GB and TDK has developed a prototype capable of holding 200GB compared to 30GB maximum for HD DVD who has a proto type which will not be compatible with current HD DVD players of 51GB. Do your research before you start making really stupid statements like the Bata VHS war was won on price, because it wasn't. Bata lost the war long before the average person could afford a VCR. The first VCR's were over $3000.00 each. I also never said capacity was the only reason, I said it was the defining one, or some might say the main reason, the other reason was Sony’s refusal to licence out the technology. I didn’t just read about it I was there, I was in involved.

The first dvd player I owned was a PS2, I now have a stand alone. So getting a PS3 for me is first and formost a games console, with the added bonus of a Blu-ray player.

But bottom line if HD-DVD comes top I'll just go out and buy a player, so I'll have a PS3 that I won't get any more movies for, but it'll still play games, which is why I got it in the 1st place.
Unlike a dedicated player that becomes obsolete.

OK, I read the (2-month-old) article on Audioholics.com, and it is written in an insinuating, rumor-mongering style, and shows its true intent only at the end by taking a complete dump on Blu-ray technology.

Not exactly what I'd call a dispassionate piece of tech writing. I'll translate that: I think the author has an agenda.