Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player £179.99 at Tesco Wigston, Leicester.

Any takers? (includes 2discs inside I think and maybe the redemption offer for the further 5 discs)

I for one am keeping an eye open to buy one but for £150 if I can get one. I won't buy Blu ray.

Trouble is with Blu-Ray appearing to be wining the format war is there any point buying a HD player? Certainly looks dodgy as a long term investment to me. With the recent Warners announcement you do have to woder whether this time next year there will be any significant new HD-DVD content available.

It all depends what Uni and Para do in 2008, if they stick to their press releases and support HD DVD this year then along with the hundreds of movies all ready released coupled with a "cheap" player you will have a excellent HD setup.
Longer term then who knows, Blu-ray looks here to stay but can you totally rule out it's failure to become mainstream or Tosh go for broke and dump hardware on the market and suddenly all the PR offensive (most totally ignored by the average punter) means nothing and HD DVD suddenly starts selling well enough for Warner in May to say hang on by not supporting HD DVD we are saying goodbye to a ton of cash which may not be recouped if they were Blu exclusive

Personally if the worse happens then you'll be able to pick up HD DVD even cheaper so waiting is the best bet especially given the lack of Profile 1.1 players in the UK and well the PS3 won't go up in price.

I bought on just before christmas from play.com.I was £189.99 though.Got the two free movies with it, bourne supremacy and 300.Still waiting for my 5 free movies.Well pleased with the machine.

Toshiba HD-EP10 HD DVD player Currys £149.99..... does the job still waiting for my 5 free disc too

i been waiting for my free 5 hd dvd for about a month now.

Is there any one who has got thier 5 free discs?

Saw it in Tescos today for £199 but I think it was the E35 model.

Does anyone know the difference and will it be worth buying for an improvement in upscaling over my Samsung HD850 model linked to a Panasonic Plasma?

Reading this Board indicates that HD DVD might be losing the HD battle. Is that the reason why these are discounted?

Thanks

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-0532.aspx

Just checked online and its £179.97 with free delivery for a week including the 2 free discs and the redemption offer and clubcard points, think i'll stick with the PS3 though

Appearing seems to be the promenent word here, although I have to admit that Blu-Ray certainly seems to be winning, we are still in the early implementor stage and there's always the rare possibility that anything could happen between the end of 2008. Unless your happy paying for what could be an obsolete unit I think it's best to pay caution on either of Blu-ray and HD DVD systems.

The worst case is you have a great upscaling player for your current collection of dvds! Plus what ever HD dvds you get before they stop supporting them (If they do!)
It won't stop working if they stop production of discs to buy.
Look at it like this.
£180 - £100 worth of Hd dvds
= £80
That is a good price for a high quality upscaling dvd player that you can continue to enjoy your current and future normal dvds on as well as your HD collection.
This is what I am going to do then look at getting a Blu ray (not interested in ps3) once they finally get them to work as good as HD players do now!

KevIW that was my thinking when i bought this player that if HD DVD was to fail in the format war i still had a great upscaling player.
Like you said £100 worth of Hd Dvds and free HDMI lead i thought i could'nt lose.
I'm also waiting for better Blu Ray players to hit the market.
But in the mean time i'm delighted with this player.

Got mine for £119.99 from Amazon.co.uk
Very Pleased with it - good upscale performance and excellent HD picture

Even if BR wins the HD War, I don't feel like I've wasted a huge amount of money

Bluray has already won the war.

Warners announcement that they were dropping HD DVD knocked it on the head which is why within days the Tosh players were slashed by £70.

They are excellent at upscaling standard dvd's though but I wouldnt waste too much on buying HD DVD discs

Warner release a large amount of titles and with new releases from them missing after May the HD DVD schedule will be pitiful so the format will likely be discontinued by the end of the year

Me too I feel ive just bought a good upscaling player, I was in need of a new DVD player anyway & will prob just buy Std Def DVDs until the war changes or ends.

Or they will bring in duel players,i very much dought they will be discontinued to the other poster go over to av forums the format war threads paint a clearer picture off whats going on.

How would you be wasting money by buying HD DVDs ?
Even if HD DVD does lose out (and I personally believe there is still a chance they could make a recovery thanks to the aggressive pricing of players such as this) The players aren't going to self destruct as soon as the last disc leaves the production line are they ?

Would you recommend people stop wasting their money on buying DVDs and CDs as well ?

Yep, sent off 2nd Jan....arrived 31st Jan.....email 2 Days before to let me know that they had been despatched via Royal Mail.

I have a clear picture of what's going on thanks.

Blu Ray has won.

Unless there's a miracle of biblical proportions, HD-DVD will be history by the end of the year. Yes there are end-of-line sales, and the low prices will extend the decline to a certain degree, but anyone buying HD-DVD now should be aware that they're buying into the new Betamax.

WB support of HD-DVD ceases mid year. Other minor studios have already announced the same. The remaining HD-DVD supporting studios are likely to follow suit after a suitable delay. Support for HD-DVD authoring software for home PCs has been dropped by the developers.

The public, and the industry, were looking for one format to win, to get behind it and add their support to it. The WB announcement was the tipping point that allowed most people to see that Blu Ray is the winner.

HD-DVD will be around a while yet. Existing stock of players and disks has to be sold. There'll even be a few more titles announced, I'm sure. But make no mistake, HD-DVD is dead.

Because you'll have to rebuy them on Blu Ray when your HD-DVD player eventually dies.


Talk about a "straw man" argument.

You're dreaming if you think HD-DVD has any future much beyond 2008. The low pricing will prolong the decline, but it's a firesale. No-one will replace the stock once it's gone.

When you say most people do you mean the enthusiast or the everyday man in the street.

Most people on the street have heard about this war, and if they watched the news when Warner announced they were dropping HD DVD then they will also now that Blu-ray has won.

No you won't. By then you'll probably have bought yourself a dual-format player.

I can't see dual format become the norm now.