Seeing Red - will you stock up on the inevitable clearance sales on HD DVDs? (1 Viewer)

[Derek_J]

So far, I've seen no sign of stock returns or heavy discounts on HD DVD discs. If I didn't know better, I'd think the war was still on, and HD DVD was still a going concern.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Considering that everyone else wants $600 on up for new it's a "fair" price. He now has 25 on order. This is going in our soon to be finished dedicated theater room along with a Panasonic BD-50 (as soon as it is released).

 

[Paul Arnette]

Well, I'm glad I could help you find one then. I don't remember paying much more than $530 when I bought mine, which is why I didn't consider the price to be all that great. I think it is a fabulous player. You won't be disappointed. The Reon chip is awesome. I hope one day I get a player with the Realta, which is supposed to be even better.

 

[Jim_K]

The XA-2 is the only spare HD DVD player I'd even consider picking up but
I paid $550 for one back in April last year so I agree with Paul that $470 isn't much of a deal. I'd almost say that price is pretty steep especially considering the format is dead.

$150-$200 max is what I'd pay now, but that's me.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Check Amazon. There are some hefty discounts, and this week saw another round of price drops. Whether it's enough to hit one's personal purchase threshold, only you can judge. But just as an example, the Matrix trilogy is now $42.99 for the 3-disc version. I doubt you'll see a price like that in Blu-ray for a long time. (And you just know Warner will keep issuing it as a trilogy, 'cause otherwise who would buy the other two? )

Paramount titles like Black Rain, The Warriors, Lara Croft, Payback are now down to $11.95.

M.

 

[Brent M]

You'll NEVER see an XA2 that cheap because even if you throw out its' HD-DVD capabilities it is still one of the best SD DVD players ever made. Since most people still have huge DVD collections the upconverting abilities of the XA2 make it worth a lot more than $150-200.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I would probably try to get a video processor with the Realta so I could use it to do not only DVDs, but cable/sat and other non HDM sources too. The new Denon 5308 receiver has a Realta as it's built scaler....

 

[Jim_K]

Weelll........It's upconverting capability is pretty much on-par with the Oppo DV-981 HD which I paid little over $200 for. It's also region free, does PAL to NTSC conversion and supports 2 dead formats (SACD and DVD Audio) instead of just 1.

So by comparison $470 for a comparable upconverting DVD player (or just as a back-up player to support 30 odd HD DVD titles) is a wee bit insane for me.

 

[Patrick Sun]

At Fry's last night, they had one A35 left on their shelves for $149.99, and one XA2 for $599.99. Hoping for a deal on the XA2, I asked one of the sales associates if the XA2 was getting marked down like the A35 was, and he just smiled and shook his head. So, I ended up with my backup A35 (to go with my existing XA2) for just under $160 after taxes.

Next: to pick up a spare Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive for $50 (and get the 5 free HD DVDs by buying the drive before 2/28/08).

 

[Brent M]

I have an Oppo(hooked up to another system in the house) and I think the XA2 is far superior to it as an upconverting player. I've also had several high end Pioneer Elite DVD players over the years and I find the XA2 to be better than any of them as well. Maybe I'm biased towards the XA2, but I find it to be the best upconverting player I've ever used and well worth the money(especially in an age where you can pay $2-3k for a video scaler).

 

[Stephen_J_H]

So I took advantage of one of the half off sales and picked up Stardust, Shaun of the Dead, Sleepy Hollow, Bourne Ultimatum (not 1/2 off, but still a helluva lot cheaper than Best Buy, who want $40 for it) and Tremors. Factor that in with my 7 free titles (2 in box and 5 by mail), and I'm still spending less than I did on my first 12 DVD titles.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Found a $5 reward zone coupon, so the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive ended up being $45 plus tax, so an even better deal at the moment. Not crazy about the offerings for the 5 free titles, but I'll manage.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Neither was I. I wound up getting The Thing, The Frighteners, Aeon Flux, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Darkman. There wasn't much else that appealed to me, since I'm trying not to do any rebuys (even though Charlie and Darkman will be) of stuff I have in SD.

 

[PaulDA]

Bought two movies and an HDMI cable and got a free HD DVD player.

Was in Costco and picked up an A3 as a backup for my A2--80$ (includes 6 ft HDMI cable and the first two Bourne movies--didn't have either in HD DVD). A bargain I could not pass up.

 

[Jim_K]

I don't know what to tell you. Do you have the Oppo 981? It's the only model of theirs that has the Faroudja video processor.

I have to admit that after I got the XA-2 and after reading all the hype of "near HD quality" I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't really any better at upconverting than the Oppo which I already had. I did quite a few back to back comparisons between the Oppo 981 and XA-2 on the same setup and just couldn't tell a difference. That's not a knock against the XA-2 because they both do a fine job.

I just think upconverting is a bit overhyped. While it makes standard DVD's watchable on HD displays it's just not near HD quality. If it was none of us would be purchasing HDM.

 

[Ric Easton]

Ulp... Posted in wrong thread... nevermind!

 

[Brent M]

Yup. I've done a lot of back and forth comparison as well and find the XA2 to be far superior with SD DVDs. That's not saying the Oppo does a bad job because I find it to be a great DVD player(I wouldn't have bought one if it wasn't). I just think the XA2 is the best upconverting player I've ever used and I have gone through a ton of DVD players over the years. YMMV.

 

[DavidJ]

I own an XA2 and recommended (and use) the Oppo in our media classroom where I teach. They are both very good at up-conversion. I wouldn't say the XA2 is "far superior," but I would give it a slight edge. The Oppo is a great player and the SACD and DVD-Audio support is nice. I wish the XA2 had it.

 

[Paul.S]

Amen. I hope Oppo takes no longer than a year or so to essentially add BD playback to what is currently their 981 and prices it at ~$300. At the rate Denon moves, IF they do a universal combo, it won't street until ~2010--when BD standalones are hopefully ~$250--and they'll price it at ~$400.

 

[Brent M]

Yeah, far superior wasn't the proper wording. The Oppo is great and you won't find anything close to it at the price, I just think the XA2 is a better performer with DVDs.