Wal-Mart, others ready sub-$200 HD-DVD player for holiday season

Some large retailers may be trying to re-invent an old favorite into this season's "Must-Have" consumer electronic product. HD DVD, which provides much better picture quality, enhanced features and more to the largely maturing DVD market will hit a new low this holiday season, as the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has already begun marketing a new HD DVD player for $198 -- quite a price drop from the $300 and $500 regular prices for many current standalone HD DVD players.

But, Wal-Mart is not the only one -- others like Circuit City are getting in on the action, too. In fact, the $197.99 price point offered at the consumer electronics retailer along with the same price at online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) beats Wal-Mart's price by a penny in what appears to be an initial attempt at holiday price wars. Too bad this is a product that most consumers couldn't care less about in the first place.

But, they may care when the price gets to a certain low point, and the sub-$200 area does get there. If HD DVD gets to the sub-$100 price in the next year, consumers will care about "enhanced, high-definition video" just because of the price. My straw poll indicates that most consumers are perfectly happy with progressive-scan DVD players -- which now retail for $50.

The Toshiba player in question was released earlier in 2007 with a $500 retail price, but has seen price chops all year long (Amazon recently sold it for $230), and now this old inventory is being unloaded at fire sales prices probably just to get the newer hardware format into consumer hands. How convenient that the holiday season is just around the corner!