Toshiba's $499 HD DVD Player Costs Over $700 To Make

[Ian]

Interesting article..

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/06/23 ... r_subsidy/

Toshiba is subsidising its HD-A1 HD DVD player by at least $175 in a bid to buy the next-generation optical disc format success. So claims market watcher iSuppli, which took the machine to bits and totted up the cost of all the parts.

Available in the US, the HD-A1 is priced at $499. iSuppli's assessment of the cost of the players' components puts the product's bill of materials at $674 - and that's before the cost of assembly, packaging, peripherals, distribution, advertising, software development and so on. Oh, and that $499 is the retail price - Toshiba will be charging resellers even less for the player.

It makes you wonder how much money Sony is losing with the PS3.

[Dartman]

Well if they can pull this just to get the jump on hd movie sales why doesn't the BD camp do the same. I sure wont pay 500 for a player and definitely not 1k for another DRM ridden device even if I like Blue Ray more.

[dolphinius_rex]

You know it's funny... HDDVD Players are cheaper... but I'm currently fighting with myself to keep from shelling out $1000 for a BluRay burner or player, while I'm waiting for the PS3. I have *zero* interest in paying half as much for an HDDVD player though.

And I've already started purchasing BluRay movies *and* BD-R's.

Whatever Sony is doing, it appears to be working on me... but I don't even HAVE an HDTV yet!

(as it happens, I owned DVDs months before I owned a DVD player as well).