Stores Beginning to Clearance HD DVD Players

 

Though Toshiba and Universal have made claims that the HD DVD format is far from dead... and Paramount has apparently agreed to stay quiet for a bit longer... some stores are moving toward ending this war themselves.

Format war forums started lighting up Saturday with reports that Circuit City, the U.S.'s second largest electronics retailer, was putting all Toshiba HD DVD players on clearance.  HD DVD fans attempted to claim that either Toshiba was preparing to release new fourth-gen models or that the same models would be released with different pack-in discs.  Other retailers confirmed that no fourth-gen HD DVD players were in the pipeline, and common sense dictates that a change in pack-in discs doesn't warrant clearance pricing on players already in stores.

1080living decided to do some detective work and contacted several Cirtcuit City stores.  They all confirmed that the players were on clearance, and a few were willing to confirm that Circuit City was dropping the format.  One store manager explained the situation:

"This move is for business reasons only as Circuit City is committed to the next generation of Hi Def DVD viewing. Based on company sales of the two formats which consisted of 87 percent for Blu-Disc and 13% for HD the company felt that now should be the time to fully commit our resources to one format. Circuit City is the leader of technology and this move again reinforces out commitment to offering out customers the very best available. We expect our competitors to follow suit shortly."

Reportedly, the players currently in stores and in Circuit City's warehouses will be sold at clearance prices (the A3 is going for right at $100), and no new players will be ordered.  Perhaps worse for Toshiba, the players are being sold as "Upscaling DVD and HD DVD players," according to their tags.

Similarly, reports are emerging that Sears is not reordering any further HD DVD players, and is shipping HD DVD titles back to their vendor.

Things seem to also be happening at Best Buy, though there doesn't appear to be any "official" nationwide policy in place at this point.  Some stores, however, have reportedly moved their HD DVD players off the sole HD DVD endcap and into the standard DVD player aisle.

Target, for their part, has been fairly solidly Blu for some time now, only carrying the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on in stores.  On the Blu-ray side, they sell the PS3 and Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray players, and have large Blu-ray displays in stores.

Rumors on other retailers dropping HD DVD players and/or discs continue to circulate, and it seems likely that now that the first stores have made their moves, others will likely follow in pretty short order.

UPDATE - 1/28: UK-based retailer Woolworth's has released an official announcement that they will be dropping HD DVD players and software from all their retail stores this March.  They site a 10-1 sales lead for the Blu-ray format over the holiday shopping season as the basis for their move.  Chicago-area retailer Grant's Appliances has also officially announced that they are stocking Blu-ray players and software exclusively.