Big Sales Reported For HD DVD Discount Weekend

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the decision by Best Buy and Wal*Mart to sell some HD DVD players, for an extremely limited time, at under $100 paid huge dividends, as the units flew off the shelves just about everywhere they were sold.

The Web site VideoBusiness.com, citing sources close to Best Buy and Wal*Mart, reported that 90,000 Toshiba HD DVD players were sold from Friday to Sunday throughout the two chains. While that figure counts all HD DVD players, not just the discounted ones, the vast majority were for $99, the report said.

While Blu-ray, thanks largely to the PlayStation 3 player, has still sold more players overall, the HD DVD players sold over the weekend nearly match the highest-selling Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-S300, since its release. However, the Blu-ray player market has been spread over several different players.