Remember when DVD players went from being a few hundred dollars to the point where people were trampling each other for $49 players at Wal-Mart? HD DVD players aren’t quite there yet, but there’s already indication that if you want high-definition DVD on the cheap this holiday shopping season you’ll be able to find it pretty affordable.

Engadget HD tells us about two places where it’s found Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player for under $200. Yep, that’s right—so already we’ve gone from paying several hundred bucks for a next-gen player to now less than two bills.

Of course, Wal-Mart is one of those two places, as it’s floor has signs posting $198 HD-A2 players. On Circuit City’s web site, if you add the item to your cart you’ll see a hefty discount that shows a markdown from $299 to $197.99. And this update: we did another price check on Amazon.com and found the same deal as Circuit City, including free shipping.

Sure, the HD-A2 might “only” output at 720p/1080i instead of 1080p, but high-def is high-def, and we’ve read more than our share of testimonials of people being more than happy with the performance.

With Toshiba’s 1080p players sure to follow in some discounted way (just speculation, but hey, sales season is just about upon us), this should give HD DVD a pretty big boost. Maybe not enough in the long run against Blu-ray, but it’s making a good move along the backstretch of this race.

Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!