Wal-Mart plans $99 HD DVD for Friday, $348 notebook

Wal-Mart will temporarily achieve the lowest price ever for an HD-capable movie player when it launches a new promo this Friday, according to the company's holiday ad. The retailer expects to sell the Toshiba HD-A2 for just $99 when the deal begins, undercutting the company's already discounted $200 price for the HD DVD player. The move is known to be an attempt to clear stock for third-generation players and will mean limited stock of the movie reader at each store that can host the sale, Wal-Mart says. Some stores have already run out and are not expected to honor the deal, though a map of these stores is unavailable.

While the company has not announced any special discounts for the newer devices, a leaked ad indicates that Sears will offer the slimmer, more advanced HD-A3 for $170 starting Black Friday, which is the day following American Thanksgiving and is typically known as the busiest day of shopping every year.

The special discounts are also expected to include a $348 Acer notebook with 1GB of RAM, which is likely to be the Aspire 4710 and should include both a Core 2 Duo processor as well as 1GB of memory, which normally raise the price to $600. No other specifications are included in the announcement.