There's nothing concrete about this, but a Wal-Mart employee claims that he saw a Toshiba UPC in their system labeled "Toshiba HDA2-W" priced at $198. This could be the mythical sub-$200 HD DVD player Wal-Mart's been waiting for, having previously declined selling the Venturer $199 HD DVD player due to Venturer being a tier two player.

Having Toshiba back a cheap player would be better for Wal-Mart, seeing as Venturer outsources their tech support and may not be equipped to handle the support needs for a relatively new (and possibly frequently-updated) format like HD DVD.

Even though Toshiba's been hitting near the $200 point with big bargains and HD DVD giveaways, a player you can actually pick up for that much will be a big boost this holiday season. And if Toshiba can get players into people's houses—think the PlayStation 3 approach to Trojan horsing Blu-ray in—movies are sure to follow. [High Def Forum via PC World]

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