Holy Moly Blu-Ray Disc Players below $300

The PS3 lags the Toshiba XA2 in video quality by quite a bit. This is due to the Reon Chipset in the Toshiba offering.

I have purchased the Toshiba HD XA2 for my theater system and can honestly say that the picture in high def is better than that of my Sony BDP-300.
The 300 also has some hiccups, image freezes issues.
I have not had any problem with the dual combo discs. SD DVD also look better on the Toshiba.
Built quality is also much better than the Sony.
I will be trying the second generation Pioneers next. Had the first generation and sent it back because of picture freeze, no sound, and sometimes fast forward picture during playback.
Good luck,

Future Shop has the Toshiba HD-D3 HD dvd player on sale for boxing day regular price $399.99 on sale for $99.99.

Wait. had been in or around this biz, in on form or another, for over a decade. And,Unless they're dumping a product from production in favor of superior units, are selling of referb units with blems and no warranty, there's NO WAY these prices can be right! - could they!?!
Weird. I'd like to know more on this story. I mean, prices have then fallen by like 80% in a year and a half time!
Is this all true?

Yes its true. Its a market share fight for the future. HD-DVDs production/distribution costs are lower and they are pressing Blu Ray hard by forcing big losses on them just like Blu Ray came out swinging with their marketing and stuck it to HD-DVD big time, initially grabbing 70% of disc sales ( its since evened up quite a bit if you look at the past months Amazon sales rank data for top 100 Blu Ray vs HD-DVD)