Hi, my name's Ryan. I have been considering buying the HVR-A1U for a while, but I'm not 100% yet. While looking at prices, I noticed there is a $300 rebate on it that is set to expire on 3/31/07.

Thus, my question: Do I need to get my butt and gear and decide whether or not to buy this thing within the next three weeks, or will the rebate likely be extended to a later date? How do these rebates normally act over time?

Thanks for any info,
Ryan

There was originally a $500 rebate. As I recall, that was extended once. I haven't followed this, but I guess after the $500 rebate expired it was replaced with the current offer. Your guess is as good as anybody else's for what comes next.

By the way, it takes several months before the rebate check arrives.

Best wishes,
Peter
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NAB07 is three weeks after that expires. There's a chance that Sony will unveil or announce a replacement model. I would caution that it's a speculative statement and that you will probably not find anyone that will tell you if it exists or when you can buy one until Sony allows them to say so.

Well Jeff is right, it's all just pure speculation. I don't think you can generalize about rebates. But for what it's worth, the PD-170 has had a rebate for a long time, more than a year I think. It's not unusual for Sony to extend rebates, but of course it's just a gamble as to what will happen next, depending on Sony's sales goals, inventory and product cycles. The PDX-10 had a rebate which was extended until inventories ran out.

Thanks, guys! I think I might just wait and see what happens, especially if NAB '07 is practically just around the corner (there are so many options these days it's almost overwhelming...I guess it's significantly better than not having them, though).