Wal-mart preempts Black Friday with HDTV specials this Saturday

Wal-mart appears to be short-circuiting this annual struggle, offering some pre-Black Friday deals available this Saturday only starting at 8 a.m. While the deal getting the most notoriety is the $199 Xbox 360 Arcade with a $100 gift card, there are a couple of decent HDTV specials as well. First, Wal-mart is selling the Panasonic TC-P46U1 (pictured above), a 1080p plasma, for $788. That's a couple hundred off what the set is selling for on Amazon ($1,099.95), and just $10 more than what the cheapest 1080p 42-inch Panasonic plasma currently costs at JR.com.

If you'd rather go LCD and spend a little less, there's the Sharp LC42SB45UT, a 42-inch 1080p set for $498. It costs around $700 from online retailers, but it does not offer 120Hz refresh rates. Wal-mart is also selling a Sony Blu-ray player for $148, though $99 will be the price point that will really get people jumping for Blu-ray units.

It will be interesting to see if Wal-mart will continue offering these deals before Black Friday, and if they impact the deals the retailing giant offers for the big day itself. The other question: Will other retailers like Best Buy follow suit with some pre-Black Friday specials of their own? I'll keep you posted if they do.