Toshiba drops HD-DVD prices, format war continues

[HEXUS]

The format war that was said to be over, well, isn't. Universal and Paramount pledge to continue to support HD-DVD and Toshiba fires back with lower priced HD-DVD players.

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[Funkstar]

$149 for the HD-A3 is really good. I wonder how this will translate to UK prices. Yes it will probably be £149, but then thats the list price and not the sreet price.

Can't be long before we drop below the magic £100 mark.

[Bluecube]

But is it worth getting when the majority of films are now being released on BluRay? Good to see the prices heading south though!

[Saracen]

Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President Digital A/V Group says "Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD-DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumers' purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology.

That isn't the most critical determinant for this consumer. For me, it's that I'm not investing money in either format, either in discs or hardware, until this format war is clearly, demonstrably and conclusively settled. Until then, my money stays in my pocket.

[TheAnimus]

and also the disks are about 4 times the cost of regular dvds

[Skinleech]

and also the disks are about 4 times the cost of regular dvds

Depends what dvds you buy. I just bought the Blu-ray of Deja Vu, brand new from Movietyme.com for £7.99

With regards to the majority of films being on Blu-ray, that's not really true up until now, as the formats have pretty much 50/50 in the tiles department, so I guess it depends on whether what's currently available on HD-DVD interests you. HD-DVD still has some big titles under it's belt - The Bourne Trilogy, Star Trek, Transformers for example. It's not dead yet.

[TooNice]

In my opinion, it's not just the hardware that needs to drop in price, but also (mainly?) the media. Somehow I think that HD-DVD would sell better, and, in fact would be in the better position than BD had they tried to price match, or at the very least peg it to the cost of DVDs (e.g. £1-2 more than the retail price of a given DVD) - rather than trying to undercut Blu-ray in terms of hardware. If we were to believe their earlier claims that existing machinery could be modified to stamp HD, saving costs over BD, then they should be in a position to do so.