Toshiba slashes HD DVD prices

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 14 Jan 2008 at 12:49

Toshiba is fighting back in the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, after news last week that Warner Bros would be dropping support for the HD DVD format.

The move caused many to claim that the long-running battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD had ended, as Blu-ray was left with the majority of the large movie studios' support.

Undeterred, Toshiba has slashed the price of its HD DVD players, with the entry-level HD-A3 model being reduced to just $140. Tesco currently offer a Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD player in the UK for £180.

Many online retailers and bricks-and-mortar shops are also offering large price cuts on HD DVD media, with Amazon currently hosting a 50% sale on HD DVD movies in the US, and large reductions on the UK site.

"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer. The value HD DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored," says Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president of the Digital A/V Group at Toshiba.

However, it's not clear to what extent these price reductions have been led by Toshiba. It may simply be that retailers are keen to reduce stock levels of what they believe may be slowly becoming an obsolete format.