More interesting news from the high-definition wars. This time, it’s news from Toshiba where they have announced price cuts on all three of their current HD DVD players out on the market. The new prices are as follows:

• HD-A3 now sells for $149.99
• HD-A30 now sells for $199.99
• HD-A35 now sells for $299.99

These new price cuts come barely a 10 days after Warner Brothers announced that they would be dropping support for HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. According to Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research of The NPD Group, “For them [Toshiba] to drop MSRPs now couldn’t come at a better time.. It was a gap Blu-ray was able to close down upon holiday sales.”

Although the price cuts are certainly a boon for consumers, one has to wonder if this will seriously help the HD DVD front. Up until now, HD DVD has held a price advantage over Blu-ray which has helped drive sales for HD DVD. Yet, Blu-ray continues to push forward – especially in light of the lower prices for the Sony PlayStation 3 console and the various deals that retailers have conjured up over the holiday season. Finally, one has to wonder how low these prices can eventually go. Let’s face it – hardware prices can only go so low and at some point, Blu-ray hardware manufacturers will catch up (or rather lower their prices to be on par with HD DVD). If we do reach price parity in the near future, content will likely drive the winner of this battle and it does appear from a glance that Blu-ray is the leader at this point.

I’ve been a fan of HD DVD from the get go – simply because it was rather inexpensive to get an HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 platform and the qualities of the released titles have been rather good thus far. (OK.. having Battlestar Galactica on HD DVD helps if you ask me!) Am I going to stick with HD DVD? No. As a consumer, I will go with what makes sense from a financial standpoint since there really is no picture quality difference between the two platforms. Heck – I’ll even consider getting a PS3 just for the sole purpose of getting Blu-ray if need be!

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