Toshiba slashes prices of its HD DVD players

NEW YORK (AP) — Toshiba Corp. on Monday announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99.

The HD DVD camp suffered a serious blow Jan. 4, when Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would stop publishing movies on HD DVD in May, to focus on Blu-ray and regular DVD.

That leaves only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, still supporting HD DVD, while five support Blu-ray.

Toshiba on Monday slashed the suggested retail price of its cheapest player, the HD-A3, from $299.99 to $149.99. The price for the HD-A30 was also halved, from $399.99 to $199.99, while the price on the high-end HD-A35 went from $499.99 to $299.99.

HD DVD players have been cheaper than Blu-ray players for a while, and sales of stand-alone players have been strong. But Blu-ray has benefited from Sony’s cachet among video enthusiasts, as well as the ability of the PlayStation 3 game console to play Blu-ray discs.

“While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer,” said Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president of digital audio and video at Toshiba America Consumer Products.

The availability of two competing formats — and the confusion and uncertainty it’s sowed among buyers — has been widely blamed for the slow adoption of high-definition players in general.