As if you needed telling, the high definition optical disc war continues, with drive manufacturers slashing prices, and online retailers bundling movies with players.
As part of Toshiba's HD DVD marketing drive, they've been slashing player prices. Now Sony has announced that it's to cut $100 off the US price of the BDP-S300. Of course, that still makes Blu-ray significantly more expensive than HD DVD, but is around half the price of their first player, the BDP-S1.
Meanwhile, Toshiba has already been bundling films with its HD DVD players, but news that it's partnering with Amazon to give away seven titles with its HD DVD player has to be the biggest offer yet. There is a catch — you have to buy The Complete Matrix Trilogy or The Ultimate Matrix Collection at the same time as the player — but it does represent good value (in the US at least) on the HD-A2
This is good news for consumers who haven't yet bought a high definition player, though must be pretty galling for anyone who splashed out large amounts of money for a first-generation machine, without freebies.
It doesn't really help resolve the format war, though. It makes it cheaper to own both formats with standalone players for those who really want to ensure they can play all high definition discs, but that's about it.
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