Toshiba Sets New Low with $400 HD DVD Player Pricing

Continuing their aggressive push to lower HD DVD player pricing, Toshiba has announced they will reduce the cost of both of their second-generation decks beginning April 1st.

Beginning next month, the new prices will be as follows:

New prices from April 1st are:

• Toshiba HD-A2: $399 (previously $499)
• Toshiba HD-A20: $499 (previously $599)

The manufacturer has also dropped the price of its current best-selling HD-XA2 second-generation HD DVD deck, which now retails for $799 (previously $999).

At less than $400, the HD-A2 is now the cheapest stand-alone high-def solution on the market.

Toshiba's move also comes only weeks after Sony introduced a lower-priced Blu-ray player, the new BDP-S300, which will retail for only $599.

Clearly, the major hardware supporters on both sides of the high-def format war are not pulling any punches. (And no, this is not an early April Fool's joke!) And with player prices for both format's dropping so swiftly, it may not be long where low-cost next-gen decks begin to approach standard-def DVD levels.

Needless to say, watch this space!