HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray Update

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While this is not much of an update to most of you, I just found out today that Toshiba is offering 5 Free HD DVD movies with the purchase of one of their players including the XBOX 360 HD DVD add-on. This is all on top of the two included HD DVD movies, 300 and Bourne Identity. For $10 to cover S&H you will get 5 HD DVD movies of your choice delivered right to your door. There is a restriction though. Basically there are 5 categories with 3 movies in each. You are only allowed to pick one HD DVD movie from each category. My favourite movies from each were Babel, TMNT, Pitch Black, Firewall, and Syriana. The offer is valid only for players bought from October 15 2007-February 28 2008 and needs to be postmarked by March 31 2008. This is an extremely good offer and should help HD DVD gain some more market share. I'm just surprised they haven't promoted it as much. I only found out about this by stumbling upon it. For Canadian residents visit Toshiba Canada (exact link for the form). For American residents visit here. The only difference in movies is you can get Troy, Swordfish, and The Italian Job.

The other update is mostly for US residents. HD DVD players have been dramatically slashed in price. For a 1080p HD DVD player (HD-A30) you only need to shell out approx. $180 to Amazon.com, Costco, Sams Club, or possibly Wal-Mart. For a 1080i version, the HD-A3, it will be around $140. Paramount has yet to decide whether or not to switch and Microsoft is backing up its support by doing the same for customers who purchase a HD DVD add-on for their XBOX 360 if they've done so from last month to the end of this month. They have also promised to build-in an HD DVD drive into the new XBOX 360. HD DVD hasn't had its last breath yet, so look for more movies to be out on HD DVD soon.