The pre-Christmas battlegrounds have been drawn as Toshiba announces an AU$400 drop on its budget HD DVD player, the HD-E1.
Toshiba is running a $100 cashback offer which reduces the price of the player to $499. The other models to get a discount are the two full 1080p players, which are the HD-EP10 ($699 after $100 cashback) and the HD-XE1 ($1,299).
Recently, Harvey Norman began offering the competing Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player for a significant discount at AU$795. The Sony PlayStation 3 will also come with its own price drop (at the sacrifice of some features) at AU$699.
With Samsung's dual-format player not due until at least Christmas, the HD DVD players' price drop -- and the prospect of blockbuster releases of the Lord of the Rings and the Matrix Trilogies on the horizon -- make things look considerably rosier for Toshiba's format.