HD DVD to Make Last Stand During Super Bowl

A 30-second commercial will attempt to win converts to HD DVD based on the format's significantly reduced player prices.

Rings and a trophy won’t be the only things on the line at this year’s Super Bowl: Toshiba recently revealed that it has laid out $2.7 million for a 30-second spot during the game to highlight HD DVD, which could represent either a last gasp, or the beginning of salvation for the struggling format.  Toshiba’s vice president of marketing, Jodi Sally, confirmed the move to Home Media Magazine in its latest issue.

According to Sally, the ad will showcase Toshiba’s HD-A3, HD-A30 and HD-A35 players, which had their prices cut to as low as $149.99 earlier this month in an effort to compete against significantly more expensive Blu-ray players. The HD-DVD group has routinely used the Super Bowl as a promotional in the past, due to the connotations the game has with high-end home theater systems.

Unlike the Toshiba’s price cuts, which saw a Blu-ray counter move a week later, the Blu-ray group confirmed to Home Media that it has no intention of running a Super Bowl ad of its own as a response, due mostly to time constraints that would hurt production quality.