Sony drops price on latest Blu-ray player

In the latest effort to gain an edge in the battle for control of the high-definition disc market, Sony Corp.'s latest player for Blu-ray discs will ship this week with a price tag $100 US less than previously announced.

When Sony first announced it would offer its less expensive BDP-S300 player in February, the company said it would retail for $599 US, but has now set a listed price of $499.

The price cut means the new player is half the price of the company's first model, the BDP-S1, introduced just six months ago at a price of $999. The newer model is also smaller and capable of playing CDs.

Chris Fawcett, vice-president of Sony Electronics' home products division, credits the lesser price to falling production costs and growing demand for Blu-ray products.

Despite the decrease in cost, Sony's Blu-ray players are still being undersold by Toshiba's players using the rival HD DVD format. Its players are now selling for under $300 US.

The battle between the two formats is reminiscent of the market struggle between rival videotape formats Beta and VHS in the 1980s.

Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats use a blue laser to store more information than a standard definition disc, which uses a red laser. The additional storage capacity can translate into better, more detailed picture quality and allows movie studios to include more features on a single disc.

But neither format has won over consumers, leading backers of both formats to slash prices in hopes of gaining an edge in the market.

Most people who are purchasing Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs appear to be doing so to play them on the Playstation 3 video game console, which supports Blu-ray, or Microsoft's Xbox 360, which supports HD-DVD.

A number of companies have attempted to bridge the gap between the rival technologies by providing devices capable of working with both formats, including Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner, which unveiled a disc capable of playing programs on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players.

LG Electronics has also developed a disc drive capable of reading both formats, and Hewlett-Packard announced in May it would begin shipping personal computers with the new combination drive.