Blu-ray Looks to Curry Favor with Insiders

At nearly the same time, HD DVD is busy hawking a new player under $200, and Blu-ray is attempting to curry favor in the industry and media through a two-day event in Hollywood.

As reported Monday, Circuit City and Wal-Mart -- along with other retailers -- are now selling the Toshiba HD-A2 for $198. The move put HD DVD below the $200 price point where analysts say high-definition DVD will begin to take off.

However, Blu-ray is not taking it lying down, and is holding a two-day event in Hollywood to woo both industry executives and journalists. Previews of movies and new equipment for the format are being shown.

The format has also launched a new marketing campaign to coincide with the event called "I Do Blu." The campaign will run throughout the holidays and showcase movies either currently available, or ones coming to the format during the period.

Blu-ray's efforts do have solid marketing reasoning behind them. Supporters of the format realize that in this new age of electronic media, bloggers and discussion boards are beginning to set the trends. Thus, the group is focusing on those sites to help lift the format.

All of the major players, including studios and manufacturers, are in attendance at the event. Even Warner Video was in attendance, and its chief of high definition disc sales hinted that the company may be ready to exclusively support Blu-ray in the future.

"When both formats launched and hardware prices were high, we made a decision to support both formats and let the consumer decide. But now that hardware pricing is affordable for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, it appears consumers no longer want to decide, so the notion of staying in two formats for the duration is something we are re-evaluating now that we are in the fourth quarter," Dan Silverberg told Home Media Magazine.

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