By virtue of the depth of the layer in the disk (0.6mm), HD-DVD players can play a standard DVD without an additional lense (Blu-Ray uses a 0.1mm depth with a super hard coating to protect it, which is why it’s more expensive), so standard DVD is pretty much standard on all HD-DVD players, and now Toshiba, following slashing the prices on their player, are attempting to sell their machine as a superior way to play standard DVDs.

“Major initiatives… are designed to spotlight the superior benefits of HD DVD as well as the benefits HD DVD brings to a consumer’s current DVD library by upconverting standard DVDs via the HDMI output to near high-def picture quality,” the company said.

“With DVD upconversion via the HDMI output, HD DVD players instantly make a movie lover’s existing DVD library look better than ever,” it claimed.

Assuming I was wrong in my prediction that HD-DVD would win the format battle, I would say that this was a death rattle, though this might be a good alternative for people with large DVD libraries and large HD screens.

Me, I’ve never been impressed by HD-TV. I only notice the difference on really big screens, or when they are side by side, so my interest is purely of a sporting variety.