Although growing support for Blu-ray has hit the rival HD-DVD format, Toshiba has vowed to step up its marketing campaign for HD-DVD in the wake of record-breaking unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Toshiba claimed that it achieved around 50 per cent of the high-definition DVD market in 2007, and over 80 per cent of all next-generation DVD equipped notebooks, showing the potential for HD-DVD.

"HD-DVD is the best way to watch movies in high definition," said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing at Toshiba's Digital A/V Group.

"Our HD-DVD players play back approximately 800 HD-DVD titles available worldwide, deliver an entirely new level of entertainment and enhance the picture quality to near high-definition on legacy DVD titles from all studios."

Toshiba said that it will drop the retail prices of its entry-level HD-A3 to $149.99, the HD-A30 (with 1080p output) to $199.99, and the high-end HD-A35 to $299.99 effective 13 January.

"While price is one consideration for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president at Toshiba's Digital A/V Group.

"Consumer sales this holiday season have proved that consumer awareness of the HD-DVD format has been elevated.

"Pricing is the most critical determinant of next-generation DVD technology, and the value HD-DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored."