With Blu-ray's victory over HD DVD, the only competition left for Sony and other Blu-ray backers is DVD. Unfortunately for them, that's one tough nut to crack. DVD players are absolutely dirt cheap, and one place that HD DVD always had an advantage was much lower pricing. That's going to change, inevitably, but it won't be changing this year. The current agenda is to push a $300 unit sometime this year.

However, Sony says that sub-$200 players might be ready for 2009, hitting the price point that many markets see as the sweet spot for getting people to shell out. So, it still may be a while yet before they are able to savor the victory they won over Toshiba. Still, from the $1000 price tags we saw not so long ago, it's a big step forward.