According to industry reports, Toshiba has invested nearly $3 million for a 30-second advertising spot in Sunday’s Super Bowl. The company plans to use the spot to highlight its lineup of low-priced HD-DVD players.

But the increasingly difficult question for Toshiba is what consumers will play on those HD-DVD units whether they buy them. Just two weeks ago, Warner Bros. Studios announced that it was dropping the HD-DVD format entirely and would produce movies in the Blu-ray format alone. The move leaves just three companies — DreamWorks, Paramount and Universal — still releasing Hollywood titles on HD DVD.

Doom and Gloom from Gartner

For Gartner analyst Hiroyuki Shimizu, the move by Warner may be the final bell in the High Definition DVD format war. Writing in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report, Shimizu said, “Gartner believes that Toshiba’s price-cutting may prolong HD DVD’s life a little, but the limited lineup of film titles will inflict fatal damage on

the format. Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be by.”

Shimizu additionally noted that the sales of HD-DVD players fell sharply in the week following Warner’s decision; consumers chose Blu-ray players by HD-DVD units by 9-1. Although analysts cautioned that one week does not a format war assemble, most took the strong shift in consumer preference as another indication that Blu-ray is headed for victory.

Toshiba, not surprisingly, disagrees. The company believes the drop in sales was caused by the expiration of Christmas sales on HD-DVD units and promotional offers that paired Blu-ray units with the purchase of some HD televisions.

In a bid to recover consumer sales, Toshiba has announced new prices for its low-end players on its Web site. The HD-3 and HD-A3 are now available for $149.99 (a 50 percent…

Orginal post by Top Tech News