Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Warner Brothers effectively killed Toshiba's (TOSBF.PK) HD-DVD next-generation digital disc format last week, when it threw support behind Sony's (NYSE: SNE) competing Blu-ray format. Together with Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox, and others, Blu-ray now commands about 70% of the high-definition DVD market, and it's only a matter of time before Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal leave the HD-DVD camp, too.

So Motley Fool CAPS four-star company Toshiba is slashing prices on its nearly obsolescent players by 50%, and bundling five movies with every player. At $30 per disc, that means you basically get a low-end, $150 player for free if you want the movies. The company probably just wants to get rid of all those nice doorstops and bookends without starting a landfill.

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