Consumers have generally been holding off on purchasing new HD disc players due to confusion and high prices. The battle is now coming down to price, and the Blu-ray camp could be handed a last minute upset defeat by the HD DVD camp with low holiday pricing, according to Forrester Research on Monday.

The research group said, in a story carried by Information Week, that the two camps, Sony behind Blu-ray and Toshiba behind HD DVD, have "been fighting what seems to be a war of attrition for consumers’ hearts and minds." While sales of the HD players are slower than expected, both sides are asking questions about why and planning for more long term battle.

Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder stated that he thinks Blu-ray would eventually win over HD DVD, but that’s based on current trends. What the Blu-ray camp needs to do now is cut prices even more in order to counter the influence of the recent Paramount decision and potential bargain basement HD DVD prices at the holidays that could bring a strong resurgence of the HD DVD format in customer minds.

"Weakened by these developments, Blu-ray needs to offer a viable hardware model at the $250 price point by Christmas 2007," Mr. Gownder said in his report. "The Blu-ray camp must also stave off further studio defections, and employ more aggressive promotional tactics to counter HD DVD’s recent momentum."

The report said that typical owners are not willing to pay more than US$200 on a new [HD] player. "Failure to alter strategy would open up Blu-ray to a possible upset defeat at the hands of HD DVD," Gownder said.