MONTY PYTHON - TOSHIBA: IT'S JUST A FLESH WOUND

Refusing to admit defeat, Toshiba has decided to buy a $2.7-million 30-second spot on next month's Super Bowl telecast to extol the virtues of the HD DVD high-definition video format. Many analysts have commented that since Warner Home Video decided to drop the format and go exclusively with Sony's Blu-ray format, HD DVD was as good as dead. Sales of HD DVD players have virtually ceased since the Warner Bros. decision, falling 88 percent, while Blu-ray players have soared 43 percent. (On Monday the HD DVD format received another blow when the Woolworth's chain in the U.K. said it would no longer stock HD DVD titles, pointing out the Blu-ray current outsells HD DVD by a margin of 10-1.) One website depicted Toshiba's defiance with a still photo from a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which a knight gamely continues a sword fight with King Arthur as his limbs are slashed off one at a time.

29/01/2008