DVD players now cost less than the disks

Asda started offering a player for £9 over the weekend as part of a marketing ploy to wallop the business of traditional electrical stores.

While the two-year old Durabrand 1005 model is unlikely to win much in the way of performance awards, it started out life as worth £19.99, it does mean that DVDs have entered the 'disposable commodity' market.

According to This is London, more than 80,000 of the machines will hit the supermarket's stores with the idea that DVD players can be thrown away and replaced if they go wrong.

It also makes it harder second generation technology like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to elbow their way onto the market, as they have to convince punters that the improvements far outweigh the now much cheaper DVD format. µ