While Microsoft recently demonstrated its upcoming HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 at the DVD Forum event in Los Angeles, an exact price and date for the peripheral has yet to be announced. The device, which will contain a Toshiba drive, will ship during this holiday season, and many are expecting a price point somewhere in the range of $200.

However, in Major Nelson's (a.k.a. Larry Hryb, Microsoft's director of programming for Xbox Live) latest podcast, he speaks with some of the members of the HD DVD team. Interestingly, Microsoft's director of global marketing, Albert Penello, said during the show that the company actually hasn't finalized the price of the HD DVD player internally.

"Here's the truth, we're still thinking about it," he said. "Here's what I can tell you for sure; it's going to be the cheapest HD-DVD player you can buy without a doubt, when it comes out. I think it's going to be a great value... Everybody is very enthusiastic with the direction we're going. There's still a few surprises left. And I don't want to spill the beans yet, but I think people are going to think it's a great value."

The cheapest HD DVD players on the market currently are in the $400 to $500 price range, and because the Xbox 360 architecture itself will be handling much of the necessary processing Microsoft won't need to include as much hardware in the player as other stand alone players. That alone should enable the company to sell the player at a much lower price one would think.

Microsoft is hoping that giving consumers the option of upgrading to hi-definition movie content will be preferable to "forcing" a new format on them. After all, Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in every PS3 is one of the major reasons the console costs so much.

Added Penello, "Xbox has always been about choice... What I'm excited about is that now we're going to say, 'How do you want to pick your next-generation DVD format?' We're not forcing consumers to spend a bunch of money on something that might be obsolete, or forcing them to spend a bunch of money on something they don't really want... The vast majority of people are undecided about [the next format] and they don't want to be forced into a choice."

"We're not betting our whole console on an unproven media format," he said, clearly throwing a jab in Sony's direction. When further pressed by Hryb on the subject, Penello said, "Look, the thing about it is they are betting the company on Blu-ray, and they are making the consumers pay for their bet."