In addition to lowering prices on many of its standalone HD DVD players, Toshiba is sweetening the format pot even more in the coming months. According to Ars Technica, the company said on Monday it will release a firmware upgrade for its second generation players (models HD-XA2, HD-A20, HD-A2W, and HD-D2) that will improve those player's network connectivity for exclusive Web content.

Taking advantage of web-enabled special interactive features on some HD DVDs, the update will let certain discs connect to studio-provided, or Web-based content.

Toshiba says the first title to take advantage of these new features will be the recently released Japanese animated film, "Freedom." Users will be able to download an additional movie trailer, access changing menu styles, as well as download different subtitles, according to the company's firmware release notes. A networked HD DVD player will be able to grab all of this content from an online content server.

Plans are also under way for other enhancements. When the HD DVD version of "300" is released at the end of July, that title too will offer a few added bonuses, including a strategy game and the ability to re-edit the movie in a different sequence and then upload the results to a server hosted by Warner Bros., according to Ars.

In what may or may not be part of the same firmware update, Wired News and The Register are both reporting that Toshiba will update its HD-XA2 and HD-A20 HD-DVD players to run in 24p mode this September. As Wired explains, movies--at least the ones shot on film--generally run at 24 fps. Home entertainments systems, however, typically run faster. This is usually remedied with a "3:2 pulldown" process that converts from 24p up to appropriate speed for the given TV and DVD (25 fps in the UK and 30 fps in the U.S.). The process, however, duplicates frames to use as fillers and can occasionally introduce frame stutter during long panning shots and a general loss of playback quality depending on what TV you're using, according to PC Magazine's Robert Heron.

With Toshiba's planned upgrade, no conversion will be necessary, which will certainly be easier on the player itself but probably offer little-to-no discernible overall improvement for most people watching HD DVD movies on a 1080i set, Heron said.

What little improvement you might see will be predicated on having a 24p capable television, he added.