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| Toshiba delays HD-DVD launch until April |
| Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 14:51 by Andy Holliday |
Technology giants Toshiba are delaying the much-hyped launch of its next-gen HD-DVD players because of delays in converting films to the new format.
The players, which were to go on sale in the US next week, are now expected to reach stores in mid-April at the earliest.
It is the latest delay in a multi-billion-dollar battle between Toshiba and a Sony consortium to set the standard for the next generation of film and video game discs.
Last week, Sony said it would delay the release of its PlayStation3 console (which will ship with the Blu Ray drives) until November, several months after it had hoped.
Toshiba is in the midst of a 40 city American promotional tour in an attempt to win-over support for HD-DVD. The company and its partners, including Microsoft and Dell, have been hoping that an early market debut will give HD-DVD a head start against Blu-ray, which is also backed by Dell and most of the Hollywood movie studios.
Video players based on the HD-DVD standard were originally due to be launched late last year but were delayed because of technical and other issues. Toshiba unveiled the first HD DVD players (including one priced at just $499) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
Last week, however, Time Warner's Warner Home Video unit said it would not release the first titles using the HD-DVD format, including The Matrix Reloaded, Harry Potter 4 and Million Dollar Baby, until April 18.
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| That's pretty expesive for a DVD player. An HD-DVD holds 15 GB, so that will probaly eliminate the special features discs, unless a high definition movie is 15 GB. |
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| Not as good as the Blu-Ray Disc, which is between 23.3 and 27 GB. |
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