Toshiba Likely to Postpone HD-DVD Launch until April

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Toshiba Corp.'s U.S. unit is likely to defer the launch of its next-generation DVD player for several weeks to coincide with the April release of movies that play in the new HD DVD format, reports Reuters.

 

"Toshiba (News - Alert) is currently working with the studios as well as our retailers, to finalize the sale date of our players," said the company in a statement. “In order to maximize the launch of HD DVD, we intend to synchronize the launch of our players with HD DVD title releases."

 

Toshiba America Consumer Products initially announced in January that they would ship their first players, the HD-XA1 and HD-A1 in March. The HD-XA1 and HD-A1 are priced at $799 and $499, respectively.

 

However the decision to postpone comes after Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Home Video announced last week it will release its first titles including "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Phantom of the Opera" on April 18.

 

Sony Pictures says that it has plans to deliver its first movies in the Blu-ray DVD format to U.S. stores in late May to capitalize the introduction of compatible disc players from Samsung Electronics Co.

 

Sony has also postponed the release of its PlayStation 3 console until early November. Analysts say that the PlayStation 3 console is a real enhancement to the installed base of the Blu-ray technology.

 

Blu-ray and HD DVD come with more capacity than current DVDs. But both the companies have failed to agree on a unified format, causing customers to continue on in anticipation.