James Delahunty
14 Mar 2006 17:32
The launch of HD DVD players from Toshiba has been set for March 28th, but if you were planning to buy a player and test it as soon as possible, then you might have to wait until April to get a disc to test. Warner Home Video announced today that it will not be releasing HD DVD movies on March 28th after all. Therefore, the first title to be released will be U2's Rattle and Hum documentary in April. This is terrible news for HD DVD's launch.
Warner will be weeks late releasing movies in the format, and other studios planning to release movies will be even later. When the movies do appear, it is still unknown how much they will cost. Wal-Mart was initially taking orders for HD DVD films at US$25.48 each but a Warner representative said the studio hasn't decided if this price is accurate yet. Blu-Ray movies are expected to cost between $23 and $39 when launched.
Rumours also say that there will only be 10,000 Toshiba HD DVD players available at launch. LG has agreed to build HD DVD players also, but nothing will be available from the company for some time yet. So it seems the stage is set for a very shaky start for HD DVD, but the format can still rest assured it has backing from Microsoft (which plans to releases a HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360) and that it still is beating Blu-ray to the starting line. Now the HD DVD camp can continue to pray that rumours of further PS3 launch delays are true.
Source:
Ars Technica