Toshiba second gen HD DVD players delayed worldwide

Toshiba just couldn't let Sony hog all the high-def DVD spotlight with its delays, so it has pushed back its second generation HD DVD players in the US and abroad. Despite the lack of an official statement from Toshiba US, a dealer on AVS Forum revealed that due to problems with a chip from a third party supplier, the lower-end HD-A2 HD DVD player originally due out right about... now has slipped into the second week of December. The HDMI 1.3-equipped, 1080p displaying $999 HD-XA2 is now scheduled to just barely make a 2006 release in the last week of the year. In Europe Toshiba has officially announced the delay, now anticipating a "quantity of units" of the rebadged HD-E1 due in December and the HD-XE1 slated for 2007. Second gen hardware is generally expected to atone for the bug-ridden sins of its predecessors, so hopefully a short delay now means avoiding a quick patch later. In the meantime there's always the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, or deciding which free HD DVDs to get.

[Thanks, Max]

Read - AVS Forum
Read - Pocket-lint.co.uk

[Rick Person @ Nov 15th 2006 7:09AM]

Definitely (In order):
1) Blazing Saddles
2) Apollo 13
3) The Perfect Storm

The rest of the HD-DVDs are crap

[Wonderboy @ Nov 15th 2006 9:12AM]

The Perfect Storm was crap.

Sorry, but it was.

[m4272000 @ Nov 15th 2006 9:40AM]

This bit of bad news from Toshiba will definately mess up my Thanksgiving since I pre-ordered an A2 and was expecting it before. Toshiba doing a Sony. What do you know??? Wow! I hope this does not affect the edge HD DVD has on BD with consumers in light of the PS3 release soon.

[Ed @ Nov 15th 2006 6:03PM]

I doubt it. The xbox 360 HD DVD is out and it can be use on pc's too, plus, HP is selling their desktop HD DVD drive for only $99.

[James @ Nov 15th 2006 2:12PM]

1) Batman Begins
2) V for Vendetta
3) M-I:III

for demoing the HD DVD.