Toshiba delays North American launch of HD-DVD

With just days to go until Toshiba's first high-definition DVD players were due to go on sale in the US, the company has announced that the launch has been delayed by approximately one month.

Toshiba said that HD-DVD will now launch in April to give movie studios extra time to get their first products on the shelves. A specific date was not given, with Toshiba marketing VP Jodi Sally telling Reuters: "We're not saying exactly when."

"We are ready to ship, but we feel it's really best for the launch of HD-DVD that we synchronise our hardware with our software at retail."

However, Warner Home Video has announced that its first three HD-DVD movies will go on sale from April 18th, leading to speculation that this is also the date set for Toshiba's hardware launch. Warner's titles were originally due to go on sale in March but were delayed due to technical issues.

The delay won't change the fact that HD-DVD will hit the market before rival format Blu-Ray, giving it a potential advantage in the battle of the next-gen DVD formats. Blu-Ray, which is backed by Sony, is set to roll out from May.

The PlayStation 3 will feature Blu-Ray technology when it arrives later this year, and Microsoft has previously announced that a HD-DVD peripheral will be released for the Xbox 360.