Toshiba is now officially introducing its new HD DVD players to consumers with a 40-city promotional tour across the U.S., making its first New York City stop last week at the upper west side’s PC Richard & Son. Stores are now featuring live demos, along with displays and signage, of Toshiba’s new HD-XA1 and HD-A1 players that were announced earlier this year at CES. (Read Bruce Nazarian's CES report on HD DVD and Blu-Ray.)
As one of the HD DVD format supporters, siding with other companies such as NEC in the format war against Sony’s Blu-ray technology, Toshiba’s new players are promised to deliver advanced navigation and interactive features, as well as offering backward compatibility with current DVD titles.
According to John LaRegina, senior buyer TV-Video, P.C. Richard & Son, the store has already been accepting pre-orders for players. Toshiba says shipments are expected by the end of March and in customers’ hands by April 1. LaRegina says P.C. Richard will carry and display Blue-ray players alongside the HD DVD players once they become available to consumers.
The availability of these players, however, brings with them questions from a concerned industry. For instance, when will titles be available from the movie studios? And, which format for which movie will be available? The demos last week included Universal Studios’ King Kong and Warner Bros.’ The Dukes of Hazard. Will these titles also be available in Blu-ray format? Additionally, there are still the other nagging questions of connectivity and copy protection standards. Viewers’ TV sets at home need to feature the HDMI connection that’s compatible with the HDCP copy protection standard.
For more information on the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle, or if you have something to share on the topic, visit our forum thread on studiodaily.com here.