Has HD-DVD been put back to Spring next year?

[laser]

Reading the press release from Toshiba on HD DVD-R it would appear the launch of drives for the PC have been posponed. The recordable hardware was supposed to be launched this September prior to the play-only HD-DVD players being launched for Christmas.

"Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim will commercialize HD DVD-R discs in spring next year, at the same time as the launch of HD DVD recorders and PCs with built-in HD DVD drives by hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba."

Does anyone know if this means HD-DVD plackback machines are also posponed till next year? There seems to have been no new news lately on release of the play only machines.

This also raises the question....will early released HD-DVD players, if they appear in 2005 play HD-DVD-R discs?

The HD-DVD camp certainly seem to be leaving things to the very last minute....which IMHO appears to point to HD-DVD not really being ready for a 2005 release.

I would much rather wait and have a system which works properly and has been properly tested and evaluted rather than something rushed out of the door to beat Blue ray to market.

Surely the battle for Hi Def is not going to be won in the first six months but with the next 1-2 years. Better to get the hardware and media working from Day 1.

[AML]

Last i heard, HD DVD was canceled in place of a joint format based on HD spftware and Blu Ray disks.

[Jonny1973]

Originally Posted by AML

Last i heard, HD DVD was canceled in place of a joint format based on HD spftware and Blu Ray disks.

HD-DVD was never cancelled. Toshiba and Sony had talks to try and unify the formats. The talks failed.

"Begun, the format war has"