December 15th 2005

HD-DVD To Be Delayed

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Toshiba has announced a delay to the launch of HD-DVD which might push back the availability of the new format until the first quarter of 2006.

A delay until March would put HD-DVD in direct competition with the launch of Blu-Ray, eliminating whatever advantage HD-DVD hoped to get by beating its rival to market.

The delay is caused by copy protection issues as details of AACS, the advanced access content system which will provide a degree of copy protection while allowing sharing of movie files over a home network, have yet to be finalised. A spokesperson from the company said, "I cannot say when the AACS issues will be resolved."

Coincidently, Blu-Ray supporters spent the day being very bullish about their perceived victory in the battle. "There's no format war looming because it's not Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD,' said Andy Parson, senior vice president of Advanced Product Development for Pioneer Electronics, a leading Blu-ray backer. "It's simply Blu-Ray versus standard DVD."