HD DVD launch off for Q4

As Toshiba delays hardware production

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 9/1/2005

SEPT. 1 | After weeks of hoping against hope, Toshiba is backing away from its plans to launch the HD DVD format in the U.S. this year.

In e-mails to its U.S. studio partners Thursday, the hardware maker said it was considering a “re-timing” of the format’s introduction for sometime next year to ensure maximum software and retail support.

“We are now in talks with Hollywood studios and large-scale retailers to seek the most effective timing of the launch and best way to launch,” the company said in a statement issued to Japanese media outlets. “The majority [of HD DVD companies] prefer a large-scale launch, rather than a gradual launch.”

Toshiba didn’t say in its public statements or e-mails to studios that the launch is definitely off this year, but it said it plans to “begin” production of HD DVD players by the end of this year. And as a practical matter, if production has not started by early September, players won’t get to retail shelves in time for Christmas.

Mark Knox, advisor for the HD DVD Promotion Division, Toshiba, in the U.S., said the issue is one of coordinating plans rather than any problems in getting the hardware or software ready for launch.

“The key issue is, when we launch, all of our partners, including the studios, retailers, authoring houses and everyone else, we all agree we want to do it with a big bang. And that just takes time,” he said.

Until this week, Toshiba had been telling reporters that at least a small number of players would arrive this year, with at least limited software support. Knox said Thursday that many specialty electronics retailers were anxious to demo the format for their customers this year and that it could still happen if software becomes available.

What impact the delay will have on the ongoing battle with rival format Blu-ray Disc was not immediately clear.

Last month, representatives from the Blu-ray camp said they hoped that any delay in the launch of HD DVD could be used for further efforts to agree on a single, unified format.

Warner Home Video officials said at the time that finding a compromise on a single format was more important that proceeding quickly with a launch of HD DVD.

Warner is one of three studios that has previously vowed to support HD DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment and NBC/Universal Studios Home Entertainment are the others.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, all three said proceeding with a launch this year was imperative to gain a competitive advantage in the market over Blu-ray, which is not expected to be introduced here until the middle of 2006.

Officials at the three studios were not immediately available at press time to comment on Toshiba’s e-mails or statement.