Toshiba HD DVD Player Delayed

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 11/16/2006

Wayne, N.J. — A spokesman for Toshiba's U.S. marketing operations confirmed reports out of Europe and Japan Wednesday that one of the company’s two planned next-generation HD DVD players has been delayed slightly, due to a problem with a component part.

In a statement, Toshiba said it “has identified a performance issue with a component sourced from an external supplier for its HD-A2 HD DVD player. As Toshiba is committed to provide consumers with the highest quality product, Toshiba will be delaying the shipment of the HD-A2 HD DVD player to the U.S. market until early December 2006.”

The HD-A2 was originally scheduled to ship in October at a $499 suggested retail price. The new step-up HD-XA2, which is still listed as shipping in December at a $999 suggested retail, will support 1,080p output over its HDMI v1.3 connector.

The entry HD-A2 model features a slimmer cabinet design, and will output HD content in either the 720p or 1,080i picture formats.

Toshiba's delay joins recent delays on planned Blu-ray disk player introductions from Sony and Pioneer.