HD-DVD Launches...With A Whimper

Today marks the first "official" day Toshiba's HD-DVD players go on sale, although a few lucky(?) consumers were able to grab players a day or two early, depending on the retail store. Toshiba players are only being sold at a limited number of online stores, and a handful of brick & mortar locations, such as Best Buy, Sears and Wal Mart. Toshiba only shipped about 10,000 players, which means each store is only getting 3 or 4 players each at this time.

Buyers will be hard-pressed to find any HD-DVDs to play in their new players, as the only releases as of today are Warner's The Last Samurai and Phantom of the Opera, as well as Universal's Serenity.

Toshiba's low-end player, the roughly $500 HD-A1, is getting mixed reviews from "techies" on the Net, who have managed to test the new players - with some praising the new format, while others are disappointed in the new technology's improvement over standard DVD.

Today's launch, of course, only marks half of the High Definition format war. Sony's Blu-Ray players are due to get their launch in late June/early July - and only then will consumers be able to compare and contrast formats, with the marketplace to determine the ultimate "winner".

For more information about High-Definition DVD, Click Here.