The first HD-DVD player will be available in Europe on the 15th November this year. The article says that Toshiba will launch it’s HD-E1 player two days before Blu-ray is available in the Playstation 3. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if that holds now that the European launch of the PS3 has been put back until early 2007.
Retailing at £400 (€599), it is considerably more expensive that the lowest priced offerings in the US, which start at $499 (£260/€390), this will be followed by a second player in early December (possibly aimed at the Christmas market, probably lower cost I’d day). The units are still cheaper than they Blu-ray equivalents (in the US), though a PS3 will set you back anywhere between £340 (for the lower spec model) and £425 (for the top of the line machine), both of which come with Blu-ray playback ability, so HD-DVD looks overpriced at the moment.
According to Toshiba, they’ve sold 50,000 units in the US since April this year, which is far higher than I’d have predicted, though still a tiny number compared to the DVD market as a whole.
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