Warner Delays HD DVD Disc Launch

Bad news for soon-to-be owners of Toshiba's HD DVD players: there will be no high-definition movies to play on those units for at least three weeks. This is due to a delay by Warner Home Video, which was widely expected to provide the first discs.

Blaming the delay on technical issues, the studio said the first titles would not appear until April 18, rather than March 28 as previously announced. Also, its list of launch titles has been scaled back as well to three: "Million Dollar Baby," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Last Samurai."

Warner says that it needs the extra time to ensure that it ships a "flawless" product. Nearly everything that is being done to produce these discs -- the copy protection, codec and compression algorithms -- is new, Warner executives say.

However, the company has also cut back the rest of its initial HD DVD launch to 17 titles. This would mean only 20 movies would be available, instead of the 24 that were announced at CES earlier this year. Titles from this group would include "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Matrix."

Still, beginning in May of this year, Warner Bros. says it will release all new movies in both DVD and HD DVD. Key catalog titles would come in July, with HD DVD releases of Warner TV shows due in the third quarter.

The company also plans to do the same when Blu-ray players come out, saying it has no interest in picking sides in the format war.

Warner also published research that suggests HD DVD may get off to a quick start, and next-generation DVDs may see a more successful launch than the original DVD format back in 1997. 600,000 players are expected to be sold -- some 450,000 HD DVD and 150,000 Blu-ray players. Only 305,000 DVD players sold in the first year, the company said.