HD DVD Player Delays in Japan

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @10:04AM from the waiting-for-the-shiniest-discs dept.

TheSync writes "EE Times is reporting that Toshiba is delaying introduction of HD DVD players in Japan because of the unavailability of Advanced Access Content System (AACS) DRM system licensing. The Register reports that Toshiba is still planning a late Q1 launch of HD DVD in the US." From the EET article: "Toshiba hoped to introduce HD DVD players by the end of 2005, ahead of Blu-ray Disc players, but decided in September to postpone the U.S. introduction until 2006. In July, IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Sony Corp., Toshiba, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bro. Studio formed the AACS Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) to develop license AACS technology. AACS LA has completed its version 0.9 of the technology."

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Reasons? by dada21 · 2005-12-13 10:07 · Score: 4, Interesting

How much of the delays in either format has to do with the actual demand for the format?

I've had HiDef for years -- not including just the monitors on my PCs. I've always been happy with upconverted video, and the variety of HD coming over cable is getting better every day. I'm in no rush to repurchase all the DVDs that I have in HD, especially when I'm happy taking an anamorphic DVD, upconverting it, and feeding my projector its native signal.

I'm likely one of their preferred targets, but I will definitely not be one of the first buyers -- probably the first time with new technology that I'll take a backseat at the release.