Toshiba to boost HD-DVD; concedes players will need tweaking

February 17, 2006

Hypnosis4U2NV used our news submit to tell us "Why choose a format that isn't fully ready to hit the market? If these early players need firmware updates after they roll out, whose to say that they wont need to have the hardware upgraded down the road, thus rendering them useless? I've been around CD Freaks long enough to know that sometimes firmware does not fix the mechanical limitations of hardware.."

Toshiba American Consumer Products on Thursday announced an ambitious marketing push in support of HD-DVD but conceded that some of the high-definition optical disc format"s interactive features won"t be available in the two first-generation players slated to hit stores next month without a "firmware upgrade."

Meanwhile, sources close to the rival Blu-ray Disc camp say an agreement has been reached on an interim license for the AACS copy-protection system both formats will use, removing one of the final obstacles that had been standing in the way of a launch.

We already heard that Toshiba will launch HD-DVD players for around $500 dollars US in March. Unfortunately, at least at the time of that particular announcement, they made the decision to limit output to 720p or 1080i and said forget about 1080p in this generation of products. Now, in this article we also can read that Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment have plans to provide software beginning March 28.

Source: Yahoo!