Toshiba have unfortunately delayed their first standalone HD DVD player in the Australian market. The HD-E1 model will now arrive in January 2007 instead.

Word just in from Toshiba’s Australian AV distributor Castel is that the first standalone HD DVD player to launch in the Australian market is being delayed to next year.

Characterised as a ‘short delay’, it may well only be a matter of weeks, but it totally bypasses the biggest buying season of the year, forcing consumers with the spare cash aching for an HD DVD experience to either splash out the cash for a Toshiba Qosmio laptop with HD DVD drive, Sony’s Blu-ray equipped laptop equivalent or Samsung’s standalone Blu-ray player.

This turn of events has to be quite disappointing for Castel and Toshiba Australia who were clearly targeting early adopters and high value buyers with the HD-E1 wanting to impress friends, family and colleagues with a smoking hot next-gen movie player in 2006 before most everyone else gets one.

Those early adopters and high value customers wanting high-definition will either choose to buy one of the alternatives we outlined above, or will just keep on waiting for 2007 to roll around so they can purchase a Xbox 360 with add-on HD DVD drive (whether as a pack or as a separate drive for their existing Xbox 360), the PS3 with Blu-ray, or one of the two Toshiba players due next year, now in January for the 1080i capable HD-E1, and February for the 1080p capable HD-EX1.

The explanation for the delay is curiously brief, with their press release saying that: “This is due to a delay in a certain component from an external supplier”. They also say that “Toshiba is committed to provide its customers with products of the highest quality”.

Well, of course they’d say that last bit. It’s the standard sort of stuff any company says. But what was the component that was delayed, and which external supplier?

One thing we can be sure of: it’s not a Blu-ray diode.

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