Whittard stopped short of claiming HD DVD has won the high definition format war, a claim Sony made about Blu-ray as early as January. Even so, Whittard cited research giving HD DVD players a 55 per cent market share in the US and 73 per cent in Europe.

''All that press about Blockbuster and Blu-ray hasn't made any difference to HD DVD sales," Whittard said. "This is going to be a very interesting next couple of years but HD DVD has a very strong future."

Toshiba launched two HD DVD players for the Australian market today, both 1080p models. Toshiba also announced the formation of a HD DVD consortium consisting of Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel along with the Warner Brothers, Universal and Paramount movie houses. Major retail chains supporting HD DVD include Myer, Harvey Norman and Clive Peeters, but Whittard made no mention of exclusive deals to match the Blu-ray camps' deals with the likes of JB HiFi.

"Our work is cut out for us locally because we're starting a little late," said Whittard in reference to Toshiba's move to take its Audio Visual business back in-house in April - breaking its long-standing distribution agreement with Castel.

"The delay has cost us, I would openly admit that we're a little behind the eight ball. There's been a lot of talk in the press about Blu-ray and that the war is over but I can tell you it's not, it's only just beginning."

Today's launch included the 1080p HD-XE1 ($AU1599) and HD-EP10 ($AU1099) HD DVD players, to compliment the 1080i HD-E1 ($899). All three players feature HDMI outputs and DVD upscaling. The launch finally sees the HD DVD camp offer a 1080p player in Australia after the launch of Toshiba's HD-E1 late last year.

Each player will come with a copy of Apollo 13 or The Chronicles of Riddick on HD DVD along with a voucher for up to six other Warner Brother HD DVD tiles. In August, Warner Brothers intends to release Blood Diamond, the first HD DVD title to take advantage of the internet connectivity built into Toshiba HD DVD players.

Toshiba intends to launch an external USB HD DVD drive for computers in August, along with between six and 12 HD DVD-enabled notebook PCs by the end of the year. 

UPDATE: Toshiba HD DVD players to offer 24Hz output by the end of the year.

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