More Toshiba HD DVD madness

Blah, blah, blah. Next generation optical format war. Blah. We’re not deep into the war yet; consider this Christmas the opening sortie , but it will be years down the road probably before we have a clear winner. Meanwhile, consumers don’t seem thrilled about either one, many happy to stick with their standard DVDs. For those of us without an HD TV set, the battle is pointless.

That won’t stop the manufacturers from releasing more hardware, though. Toshiba’s prepped to launch two new players: the HD-XF2, capable of 720p resolution, and the HD-XA2 (1080p). The boxes will retail for $425 and $950 apiece; marginally cheaper than their first gen counterparts, though, as the Giz points out, the first gen prices have already dropped. We hope they’ve worked some of those early kinks out of them. One minute loading times for my movies is just too long .

[via Gizmodo ]