Toshiba has delayed the launch of its two HD-DVD players until April to coincide with the release of the first HD-DVD titles.

HD-DVD was scheduled to beat rival Blu-ray to market last year with a pre-Christmas launch, but both technologies have been hit with a series of delays.

"It was tough enough to back a horse in this race when both were galloping towards the finish line, but when both are stumbling it's really difficult to know which pony to pick," said Seth Jayson, analyst at The Motley Fool financial website. 

Jayson also warned that the digital rights management designed to stop people copying discs could present a headache for consumers who have an early model high-definition television.

"Content producers may incorporate security features into their HD discs and players, which will limit their video output to nothing more than old-school DVD resolution unless the players are hooked up with a special High-Definition Multimedia Interface cable," he explained.

"If your HDTV doesn't have that connector, and most HD sets sold over the past few years don't, you won't get anything more from either the players or the discs except a bigger balance on your credit card."