Toshiba in Japan has started shipping the world's first next-generation high-definition DVD players.

The company officially unveiled its HD-A1 and HD-XA1 players at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year.

The manufacturer promised at the time to launch the players in the US by March this year for $799 and $499 respectively, but has been unable to meet that deadline. The devices are now slated for launch in April.

Toshiba's launch marks a victory for HD-DVD over the computing Blu-ray standard. The first Blu-ray devices will not arrive until June.

Both camps boast strong allies. While Blu-ray is backed by heavyweights including Dell, HP and Sony, Microsoft has vowed to support only HD-DVD in its Xbox 360 gaming consoles.

Both high-definition optical disk standards promise a significant increase in storage capacity which will be used for to carry bonus features and high-definition images.