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The company will launch some 10,000 units into Europe of the HD-E1 and HD-XE1 players. Toshiba launched its HD DVD players in the US back in April, with prices starting from $499.

The European devices will be updated - both are slimmer in build and sport a number of new features, including 1080p support for the higher-end of the two - and will cost €599, or £403, for the E1, and €999, or £672, for the XE1.

Of the 10,000 units, the first batch is destined for the UK, France and Germany, with

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a subsequent one fleshing out the rest of Europe and a third headed for Eastern Europe and Iceland.

In comparison, Samsung will launch its BD-P1000 into Europe in October, with prices estimated as high as €1,400, or £945.

Toshiba's E1 offers 720p/1080i output and HDMI 1.2, along with support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio. Audio out is a simple two-channel analogue affair. This compares with the XE1 that, as well as 1080p, also has HDMI 1.3 plus a 12bit/296MHzDAC and 5.1 analogue audio output.

Although the HD DVD units are markedly cheaper than the competing Blu-ray rival format, the Blu-ray discs themselves hold more data than HD DVD: 25GB and 50GB for pre-recorded Blu-ray discs (single and dual-layered) versus 15GB and 30GB for the HD DVD equivalent.

The HD DVD consortium is led by Toshiba, NEC and includes Sanyo, Microsoft and others. On the other side of the battle ground stands Blu-ray, with Sony in the vanguard and Dell and Apple among its supporters.