I ran into industry icon Joe Kane at Warner's Total HD glitz and glam event, and among tha many things I learned in the conversation was that the HD DVD version of Digital Video Essentials is on hold again.

Joe said the disc was authored and ready to go into replication when the Toshiba HD-A2 came out and threw the proverbial monkey wrench into his plans. Although DVE plays on all of Toshiba's first-gen HD DVD players, it wouldn't go in the HD-A2.

As if that weren't bad enough, Joe turned a non-calibrated color of green when I told him that Toshiba had just announced another new player, the $599 HD-A20, for a Spring release.