HD DVD is finally putting up a fight, with Toshiba at last launching 1080p players in Australia with the promise of 24Hz output by the end of the year.

Toshiba expects HD DVD players to outsell Blu-ray players in Australia by Christmas, says Toshiba Australia's information systems division general manager Mark Whittard. Even so he concedes locally HD DVD is "behind the eight ball" in its war with the Sony-backed Blu-ray format.

The promise of 24Hz output for all three Toshiba HD DVD players via a firmware update is great news for AV perfectionists. Blu-ray and HD DVD are stored in 24Hz (frames per second) by most players convert this to 50Hz or 60Hz. These are the frequencies of PAL and NTSC content respectively, corresponding with the frequency of the Australian/United States AC power supplies.

This conversion process can result in a motion judder as 24 doesn't divide exactly it 50 or 60 (although the untrained eye probably wouldn't notice). Even if your player can output movies at 24Hz, or a multiple of 24, the sad truth is only few displays - such as Sony's Bravia X Series high definition LCD televisions - can actually receive a 24Hz signal and then display it at 24Hz.

While 1080p24 is great news for HD DVD fans, it's just another example of the HD DVD camp playing catchup as Blu-ray players from the likes of Sony have offered 1080p24 for a while. It's also mostly irrelevant when it comes to deciding the format war. The high-tech minority can argue about frame rates, audio formats and disc capacity all they want, but the format war will be decided on the floor of the bulk electrical discount stores by mums and dads who wouldn't know their arse from a hole in the ground. This is where you'd think HD DVD's cheaper prices would give it the winning edge, but the Sony marketing machine has gone into overdrive and the HD DVD camp isn't doing a good job of fighting back. The Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 is the final nail in the coffin.

HD DVD might be catching up technically, but the smart money is still on Blu-ray to win the marketing battle and thus the war.