Samsung announced an April ’06 release for the first retail Blu-Ray player.  The BD-P1000 was unveiled at CES and will retail for $1000.  It’ll play BD discs at 720P or 1080i through its HDMI interface.  

Also at CES ’06 Toshiba unveiled its early starter.  A March ’06 release is scheduled for Toshiba’s first HD DVD player.  

Neither the Samsung nor Toshiba units will be able to handle the 1080P specification.  Pioneer will come to the rescue late in ’06 with a 1080P capable Blu-Ray player that will sell for $1800, owch.

So who's winning the movie release race, HD DVD or Blu-Ray?

In the early drive to release movies Blu-Ray had a reputation for taking an edge over HD DVD in sheer number of titles.  But I don’t see it, looks to me like the race is pretty even at the outset.  You can see a Blu-Ray releases list here and compare with this HD DVD release list.