Toshiba has nearly halved its sales target for HD-DVD players and recorders in North America following slower than expected sales in the region. 

The consumer electronics giant now anticipates selling just one million units in the US by the end of the year, down from original predictions of 1.8 million.

"Obviously we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate," said Yoshihide Fujii, head of Toshiba's digital consumer business.

Fujii added he could not give new worldwide sales estimates, owing to uncertainty in the European and Japanese markets.

The announcement coincides with the launch of two high-end additions to Toshiba's Vardia range of digital video recorders, the RD-A600 and the RD-A300.

The new DVRs combine hard disk recording with HD-DVD playback and recording, allowing users to record two digital HD television programmes simultaneously.

The RD-A600 RD-A300 provide 600GB and 300GB hard drives respectively and will be rolled out in the Japanese market from the end of June.