Cheap HD DVD players on the way

Author: Phil Cogar
Published: 30th August 2007
Comments (29) Stumble
Venturer Electronic's SHD7000 is expected to be one of the cheapest HD DVD players on the market.

Venturer Electronic's SHD7000 is expected to be one of the cheapest HD DVD players on the market.

If you've been waiting to decide which high-definition format you're going to side with due to prices, then this might be the push for you. Venturer Electronics, a company primarily known for budget priced consumer electronics, has announced its first HD DVD player for the North American market.

The SHD7000 will offer 1080i video output over an HDMI connection, ethernet connectivity, Dolby TrueHD and the ability to upconvert standard DVDs to "near HD picture quality."

An exact price hasn't been announced but retail prices are expected to be one of the lowest. Of course you can expect to see it on the shelves shortly as the holiday product push is coming up on us very fast.

If you don't feel like waiting another month or so before you pick up your HD player, then there's a deal for you going on right now over at Amazon.com. With the purchase of a PS3 or HD DVD add-on for the 360, you'll get eight free movies of your choice. Of course the HD DVD bundled King Kong counts as one of your movies so you only get seven HD DVD movies of your choice.

If that sounds like it's something up your alley, then head on over to Amazon's high-definition section to get a full list of eligible titles.

Is a cheaper price going to be the primary factor behind your purchasing decision or are you still holding out for a definitive winner? Tell us your thoughts over in the forums or in the comment section below.
Quote img 30th August 2007, 12:57
Step towards winning for HDDVD over blueray if they are really cheap and Blueray players dont drop as well
Quote Spacecowboy92 30th August 2007, 13:06
Was'nt the reason VHS beat BetaMax because JVC licenced the manufacture of cheap VHS players. I always expected the HD-DVD Vs Blu-Ray to end in a similar way.

Ps: Is Amazon's deal open to UK customers too?
Quote DXR_13KE 30th August 2007, 14:39
lets wait to see the price....
Quote devdevil85 30th August 2007, 15:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE
lets wait to see the price....
ditto.....I also wonder what the sampling rate will be....and how long the warranty will last.....
Quote Asphix 30th August 2007, 16:47
If its in the $100-150USD range I'll likely pick one up and finally take the plunge.... then again, maybe my better judgement will continue to wait and see how sales go in order to see if it looks like a solid investment.

It will depend on how I feel that morning ;)
Quote HourBeforeDawn 30th August 2007, 17:22
hmm when does Amazon do the discount, when you put in your credit card info because I selected HD-DVD Xbox Player and 7 other titles because I already have a blu-ray player but it shows everything at normal price where does it discount the movies to make them free? I clicked on the link to see eligible selections and made my selection???
Quote D3s3rt_F0x 30th August 2007, 17:47
Quote:
Originally Posted by HourBeforeDawn
hmm when does Amazon do the discount, when you put in your credit card info because I selected HD-DVD Xbox Player and 7 other titles because I already have a blu-ray player but it shows everything at normal price where does it discount the movies to make them free? I clicked on the link to see eligible selections and made my selection???

If you read it says when you order your drive it comes with King Kong you then pick an additional 2 to get then at the top theres link saying you download it print it out and send it off for the other 5 movies or sommit when youve got your player.

Its located at the top of the page
Quote supermonkey 30th August 2007, 17:52
I don't care if the local electronics store start giving them away. I still don't own an HDTV, and my current TV does not have an HDMI input. These machines can play all the high-definition discs they want, but without a proper television, and without a proper audio setup, I won't be able to see or hear any difference.

I think there's still a huge knowledge gap when it comes to HD. A lot of people are still buying HDTVs under the assumption that their current DVDs are somehow magically displayed in high definition.

-monkey
Quote jweller 30th August 2007, 18:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spacecowboy92
Was'nt the reason VHS beat BetaMax because JVC licenced the manufacture of cheap VHS players. I always expected the HD-DVD Vs Blu-Ray to end in a similar way.

Ps: Is Amazon's deal open to UK customers too?

I was watching "Modern Marvels: 80's Tech" last night and they talked about the betamax vs vhs format war. The said the vhs won out because jvc licenced the technology to others which brought the price way down. They also said that vhs, at its first introduction, could do two hours of movie. Beta had better definition which made it only able to record one hour of movie. Which since movies for are roughly two hours that kind of prevented beta moving into the movie rental realm and triggered a movie rental bonanza for the vhs format. They also mentioned the porn thing where the porn industry had chosen vhs as its format which pushed vhs as well.
Quote devdevil85 30th August 2007, 18:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by supermonkey
I don't care if the local electronics store start giving them away. I still don't own an HDTV, and my current TV does not have an HDMI input. These machines can play all the high-definition discs they want, but without a proper television, and without a proper audio setup, I won't be able to see or hear any difference.

I think there's still a huge knowledge gap when it comes to HD. A lot of people are still buying HDTVs under the assumption that their current DVDs are somehow magically displayed in high definition.

-monkey
That kind of brings about my problem/situation: 2 1/2 years ago, my family bought a new house and we knew we needed a home theater room and we had to buy something to make that happen. We bought an inFocus HD Projector (4850 I think). It does offer DVI (HTCP), but do you know how much a cable would've cost not only to buy it, but also to run it? $400! So guess what, we ran a 100 ft. Component Cable because we knew there wouldn't be any signal loss issues AND it was cheaper and more reliable in long-run situations. Now we're stuck in between this HDMI stage and it sucks because everything coming out is requiring it for full 1080i/p capabilities. Honestly, we're probably going to have to wait for a good long while until we upgrade and then we're going with a wireless setup, which I wish they had available 2 years ago, but that's technology. Anyways, I hear you supermonkey and most people (including my parents) have no idea what HD is let alone all of the formats that are offered.....
Quote Queelis 30th August 2007, 18:27
That 'upconverting' of DVDs is called upscaling, by the way.
Quote woodshop 30th August 2007, 19:44
only 1080i... for an HD-DVD player... so they arn't even going to output native.... right..
Quote devdevil85 30th August 2007, 21:19
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodshop
only 1080i... for an HD-DVD player... so they arn't even going to output native.... right..
That's what makes it "cheap", but it's filling a niche
Quote DXR_13KE 30th August 2007, 21:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodshop
only 1080i.

only? in this case i think it is more than enough for a cheap player.....
Quote Ramble 30th August 2007, 21:39
Can't you get the HD-DVD add on for the Xbox 360 and use that on PC?
Quote DXR_13KE 30th August 2007, 22:14
some guys did that.... they even went far enough and disassemble it and make it work as a standard dvd drive.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 30th August 2007, 22:19
yes u can use it on your PC as long as your hardware is HDCP compliant, thats what Im doing,

Edit:

Making it a standard dvd drive is far more work then its really worth, leave it as usb and you will be fine.
Quote fluxity 30th August 2007, 22:29
It doesn't say how "cheap" it is though does it?

The 360 HD DVD is only like £100 so that's pretty awesome compared to the £300 odd of the standalone ones.
Quote devdevil85 30th August 2007, 22:32
Quote:
Originally Posted by fluxity
It doesn't say how "cheap" it is though does it?

The 360 HD DVD is only like £100 so that's pretty awesome compared to the £300 odd of the standalone ones.
Sure, if you own a 360 or have an HDCP compliant PC .....otherwise you're better off going with the standalone.....
Quote fluxity 30th August 2007, 22:45
haha, yeah, I guess.

Didn't really think that one through fully. I was thinking every household would have a 360 anyway as they're so awesome ;p
Quote 2JSC 31st August 2007, 02:27
The only thing that I'm wondering how this will play a role:

HD-DVD holds no more double that of a standard DVD disc right? And its just a video disc, so far.

Blu-Ray is 25Gb(?) for movies, and is also available as a storage format if you have a Blu-Ray burner drive. Thats really the only 1-up that Blu-Ray has over HD-DVD right now.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 31st August 2007, 05:46
I think blu-ray disk can go up to 50gb, its the consumer level disk that are used for burning thats 25gb and I think most blu-ray movies so far hover around 30gb or so, Im not 100% sure all that so feel free to correct me ^_^

anyhow after looking at the rebate, its a MS rebate not amazon so I dont have to return the HD DVD I bought from BB and just use the rebate to get the 5 HD DVD... WOOT, but I still like my blu-ray but its good to have both covered...
Quote Flibblebot 31st August 2007, 19:42
Apparently, the HD DVD player will also be available in UK & Europe, expected cost is around £200.
Quote supermonkey 31st August 2007, 20:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2JSC
The only thing that I'm wondering how this will play a role:

HD-DVD holds no more double that of a standard DVD disc right? And its just a video disc, so far.

Blu-Ray is 25Gb(?) for movies, and is also available as a storage format if you have a Blu-Ray burner drive. Thats really the only 1-up that Blu-Ray has over HD-DVD right now.

The specifications are easily available from Wikipedia for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

In the first sentence:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
HD DVD, or High-Definition DVD is a high-density optical disc format designed for the storage of data and high-definition video.

HD-DVD can store data as well as video content. Also, the capacity for HD-DVD is at least 3x that of DVD for single layer. Double layer discs can store up to 30GB. At the January 2007 CES, Toshiba demonstrated a 51GB, triple-layer disc.

Blu-Ray discs can store 25GB on single layer, 50GB for double layer.

-monkey
Quote 2JSC 1st September 2007, 00:12
But what I'm saying is that Blu-Ray burners are already available to the market. So when is an HD-DVD burner going to exist? Or can a regular DVD burner work on blank HD-DVD's?
Quote completemadness 1st September 2007, 17:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by devdevil85
and how long the warranty will last.....
most likely the legal minimum

3 months in the US and 1yr in the UK
Quote HourBeforeDawn 1st September 2007, 22:26
Well I mailed off the mail in rebate yesterday so I will let everyone know how well that went if and when I get the HD DVD in.
Quote supermonkey 1st September 2007, 23:09
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2JSC
But what I'm saying is that Blu-Ray burners are already available to the market. So when is an HD-DVD burner going to exist? Or can a regular DVD burner work on blank HD-DVD's?
Again, the Wikipedia article explains things pretty well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
On May 16, 2006, Toshiba released its first PC with a HD DVD-ROM drive, the Toshiba Qosmio 35. There are also a number of laptops and desktops from Hewlett Packard (HP), Acer, Samsung, LG Electronics (LGE), Fujitsu and others equipped with HD DVD drives. All desktop systems so far use the NEC HR-1100A HD DVD-ROM, which is for OEM usage only.
That's just the first paragraph from the Computer drives entry.

-monkey
Quote wewe 2nd September 2007, 00:44
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flibblebot
Apparently, the HD DVD player will also be available in UK & Europe, expected cost is around £200.

it's easy to get one for £150 (base model) these days
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