CES News...ONKYO and MERIDIAN HD DVD players.

[HighDeff]

Alot of good news.

[Rich777]

Onkyo !! Meridian !! that is very significant ..especially as they are not dual format players ! ..

[Rich777]

another snippet

Toshiba released news of the HD-A20, a 1080p HD DVD
player priced competitively at $599, offering a more affordable path to get
the highest resolution output. The players will be available in the U.S. by
Spring 2007. EDIT...... SORRY MISSED OTHER THREAD

Ho ho ho

300 additional HD DVD titles will be released this
year. The list included acclaimed hits such as: "The Departed," "The Good
Shepherd," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Babel," the entire "Harry Potter"
series, "The Matrix" trilogy and "Blade Runner". Hit TV series will also
appear on HD DVD, including "Battlestar Galactica," "The Sopranos", and the
original episodes of "Star Trek," which have been digitally remastered.

[MI55ION]

Now, how do you like dem apples?

No shortage of content either, Matrix Trilogy and BSG, bring it on!

EDIT
Rich77, doh! you beat me to it.

[Rich777]

Of the more than 41 studios and distributors supporting HD DVD
worldwide, Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, Universal
Studios Home Entertainment, HBO Home Video, New Line Home Entertainment,
Genius Product, Inc., The Weinstein Company, Studio Canal, and Bandai
Visual,

uh oh

[MI55ION]

Originally Posted by Rich777

New Line Home Entertainment,
uh oh

Lol, thought I imagined reading that.

[Rich777]

Originally Posted by MI55ION

Now, how do you like dem apples?

No shortage of content either, Matrix Trilogy and BSG, bring it on!

EDIT
Rich77, doh! you beat me to it.

Early bird here

300 new titles aswell, can't wait for some more announcements,

not sure if theres much exclusivity going on , but has that ever made much difference.

LG is a red herring so far.

Originally Posted by MI55ION

Lol, thought I imagined reading that.

hehe, i thought ..surely thats been there all along

[Nic Rhodes]

I think the interesting news is where a company hasn't declared before so it is hardly news for another Sony BD player or a Toshiba HD DVD one. On the hardware side then new converts are interesting. What 'Denon group', Onkyo, Meridian and Arcam are doing are key and influential. Two are going to state some support for HD DVD it appears but this does not mean exclusivity. Universal HD players (HD DVD and BD) are always interesting, we have LG with their basic model already. The big news (and may not be at CES ) is if a current BD supporter also does a combi universal.

Re software I think we are most interested in studio announcing support for formats that they have supported before. A list of Warner releases for next year is not going to shock anyone. Details of the Warner hybrid 'might' however

[ianh64]

Will be interesting to see the naive comments from people if/when Meridian get around to announcing the pricing of their player

It will be interesting if Meridian will get around to using the second drive slot of their 800 DVD player to add HD-DVD or whether they will keep to a single drive.

The other interesting question is whether Meridian will be allowed to stick with their superior MHR Smartlink for audio or whether they will be forced down the poorer quality HDMI audio route - exclusively or otherwise.

[Rich777]

Originally Posted by ianh64

Will be interesting to see the naive comments from people if/when Meridian get around to announcing the pricing of their player

Why ?

[HighDeff]

Originally Posted by Nic Rhodes

The big news (and may not be at CES ) is if a current BD supporter also does a combi universal.

Nic, news like this could help a lot. Now some of the big boys on the BD side might consider, are we supporting the right format.

Over the week-end, the number of companies building HD DVD players have tripled. Before CES is over we could see many more.

Even BD only movie companies, now Toshiba has announced the 50Gb HD DVD.

[Angry the Clown]

Originally Posted by Rich777

Of the more than 41 studios and distributors supporting HD DVD
worldwide, Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, Universal
Studios Home Entertainment, HBO Home Video, New Line Home Entertainment,
Genius Product, Inc., The Weinstein Company, Studio Canal, and Bandai
Visual,

uh oh

They've been throwing around New Line's name since the beginning. Whether this time it might finally mean they’re going to name some titles I don’t know. I’ve heard not… Of all those titles named in the press release only one (Battlestar Galactica) would be exclusive to HD DVD too. There's a lot to be done, and hopefully be announced in the coming days, if the HD DVD group is to free itself from losing out on press coverage as far as software is concerned should Blu Ray make the most noise and announce a mass of major exclusive high profile titles like Casino Royale and so forth...

Originally Posted by Nic Rhodes

What 'Denon group', Onkyo, Meridian and Arcam are doing are key and influential. Two are going to state some support for HD DVD it appears but this does not mean exclusivity.

It got me wondering that, especially in Meridian's case - a company which has been so anti HD format wars and insisting it would wait for the storm to pass - is it just that easy and relatively cost effective to implement HD DVD compatibility into a new model of DVD player to the extent where companies like this would have little to lose?

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by Rich777

Onkyo !! Meridian !!

Excellent news. It's good to see some high end producers adopting HD DVD.

[Nic Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Angry the Clown

It got me wondering that, especially in Meridian's case - a company which has been so anti HD format wars and insisting it would wait for the storm to pass - is just that easy and relatively cost effective to implement HD DVD compatibility into a new model of DVD player to the extent where companies like this would have little to lose?

The war is here. There is nothing anyone can do about it. Just like DVD A and SACD. Companies have had to accept the reality and get on and make money out of this situation. It is fairly obvious that money can be made from either format if you have a player. HD DVD players are certianly very similar to some aspects of DVD hence their development is 'doable' for even the modest companies. The really tough nut is the combi universal, BUT this is VERY hard to do, especially with the current state of the BD 'developement'. This why I think Meridian decided to 'have a go' with stuff based on their current interests.

[ianh64]

Originally Posted by Rich777

Why ?

For the very same reasons that they make dumb comments about a DVD player costing the same as a car.