Master list of HD DVD Players

I would remove the Meridian one. The announcement made 'on their behalf' was not sanctioned by them and erroneous - it was officially retracted by Meridian clarified simply as an announcement that they had joined the HD DVD Promotional Group rather than producing any specific hardware.

The retraction was retracted, a low ranking Marketing person didn't know what he was talking about.
 
Meridian was a no show at the IFA and Cedia, you would think they'd have a poster or something at least. I mean Cedia caters more specifically for the high end, Denon, Marantz showed. Tis strange to announce a product and 10 months later have nothing.
 
It has taken this long for Onkyo to make an AX2 clone. Meridian will take their time and show something when they are ready.

PS It must be hard for these companies, one minute Blu Ray is claiming victory again and then reality come back into focus.
 
I can tell you for sure that Meridian did not announce a HD-DVD player. Within a month of the announcement, I personally heard Bob Stuart and John Bamford (the apparent "low ranking Marketing person") comment on it in the presence of each other whilst I was at the Meridian factory for the launch of the F80 which was still under NDA at the time along with other examples of their products - BTW John Bamford is extremely senior.

Meridian said:
There seems to be some confusion over reports from CES on this topic, in some of which we appear to have been misquoted or misunderstood.

I am not saying that they are not going to build one, or don't even have something in prototype form, but there was never any announcement from Meridian and the announcement from a third party (Amir at Microsoft if I recall) was extremely premature and did not necessarily relate to a Meridian branded product but may well have been something that meridian had been working on for a third party that was being demonstrated at the show. As far as Meridian are concerned, until a product is actually for sale, it does not exist - even if they have shown a prototype or it has been in their brochure - its not for the first time that something has not gone to market. I am not saying that there will not be something, and that Meridian have not contributed to other companies solutions (which were demonstrated at CES in January but not under the Meridian brand), but to state that Meridian have announced their own branded HD-DVD player is somewhat jumping the gun.

The clarification statement from the Meridian web site:

http://media.meridian-audio.com/press/CES07-presskit/meridian-hddvd-ces07.pdf

Feel free to browse the press releases. You won't find anything positive confirming HD-DVD which is odd, since people are so convinced that there was a press release on the subject. Which probably goes to explain why they did not even show a poster of their non existent announced product at Cedia.
 
Having struggled to get on with the HD-E1, i decided to send it back and start again (got a full refund, thankfully). Anyway, i'm on the lookout for a HD-DVD player and this list is most useful - it's nice to see what the options are - ta. :thumbsup:
 
It doesn't change the fact that the announcement made at the time about Meridian had the complete sign off from Bob Stuart. The fact that John Bamford didn't know this and spoke out of turn says all you need to know about his seniority in the company.

The hastily put together announcement on the Meridian, probably written by John after Bob put a rocket up his bum pretty much confirms everything written by the HD DVD PG which wasn’t a lot. I.e. they are working on something but have nothing in the way of a product to announce.
 
It doesn't change the fact that the announcement made at the time about Meridian had the complete sign off from Bob Stuart. The fact that John Bamford didn't know this and spoke out of turn says all you need to know about his seniority in the company.
I can tell you from the horses mouth, that Bob did not sign off anything. Told to me by Bob himself within a couple of weeks of CES. My quote was from Bob Stuart himself too. So I shall repeat.

Words from Bob Stuart himself
There seems to be some confusion over reports from CES on this topic, in some of which we appear to have been misquoted or misunderstood.

Now show me where the complete signoff from Bob Stuart is? It was a misunderstanding of Meridians intentions and the scope of their involvement in HD-DVD which was leaked from Amir and did not relate to any Meridian branded product. John Bamford is product manager, and he should know what is being developed and what is being released and approximately when. And as I said, the clarification by Bob himself was made in the presence and full agreement of John.
 
Words from Bob Stuart himself
There seems to be some confusion over reports from CES on this topic, in some of which we appear to have been misquoted or misunderstood.

He is talking about John Bamford being misquoted or misunderstood. :rolleyes:
 
He is talking about John Bamford being misquoted or misunderstood. :rolleyes:
The fact that this statement was immediately followed with a link the the official press release clarifying their position probably indicates that this comment was about Amir getting his knickers in a twist and misunderstanding what Meridian were publicly doing and what they were doing in private and with other third parties.

The fact that the rumour was stomped on from the very highest level within Meridian says heaps about the sensitivity of the leak. Meridian work closely with other companies on a variety of technologies (some of which has already been shown under different household brand names which the fan boys would jump on as being support by Meridian for their own particular format) and incorrect statements (such as people believing that they are launching a HD-DVD player) can damage their position. Meridian have a number of technologies that they have been working on past and present. Until a particular product appears on the shop shelf, its never a done deal. I can list a handful of products that have even been demonstrated at high profile shows such as CES and Cedia and been included in public brochures that never made it to market, in part or in full.

Going back to my original post, I believe that it is incorrect to have the table listing Meridian as a future HD-DVD player manufacturer. The third party 'press release', leak or whatever it was has clearly been disowned by Meridian at the very highest level within their organisation.
 
The fact that this statement was immediately followed with a link the the official press release clarifying their position probably indicates that this comment was about Amir getting his knickers in a twist and misunderstanding what Meridian were publicly doing and what they were doing in private and with other third parties.

.

It was Amir that requested the press release to be put on the Meridian site! Time to take them blu shades off, they are clouding your perception.
 
It was Amir that requested the press release to be put on the Meridian site! Time to take them blu shades off, they are clouding your perception.
I was going to let the matter lie, but for future reference, Im format neutral. If anything, I sit with my legs dangling on the side of HD-DVD - due to is being a more public friendly format. Go back over my past posts, you will see that I don't wear blue shades.

As I say, its up to Meridian to issue their own press releases and not for someone (Amir) from another company to force the issue on them. He only knows a small part of what Meridian are up to and most certainly not be privvy with their involvement with other technologies being produced with other companies. If Amir sees Meridian working on HD technology and takes it on himself to concoct some press release on behalf of Meridian, then he should not be so surprised to have mega corporation XYZ issuing press releases stating that Meridian are to produce a blu-ray player either. Equally plausible. But we don't have that, simply because Amir had no right to issue the factually incorrect statement and the other companies that Meridian have been working with are not so stupid to think that technology that Meridian have been helping them with means that it is going to become a Meridian branded product one day. Not for the first time has Amir misinformed.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlsmith
Amir,
Can you suggest to your contacts at Meridian that they issue a formal press release? It would be helpful to have a confirmation about their plans and also whatever details they can provide.
Yes, they are right on it. Bob is trying to get a hold of his web team to post the press release on their site. He thinks it may take a day or so though. They are also working to take down the incorrect info on the blog.
__________________
Amir
Microsoft (HD DVD insider)
VC-1 video codec insider in BD/HD DVD
Ask me questions about HD DVD here

It's all there on AVS if you care to read it.
 
It's all there on AVS if you care to read it.
As I said, Amir was mis informed. What he (Amir) though were Meridians intentions to build a HD-DVD player were simply Meridian joining the HD DVD promotional group.

Meridian Audio Official Press Release
Meridian Statement on HD-DVD
Clarifying company position on HD disc technology and products
International CES 2007, Las Vegas, NV, January 11, 2007—Leading British audio/video
manufacturer Meridian (South Hall 1, Booth 20538) is pleased to make the following statement to clarify
the situation regarding reports on its involvement in HD-DVD.
“Meridian is a company renowned for state-of-the-art digital audio and video technology, and we are
delighted to be working with Microsoft on the development of high-end players. Meridian has for some
time been deeply involved in some of the core audio technology in HD DVD and at CES 2007 we are
pleased to announce that we have now joined the HD DVD Promotional Group.
“Consistent with Meridian's product development approach, where standards of performance,
particularly for audio and video are exceptionally high, product development takes some time, and for
that reason we cannot announce any product-specific details at this time."
Rather odd. After nine months, the only press release that Meridian manage to put out regarding HD-DVD is a clarification on its position specifically as a result of Amir getting his facts wrong. You would have thought that this so called press release release that Amir claims Bob (Stuart) said would take a day or so to post on their web site may have appeared by now. But instead, this clarification appeared instead along with other comments making it quite clear that someone (Amir) did not know what he was talking about.
 
That was the press release Amir was talking about! and confirmed by Amir after it had been released.

Do you really think that if Amir got it so wrong that he would have the power over Meridian to a) get then to remove John Bamford's blog and 2 force them to release a press announcement?

You do really think that merdian would be able to develope an HD DVD player in less than a year? Remember it's not just the player the have to make, they also have to develope the AV processor to go with it. If they had anything to show before Cedia 08 I'd be shocked.
 
Think whatever you want. Just don't pass it on as fact. Cos its not. This press release was made after Amir made his comment as a direct result of Amir making inappropriate comments.

Just check post 50753 here which I can guarantee came direct from the very top of Meridian. This was also discussed by some members of that forum direct with Bob Stuart less than a month later when we were entertained by the most senior people at the Meridian factory.

Meridian have as much chance of making an HD-DVD player than they have of making a blu-ray player. And neither are definite.
 
Meridian have as much chance of making an HD-DVD player than they have of making a blu-ray player. And neither are definite.


No one said a player was definate, in the 3 years that is takes Merdian to develop something like this anything can happen. The fact remains that they joined the HD DVD group and not BDA.
 
No one said a player was definate, in the 3 years that is takes Meridian to develop something like this anything can happen. The fact remains that they joined the HD DVD group and not BDA.
Which is my point. Its on the list of HD-DVD players at the table on the first post. As I have been saying, its not a done deal until its on the dealers shelves. So it should not be on this table as it is simply a rumour with no guarantee of coming to fruition or of time scale.

FWIW. Meridian are also a Meridian contributor to the Blu Ray association. So they have their feet in both camps to differing degrees.
 

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