bad news for sony
The Wal-Mart $299 HD DVD player on the way
Posted Apr 20th 2007 6:52AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Get ready to get your cheap HD on kids. Wal-Mart just threw down some serious green for a batch of Chinese-made HD DVD players. Just as they brought DVD players down to near-disposable status, their deal for 2 million HD DVD players produced by China's Great Wall corporation will ultimately do the same for hi-def optical. The guts are developed by Taiwan's Fuh Yuan with a touch of help from Japan's TDK. How much? A magical $299, that's how much -- $100 less than the cheapest available HD DVD rig (Toshiba's A2) and half of Sony's $600 BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player. It's not clear when we'll see the first units on Wal-Mart shelves, only that the final shipment from the order is expected before 2008 is over.

Update: Pull back the reigns HD DVD fanboys, Akihabara now says that they've made a "huge mistake" with their translation: the original source called it "藍光 HD DVD and 藍光 means Blu-RAY." In other words, Blu-ray HD DVD. Huh? Word to the wise: since both formats use blue lasers, it's best to wait for an English press release before either camp celebrates.

[Via Akihabara News]
Read PermalinkEmail thisComments [96]

Recent Posts
Ask Engadget: Best video camera for $1000? (5/02/2007)

Acer Aspire "Gemstone" laptop concept to be unveiled Friday (5/02/2007)

USB fish bowl: placeshift feeding, settings -- but not your love (5/02/2007)

Intel's DDR3-friendly Bearlake chipset launching in a week (5/02/2007)

Autonomous, laser-guided turret takes aim (5/02/2007)

Subscribe to these commentsReader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Highest RankedDemaar @ Apr 20th 2007 6:56AM
Walmarts pushing for HD DVD? Lawd... does that mean the format war is over? They're some kind of unstoppable juggernaut in the US, yeah?

Reply
Highly Rankedph @ Apr 20th 2007 6:58AM
Cheap HD DVD players at walmart?

The Wars is over!

HDDVD FTW!!



Reply
Highest RankedBig @ Apr 20th 2007 7:05AM
THE CHINESE MARKET is going to be what kills the HDDVD/ BLURAY format war.

I lived in ShangHai, China for 2 years.
Over there, anything that is purchased on a DVD plastic disk is sold for about 8Yuan - 10Yuan (about $1.25).

Playstation 3 games ($1.25)
Xbox360 games (1.25)
WII games ($1.25)
DVD's (1.25) and so forth and so on.
Microsoft Windows VISTA ($1.25)
OFFICE XP/ OFFICE 200x (1.25)

They do not respect international copyright laws at all.

The Chinese MAKE the players and they MAKE the video game consoles. I've seen them MOD CHIP video game consoles to accept the backup disks with no trouble at all (takes them 10 minutes).
[when you return a malfunctioning 360/PS3 - it is shipped to China where it is repaired]

Its going to be IMPOSSIBLE to force everyone to buy $20/$30 BluRay or HDDVD movies when some one is selling them out a gym bag for $5.

Reply
Highest RankedOlivier @ Apr 20th 2007 7:07AM
Talk about a kick in the nuts for BluRay..

Also, I'm sure that Walmart probably got a way better deal than $299 for 2M units.

I think $299 will be their introductory price, and before December it'll be $249, with the last 6 months coming in at under $199.

This news combined with Amazon's sale charts showing HD DVD ahead of Bluray once again is a severe blow for Sony and Pals.
Good for them, I hope they vanish with the dinosaurs for them being so arrogant and disdainful with customer rights and demands.

bye Bye Sony. Take the PS3 with you and shut the door on your way out!


Reply
Lowest RankedR2P2 @ Apr 20th 2007 7:57AM
I wonder how many corners the requirements for HD DVD players allow them to cut? i.e. Is it possible that the best this can output is 480p over component, with no HDMI support at all?

Reply
NeutralAndrew Baisden @ Apr 20th 2007 8:02AM
there are way more bluray movies than hddvd so just because there are cheap players does not mean there will be good movies.

Replies: 1 | Reply
Highest Rankedsaboola @ Apr 20th 2007 8:02AM
Seriously, this is a huge win for HDDVD. Good luck Sony. Better get started on that price drop for the PS3, you know the one that does not exist.

Reply
Highly Rankedtranzparentl @ Apr 20th 2007 8:23AM
Great news, Walmart is very powerful. This could be bigger news than getting more studio support really.

Reply
Highly Rankedgrug @ Apr 20th 2007 8:29AM
According to Wikpedia, there are 167 HD-DVD titles (as of March 2007) and 221 Blu-Ray titles (as of April 2007) available in North America. I wouldn't call that "way more", especially when you compare both figures to the absolutely huge DVD market.

You're correct that more players doesn't automatically mean more releases on the HD-DVD format, but more players == potentially more format support == more discs released.

View Comment in Thread | Reply
NeutralBillyBob @ Apr 20th 2007 8:35AM
If China can produce them in quantity, then they should be a whole lot cheaper than $299. I'm thinking $99 would be about right. I can wait another year...


Reply
Neutraltekdroid @ Apr 20th 2007 8:41AM
wake me when I can back up 2 (or more) miniDV tapes to robust rewritable optical disc for $5 - without concerning myself with Hollywood DRM-related crapola. That's my personal archive war won right there.

Reply
Neutralbrian @ Apr 20th 2007 8:45AM
Stay tuned for Blu-ray price drop after the break.

Back to you, Stan...

Reply
NeutralThe Aggie CEO™ @ Apr 20th 2007 9:05AM
Well Well Well.....

IF this thing has all the features of the Original players it would be worth it.....

but something tells me that it won't because it will be SEVERELY STRIPPED DOWN.....

Just like the CHEAPEST DVD players are missing good features such as zoom, or 480P outputs.....

This thing might cap out @ 720P and not have internet capability or HDMI output.....

Walmart IF they wanted could get Toshiba themselves to make it and still sell it for $299 but if they are selling it for that price then their cost per unit can't be no more than $149 which means IF they take off they will eventually drop the price to $99 within a year.....

that wont make the format war over tho.....

Quality not Quantity.....

Replies: 2 | Reply
Highly RankedLiqwid @ Apr 20th 2007 9:15AM
Wal-Mart has the RCA The RCA HDV5000 player, but they don't push it that hard (I don't know the price). Actually, in mine they have it on a high shelf, out of sight, and none on display. They also have the old Toshiba HD-D1, which is a first-gen model and sells for $349.99 and is carried online only.

Reply
Highly Rankedph @ Apr 20th 2007 9:18AM
HD DVD players have a minimum standard. These will have at least 1080i output and very likely tru hd decoders. Even if it doesnt, 720p is still much better than 480i dvd, and 1506kbs dts is better than 448 kbs dolby digital.

View Comment in Thread | Reply
Neutralsaboola @ Apr 20th 2007 9:30AM
Like how the cheapest DVD players on the market have less "features"? This is just untrue. The Chinese manufacturers, not having the luxury of relying on just a "name brand", usually pack MORE features into their products, in order to compete with the big boys like Samsung. Think Apex and the ability to make the DVD player region free circa 2000.

View Comment in Thread | Replies: 1 | Reply
NeutralNick @ Apr 20th 2007 9:36AM
except depending upon the quality of the machine it could crap out after 6 months and might give HD DVD a bad name for the consumers that actually thought buying a high def electronic device at walmart was a good idea.

Reply
Neutralananoyums @ Apr 20th 2007 9:39AM
Nice I need to go pick one up when they are available.

Reply
Highest Rankedc @ Apr 20th 2007 9:39AM
Akihabara News says its 2 Million Blu-ray and there was some mistake in their initial translation. So is it Blu-Ray or HD-DVD ?

Reply
Neutralmj @ Apr 20th 2007 9:57AM
Regardless of whether it has all the buttons on the remote, people will want to try HD movies at this price. Now that people have HDTVs they can consider HD movies. Plenty of people can convince themselves to spend another 150 or so if they were going to get a unconverting player anyway.

Walmart is backing this for a very good reason: you won't be able to download or pirate HD-DVD as easily as DVD for a while. Apple TV doesn't have HD yet. Amazon's Unbox doesn't have HD yet. So they need to push the next physical format as quickly as possible. HD-DVD's lower price is going to win, because Walmart can't wait while Amazon and Apple figure online HD out - they don't have time to wait for BluRay, even if their .

What are Viacom, Disney, etc. going to do if Walmart wants them to sell HD-DVDs? They are going to cave. They can't afford losing most favored status at Walmart. Only Sony's stubborness (having bet their company on BluRay) is going to keep them from joining in. So in about 5 years, HD-DVD will be doing fine. And then Sony will oust Sir Stringer and they'll announce big changes to playstation and start supporting HD-DVD.

As for the BluRay side, Sony already played their hand out. There's nothing left. They're already losing money on the $500 BluRay player and the $600 PS3. The Chinese aren't losing money on this. Walmart will lose money on this like all their blockbuster Black Friday sales, but they pocket profits from related sales of cables, movies, TVs and remotes.

I thought it was going to take another year for Walmart's Black Friday offensive. So I think they're spooked by Itunes, Amazon and the console online services

so blue ray players willbe cheaper now?

Is that with or without tax?