WalMart to sell $199 HD-DVD player in Q4 2007?

[Boz]

April 20, 2007 - In breaking news today, it would appear that mega-retailer WalMart has contracted a Chinese manufacturer to produce millions of low-cost HD-DVD players. Though somewhat obfuscated by translation issues and the breaking nature of the news, the current internet consensus suggests that Taiwan based manufacturer Fuh Yuan, in cooperation with TDK, will produce the blue laser drives for 2-million HD-DVD players. Broadcom will reportedly supply the system-on-a-chip decoder, and China Great Wall will handle final assembly. The deal represents around US $100,000,000, and it is reported that a new manufacturing plant has already been opened to fulfill the order.

Speculation suggests the players will arrive at retail in late 2007 and will be priced between $199-299. At such cost, WalMart's HD-DVD drives will be far below the current low of $399 for Toshiba's HD-A20 player, and will look cheap compared to the lowest priced Blu-ray hardware on the market today ($599).

If the current details of the plan prove to be true, WalMart's support of HD-DVD will have a significant impact on the next-gen DVD format war. The American retailer operates on a high-volume, low-margin business plan of market saturation, which is exactly the approach required to drive one format or the other to preeminence.

Stay tuned for updates and confirmation as the story develops.

If this goes through..we can pretty much agree that the war might be coming to an end..I'm pretty sure that everyone who was holding out for Hi-Def experience will get this.

SOURCE: IGN Gear News

Edited April 21, 2007 by Boz

[Slimy]

Source please.

By Q42007 is way failry late to have a striking impact. Consdering there is a $500 player already, $300 more over a year isn't exactly a breakthrough. It's pretty damn sweet, but it's not as if Sony couldn't cut down on their players over the course of the same year.

[goji]

The war will be over for sure.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Wow, HD-DVD player sales will skyrocket. Considering the costs of Blu-Ray players going around $300+... there's no doubt that HD-DVDs will win the format war.

[goji]

OK, there needs to be a correction (wink wink Mods)

According to Engadget:

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.

So no partying yet.

[Boz]

Source please.

By Q42007 is way failry late to have a striking impact. Consdering there is a $500 player already, $300 more over a year isn't exactly a breakthrough. It's pretty damn sweet, but it's not as if Sony couldn't cut down on their players over the course of the same year.

I don't think so..if they could they would've matched the price of Toshiba's players a long time ago. Their BD manufacturing costs are high and Sony is really the only one pushing the price down as much as they can and they came down to absolute minimum of $600 player. The $499 player you are refering to is Samsung's first gen Samsung BD-P1000, read "crappy" Blu-Ray player that is being sold as bargain because they couldn't sell them and now a lot of stores have them in stock.

If this deal with Wallmart goes through and people can buy a $199 HD-DVD player..Sony can kiss Blu-Ray goodbye.

OK, there needs to be a correction (wink wink Mods)

According to Engadget:

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.

So no partying yet.

I don't think it's a mistake.. It means Blue light HD DVD as in Blu-laser-light HD-DVD player. There's no way they can make a Blu-Ray / HD-DVD hybrid at $199-$299 price range. It's simply not going to happen. At $199 price the only player they can make is HD-DVD. But let's wait on the english press release.

UPDATE

I just learned on AVS Forums from people who translated the press release it says the following:

The following site is in Chinese. It basically says that Fuh Yuan electronic corporation from Taiwan just built a new factory to manufacture blue laser HD-DVD cores. This core is independently developed by Fuh Yuan, and is a joint project with TDK. The production will be handled by Great Wall corporation in China. An interesting thing is that it mentioned that Fuh Yuan got a two million units order from Wal-Mart, worth USD$100 million. Since Wal-Mart does not sell blue laser core, I assume it would be players. Fuh Yuan's stock will be released by July 12th, and will be publicly traded next March. It is a press release.

Also, It says there could be more orders from Wal-Mart, totaling $300 million for next year. So more is coming

So boys and girls it is an HD-DVD player.

Now let's recap:

- Matrix Trilogy pseudo HD DVD exclusive

- LOTR pseudo HD DVD exclusive

- Harry Potter franchise pseudo HD DVD exclusive

- Back to the Future HD DVD exclusive

- 2 MILLION cheap HD DVD players to Walmart (what's even more interesting..100mill / 2 million units = $50 a piece...DAMN!!!)

If all of these happen before the end of 2007...

That, ladies and gentlemen WINS the format war!

Edited April 21, 2007 by Boz

[Boz]

Hahhhahha...I have to post this:

1. Launching the PS3 with BD drives and taking a loss just to push adoption: $1 billion

2. Issuing a PR campaign saying the war is over and Blu-ray won: $ 100 million

3. Watching Walmart selling HD DVD stand alone players at $199: priceless

[Boz]

So this is WHY Fox pulled all of their releases on Blu-Ray...copyright protection glitch in Blu-Ray my ass...they knew this.

[goji]

If this is true, Sony just bit it... Again, standing up.

[Berserk87]

hahhaha.

no one loves you sony :p

[majortom1981]

If this is true I will definately buy one.

[MGS4-SS]

Walmart branded electronics? No thanks.

[Boz]

Walmart branded electronics? No thanks.

LOL..I know reality is hard to swallow, but by 2007 you can use the PS3 as paperweight as the games are not coming along that great either.

[majortom1981]

Walmart branded electronics? No thanks.

Not all walmart electronics stink. I have a walmart surround sound receiver that was $60 dollars. It sounds even better then my $500 dollar receiver.

I am really upset actually because after 3 years the digital ports stopped working.

But not all walmart electronics stink.

[PyX]

I will never buy anything else from WalMart (started that like a couple of years ago), especially electronics.

200 bucks in more than 6 months, is it THAT inexpensive? If it is, do you look for quality or cheapness?

Personally, I'd prefer paying like 400-500 and to have something that's actually worth it, not just to say "hey I can read HD-DVDs"!

[Boz]

I will never buy anything else from WalMart (started that like a couple of years ago), especially electronics.

200 bucks in more than 6 months, is it THAT inexpensive? If it is, do you look for quality or cheapness?

Personally, I'd prefer paying like 400-500 and to have something that's actually worth it, not just to say "hey I can read HD-DVDs"!

So you think the quality on these units will not be better then regular DVDs? It will probably be HD-DVD Group certified as well. THis means 1080i output, TrueHD sound and i-HD...and that's all consumer needs.

Some people don't have $500 to spend and Wall-Mart as always will bring the cheapest possible price to a consumer. So the bottom line is this, it is very likely that we will see these HD-DVD players at $199. I mean for someone who makes below average salary this is GREAT news. They will be able to enjoy HD-DVD quality for the much lower price and this is the only thing that matters. I don't see that quality will be so much worse then HD-DVD player for XBox 360 to be honest. So there you go, it looks just fine.

[PixilEyes]

So you think the quality on these units will not be better then regular DVDs? It will probably be HD-DVD Group certified as well. THis means 1080i output, TrueHD sound and i-HD...and that's all consumer needs.

Some people don't have $500 to spend and Wall-Mart as always will bring the cheapest possible price to a consumer. So the bottom line is this, it is very likely that we will see these HD-DVD players at $199. I mean for someone who makes below average salary this is GREAT news. They will be able to enjoy HD-DVD quality for the much lower price and this is the only thing that matters. I don't see that quality will be so much worse then HD-DVD player for XBox 360 to be honest. So there you go, it looks just fine.

+1

[goji]

I don't see that quality will be so much worse then HD-DVD player for XBox 360 to be honest. So there you go, it looks just fine.

It will be horrendously worse as you know very well they will cut any and all corners to make this thing as cheap as possible for the average consumer. Anyone else who wants a quality unit with stellar performance will have to foot the bill and get what they pay for.

Wal-mart electronics as a whole are bad; saturating the market good.

[PyX]

Yup, I agree that many people say "as long as I have the HD-DVD specs". Some people look for more. The majority doesn't, that's a major reason why Wal-mart is so strong... and why I avoid it.

[Express]

If they put it this up on a Black Friday sale. I am sure Blu-ray will not much of presence at the end of the year.

[pyehac]

Wow, with my discount card, I can get it for $179! :woot:

[gigapixels Veteran]

This is awesome. I personally will be buying a higher-quality unit myself, somewhere down the road, but this is definitely going to help HD-DVD get the edge over Blu-Ray. And that is exactly what I've been waiting for.

[7Dash8]

Firstly, someone explain to me why it's so exciting for one "camp" to win the format wars? HDDVD is actually technically inferior to Blu-Ray, why is this a victory for the consumer (fanboyism aside)?

Secondly, as with most cheap electronics, corners will be cut. The first thing to go will be the digital processing, which will no doubt be as cheap as humanly possible while still technically adhering to the HDDVD standard. The end result is image quality that may well be quite crap (aliasing, jitter, false contouring).

This is the same story as the el-cheapo DVD players which came out and which are honestly worse than paperweights. If you want to view HDDVD you probably have an HDTV, which means you're not dirt poor. Save your pennies and buy a proper HDDVD or Blu-Ray player rather than this garbage.

[Joel]

HDDVD is actually technically inferior to Blu-Ray

The only way that is true is in capacity. How long do you want movies to get?

[TDQuiksilver]

Firstly, someone explain to me why it's so exciting for one "camp" to win the format wars? HDDVD is actually technically inferior to Blu-Ray, why is this a victory for the consumer (fanboyism aside)?

Secondly, as with most cheap electronics, corners will be cut. The first thing to go will be the digital processing, which will no doubt be as cheap as humanly possible while still technically adhering to the HDDVD standard. The end result is image quality that may well be quite crap (aliasing, jitter, false contouring).

This is the same story as the el-cheapo DVD players which came out and which are honestly worse than paperweights. If you want to view HDDVD you probably have an HDTV, which means you're not dirt poor. Save your pennies and buy a proper HDDVD or Blu-Ray player rather than this garbage.

+1

And even this spills out to be true, who's to say some Chinese produced Blu-ray player won't be released at $199 also? I would never buy this considering the quality spec at which it would probably be built to. I'll hang onto my $600 "paperweight" for now. This "war" is not over, nor will the release of this cheap product end it.