Wally Worlds Cheap HD-DVD or BluRay Player

[Grain]

Appears that Wal Mart has ordered a couple million HD players, whether HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is yet to be correctly translated from Chinese. Price appears to be $299!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/20/the-wal-mart-299-hd-dvd-player-on-the-way/

[Wesociety]

Wow, talk about a news screwup! (akihabaranews.com).

If TDK is involved, this is most likely a Blu-ray player and NOT HD DVD!

[Ian]

If TDK is involved, this is most likely a Blu-ray player and NOT HD DVD!

That would make sense considering the price too. $299 isn't much cheaper than the $330 Toshiba you can get from Amazon.

[dolphinius_rex]

On some forums, this news post is generating insane amounts of buzz and rumours. Everything from $99 HD DVD players in a few weeks, to TDK going HD DVD. It's still not clear what is going on unfortunately, but some people who can read Chinese are saying it's HD DVD and not Blu-Ray.

I'm still holding back my opinion until things are cleared up for sure. There are a LOT of questionable things in the original news item (in Chinese).

[dolphinius_rex]

I did some digging, and the original article states that the shipment will be delivered before the end of 2008. Let me say that again:

BEFORE THE END OF 2008

In other words... by the time this happens, the war will be over, or both formats will be here to stay.

[Ian]

Yeah, I saw that too. $299 player by the end of 2008? They'll probably be less than $100 by then. Is it possible that this reporter made the entire story up?

[dolphinius_rex]

Yeah, I saw that too. $299 player by the end of 2008? They'll probably be less than $100 by then. Is it possible that this reporter made the entire story up?

I'm not sure if it was made up, but I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion really. At the very least I think we need some sort of press release in english. If this is really supposed to be real, and coming out this year, then I think Toshiba would be making a press release about it.

[dolphinius_rex]

It's now looking much less likely that these players will happen:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/24/hd ... vd-player/

The biggest news to hit the format war in some time hit last week with word that Wal-Mart and China's Great Wall corporation struck a deal to bring inexpensive HD DVD players to market. While this is would be great news for all HD fans, we were left a bit worrisome by the translation dispute between the two camps. Just to make sure we had our facts straight, we updated the post and contacted HD DVD to get the full story. While the HD DVD camp reminded us that they have inexpensive players from China on the way, they weren't able to confirm any "specific reports relating to Wal-Mart". It seems to us that if this were indeed true, that the HD DVD camp would be the first to trumpet its significance to their success in the format war. As much as we all want inexpensive next generation HD disc players, we will just have to wait for something more official before we hold off on our purchases waiting for Wal-Mart

and

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... st10383365

-April 24th aricle on rumored 2 million HD DVD order that took place:

and sources we queried who are familiar with HD DVD licensing and Chinese OEMs were flummoxed by the reports. Neither Fuh Yuan nor Great Wall appear on any rosters of DVD and HD DVD licensees. Our search of major English-language newspapers and news services in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong didn't turn up any reports on Fuh Yuan or Great Wall or the purported deal with Wal-Mart. From translations of the Fuh Yuan announcement we've seen, it was part of a ramp-up for an IPO the company will launch in July.

[Wesociety]

WTF, so it is possible that Fuh Yuan fabricated the announcement to try and sell more of their IPO?

[dolphinius_rex]

WTF, so it is possible that Fuh Yuan fabricated the announcement to try and sell more of their IPO?

That's one possability. Another is that it was highly over exaggerated from the beginning. Based on the fact that the company has no authorization or licensing to manufacture the claimed devices, it's looking rather unlikely that they will ever see the light of day. HOWEVER, it's not completely impossible.

[Ian]

No order yet:

http://www.fuhyuan.com/ev/action/main.a ... ction=Show

We are sorry to correct the statement that we have two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart and manufactured by China Great Wall Group. The actuality is that we had not received yet. We are asked to provide the schedule to Wal-Mart and cost to determine the quantity even more than two million, if the cost is good enough and timing is correct. So the capacity is under consideration. Any qualified manufactured base group will be welcome.

[Wesociety]

Rumor busted!