Wal-Mart, HD-DVD, & Blu-Ray

[CZroe]

What did I miss?

A botched news story claimed that Wal-Mart ordered a ton of cheap HD-DVD players from China. It was then revealed that the news release was mistranslated and was only referred to as High Definition "Blue Light" players. Until an official translation or an announcement from Wal-Mart, we won't know if it refers to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD considering that they both use lasers in the blue/violet spectrum. So why does Doom9.net continue to talk about the fabled $200 Wal-Mart HD-DVD players?

"a $199 pricetag for the upcoming Chinese HD DVD players suddenly looks rather realistic."

"I wonder how a big HD DVD hardware deal (like the one WalMart was considering) would influence this strategy."

Unfortunately, even the positive coments for HD-DVD appear to be misplaced. If the original document was indeed referring to Blu-Ray, it's very for the HD-DVD guys that this misinformation has persisted for so long.

[Adbear]

The reason they keep referring to it as HD-DVD players is that in the original article they kept using the word 'HD-DVD' in english which is the official name for HD-DVD, whereas 'BLU-RAY' is the official name for BLU-RAY no matter what language you're using. Now I'm not saying they are making HD-DVD players, but that's probably the reason why the claims are there.

[Doom9]

Here's your $199 HD DVD Player: http://www.doom9.org/cebit2007.htm , look for Venturer. That has nothing to do whatsoever with WalMart and it's 2 month old news.
And as for the question whether Fuy Yuan meant HD DVD or Blu-ray, that, too, has been officially answered: "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," Fuh Yuan said. "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." - Taken from http://www.physorg.com/news96888339.html, which was also reported in the news.

I'll leave it up to you to figure out why I wrote that a 2 million player deal could influence studio policy but give you a little hint: calculate the number of discs sold per player sold and add that number, multiplied by x million, to the number of HD DVD discs sold.

[hdlover]

Some people are not so good with math and cannot do simple calculations. Maybe you can help those unfortunate souls out and explain it form. Lets see-2,000,000 players times an attach rate of ?16? equals???

Could it be 32 Million discs sold per year.
32 Million times $20 per disc on average means $640 Million in revenue per year.:D

I wonder what this means?

[foxyshadis]

It means the format war would be over; in the last 6 months only about 2.5 million HD discs have been sold or bundled, total, about 60% bluray and 40% hd-dvd. Projections are 4 to 6 million in the next 6 months without a major shift. 10-20 million to one format would be enormous, though you're definitely optimistic on the early attach rate. (Compare this with nearly 2 billion DVD sales a year though.) That's why everyone's waiting to see what Walmart and other large retailers decide to stock.

[mpucoder]

I saw the first HD_DVD player in a WalMart today. It's Toshiba and priced at just under 200 USD

[Adub]

Damn, prices are falling faster than I thought. Still not going to buy one though.

[Shinigami-Sama]

wow
maybe by the time next year rolls around they'll be worth buying

[Inventive Software]

My local Asda (Walmart owned donchaknow) has started stocking Blu-Ray movies. No sign of HD-DVD ones yet though. HMV and Virgin Megastores stock both IIRC.

[ScooterMyth]

Well, the price war is on. Wal-Mart bf ad got leaked then Wal-Mart just announced a Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player goes on sale on Friday, Nov 2nd for $98. That no sooner hit the deal sites then Best Buy dropped their HD-A2's today to $99 and now some CC stores are price matching BB.

[Doobie]

That $98 Walmart HD DVD player also comes with a mail-in for five free movies. The story is also selling HD DVD movies today for $14. If you miss this sale, look for it again the day after Thanksgiving.

[v1rtu0s1ty]

I bought the Toshiba HD-A2 yesterday at Walmart for $98 :D I'm sending the pdf form so I can redeem my 5 free HDDVD movies. Here, http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com