Walmart to decide format war?

[gigadigit]

I read somewhere a few weeks ago about cheap bluray players also coming out from China.

[1stGenGamer]

Yup, reading the other news sources and the forums posts at AVS by native Chinese speakers confirm the original press release which all the articles wrote on is about HD-DVD. 藍光 also means "blue laser", so the press release basically said "blue laser HD DVD".

As nick2 pointed out, the press release also talks about using existing DVD manufacturing equipment to make these new HD-DVD players, something that's not possible for Blu-ray as it's completely different technology.

Another interesting bit in the press release is that the Chinese company's contract with Wal-Mart has a clause for an additional 4 million players to be produced in 2008 in addition to the original 2 million to be made this year that Wal-Mart can execute. So basically if the original 2 million HD-DVD players sell well, Wal-Mart can order an additional 4 million players from this company.

[PhinheadLR]

I use the PS3 as the hub of our home entertainment center, and it is used for Bd movies and music 3 to 1 over gaming. Everything in my home is Sony, and I will be so ****ed if they frack this up and let Walmart bring HD DVD to the masses.

[Bakari]

Walmart is buying these at $50 a pop, they can choose a price anywhere from $99 to $299 and still make a killing. This is really a huge boost for HD DVD

[JadedRaverLA]

This is really the first mass market production for either blue laser technology. Neither player has been geared to mass volume.

Ummm... 6 million (or so) PS3's shipped. Sounds like Blu-ray has a "mass volume" player out there. But, yes, since Toshiba just announced that they have sold 100,000 HD DVD players, this would definitely be the first mass volume player for that format.

It always amazes me how far people will go to believe something that is extremely improbable just because they don't want to believe its true.

Like HD DVD fans who think that their format sells as many discs as Blu-ray (despite Nielson VideoScan data, or any other measurement methodology). Or HD DVD fans who believe that their individual purchasing power is so great that Disney and Fox will give up on their efforts to protect their discs with BD+ and release all their titles on the essentially security-broken HD DVD. Lot's of crazy beliefs on both sides.



As for the REAL issue here, does Walmart hold the same power over high-def consumer electronics gear as they do over diapers and motor oil? Not really. At least not in the same way. The THREAT posed by Walmart's $29.99 DVD players or $199-299 HD DVD players is such that manufacturers who make good products will have to lower their price to near the same level at other stores to seem competitive. This is different than in Walmart's other markets, where Walmart is usually selling the same item as their competitors.

I do think this player may sell decently well for Walmart (assuming it comes out around $200), but only to those who REALLY want HD DVD (or a second player), but are too cheap to buy a decent player. None of the casual Walmart shoppers are going to buy this. Given the complete lack of knowledgeable salespeople at Walmart, there will be no one to "sell" these things to customers in the store -- to explain why a Walmart electronics shopper would want to buy the $200-300 DVD player that is sitting next to a $20-30 DVD player (and likely by the same manufacturer). The current financial problems Walmart is facing, in large part to their shrinking consumer electronics marketshare, bears out this theory.

The expected cost of name brand HD DVD and Blu-ray players by the time these players hit should already put them within 2x the cost of the Walmart player. Given the new competition, those player prices will almost surely fall to be closer to 1.5x the cost of the Walmart player. This is great for cosumers -- much less so for the consumer electronics manufacturers who had hoped to make some decent profits off of HD optical disc players before they got pulled into a Walmart-led price war with cheap Chinese products. However, if Walmart can't get these players out by this holiday season, the game may be over for HD DVD anyway, by the time these hit the warehouse.

Even assuming the best case scenario for HD DVD and these players (ie. cheap and out by November), I don't personally think this will be able to change the gaining momentum of Blu-ray, but if it's able to breathe fresh life into HD DVD, then we could well be stuck with HD DVD as a secondary HD product for quite awhile into the future. I could write a diatribe on why this is bad for consumers, movie studios, and just about everyone except Microsoft (the only company to BENEFIT from an HD disc stalemate) and Toshiba, but I'll leave that to others. I'll just say I hope Walmart ends up eating these players as yet another loss in their attempt to get some marketshare in the HDTV consumer electronics realm.

[Bligmerk]

This whole article is totally overblown and misconstrued, as usual. As several people have pointed, the original article says "Blue HD-DVD", not Blu-ray. It sounds like a Chinese made HD-DVD player since TDK is the other unmentioned partner. This isn't even news since the price is $300 in 2008 and the Toshiba A-2 HD-DVD is on sale sometimes for around that price now and usually with 3 or 5 free HD-DVD included. And as other people have pointed out, the first Chinese electronics knockoffs have been notoriously poor in quality and features. Ho-hum, another non-story becomes an Interweb Urban Legend.

[Bligmerk]

I read somewhere a few weeks ago about cheap bluray players also coming out from China.

No, that was an article about Panasonic selling a cheap Blu-ray PC burner for the Chinese market, around $300. Who knows why it is cheaper but there are a lot of factors like burn speed (maybe it is a 1X which would be horrendous), single layer and dual layer (the Sony is the only PC Blu-ray burner out right now that does dual layer), able to use BD-R and BD-RE (write-once and rewriteable media, the Sony does both, some of the others won't do rewriteable) and so on, so that it is in reality a very inferior drive which makes it so cheap in price comparison, not feature comparison.

[JadedRaverLA]

No, that was an article about Panasonic selling a cheap Blu-ray PC burner for the Chinese market, around $300. Who knows why it is cheaper but there are a lot of factors like burn speed (maybe it is a 1X which would be horrendous), single layer and dual layer (the Sony is the only PC Blu-ray burner out right now that does dual layer), able to use BD-R and BD-RE (write-once and rewriteable media, the Sony does both, some of the others won't do rewriteable) and so on, so that it is in reality a very inferior drive which makes it so cheap in price comparison, not feature comparison.

Actually, it was Pioneer, and that was horribly misreported. Pioneer finally released their Blu-ray "combo" drive (which they have been showing at trade shows for awhile) -- by which they mean it will READ Blu-ray discs, and WRITE to DVD and CD discs. Since they mentioned that it would play back movies fro BD-R/RE, it got completely misstated iby most of the press as supporting writing to those formats as well.

In reality, it's a cheaper Blu-ray drive... for those that don't actually need to burn Blu-ray discs. Given the cost of the blanks, it's really not a bad choice for many at the moment. Unfortunately, it's not due out in these parts until late this summer at the earliest.

[Bligmerk]

Actually, it was Pioneer, and that was horribly misreported.

Yeah, LOL, it was Engadget that used the description Blu-ray combo burner/player. It is only a Blu-ray reader and a CD/DVD burner, and not very good at those.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/18/p...blu-ray-drive/

"a $300 combo Blu-ray burner / player drive for PCs"

[ryanworldleader]

Just checked wal-mart webpage. Under entertainment, movies, they have Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Titles, but no players.

[mcav]

Judging by the Asda stores around where I stay (also Wallmart) They have more Blu Ray titles available for sale but have a tendancy to hide them behind HD DVD titles.

It's not like the merchandiser doesn't know the difference, but put it this way, it's indiitive of the type of person who will shop for electronics at ASDA/Wallmart. Most of them won't be all that savvy when it comes to anything like this.

They do have an interesting poster which states very clearly that if you want to watch an HD DVD you need an XBOX360 console(end of sentence) but if you want to watch a Blu Ray, you need a Blu Ray player! (doesn't mention PS3)

Spin or ignorance?

[Cyrann]

It's time for the BR-A to get their crap straight. This is a very bold move by WalMart

I agree, and with them being a juggernaut, well...

[Hobo9890]

Judging by the Asda stores around where I stay (also Wallmart) They have more Blu Ray titles available for sale but have a tendancy to hide them behind HD DVD titles.

It's not like the merchandiser doesn't know the difference, but put it this way, it's indiitive of the type of person who will shop for electronics at ASDA/Wallmart. Most of them won't be all that savvy when it comes to anything like this.

They do have an interesting poster which states very clearly that if you want to watch an HD DVD you need an XBOX360 console(end of sentence) but if you want to watch a Blu Ray, you need a Blu Ray player! (doesn't mention PS3)

Spin or ignorance?

Spin and ignorance. It makes you wonder if they do this on there own or if there's some higher calling....