AfterDawn: News

Onkyo takes the plunge into HD DVD

Onkyo is releasing it's first HD DVD player at $899, something of a high price for that format.

Scheduled to appear in thh fall, the DV-HD805 will be one of the first to support high quality audio through HDMI 1.3a. t supports the advanced sound formats Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio.



It's also capable of 1080p output over HDMI.

With prices from current manufacturers dropping almost weekly, this seems like a strange move, but further examination reveals a player that's not being marketed toward the average consumer. It may do well with high end AV enthusiasts who were bought into first generation HD DVD technology and continue to want the latest and greatest.

The availability of different tiers of players may very well indicate that HD DVD is firmly entrenched enough to support a broader consumer base.

Source: Video Business


Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 10 Aug 2007 7:50

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• 3 comments

• hughjars

  This is the beginning of the entry of other HD DVD manufacturers to this market.....and Onkyo is a very good quality product.
  
  This one isn't aimed at the bottom or mid-range this is a high spec machine - and for not a vast amount of money either.
  
  That's the thing with HD DVD, you get up-to-date specs and a range of options.
  
  Blu-ray is basically all about the (still) expensive PS3 (which isn't compliant with the latest BD spec......but they're keeping that pretty quiet for now) or some wildly expensive and underspec'd stand-alone
  (non of which except for the $2000 Denon or expensive Samsung dual format player are 'profile 1.1 compliant - nevermind 'profile 2.0).
  
  Shame there's no SACD or Divx/Xvid in this Onkyo cos aside from those 2 elements it's got everything I'd want in my high def player to directly replace my existing DVD player.

  10.8.2007 08:33 #1

• Unfocused

  Onkyo has always been good with adding features in later models. One can only hope that this device and its future revisions also gets better with age.

  10.8.2007 15:20 #2

• borhan9

  I would spend less on a new HD DVD or Blu-Ray player. For that price it would need to have a lot of features.

  17.8.2007 18:07 #3