New Walmart HD drive to be Blu-Ray?

[JoeSp]

New Walmart high def standalone to be Blu-Ray?

I just found listing of supporters from C/Net for both high-def camps and guess what? TDK is a BLU-RAY SUPPORTER!!! I also believe that TDK produces BD discs. Since Walmart, TDK and Chinese manufacturer Fuh Yuan (is that correct?) are doing the deal, does this mean that TDK who is producing BluRay drives and discs for the PC are getting into the standalone market with Walmart and doing an inexpensive BluRay standalone drive? Or are they changing sides? Wheeeee -- what a ride!!

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6463_7-6462511-2.html

On their BD media products:

http://www.tdk.com/consumer/bluray/index.html

And to put the AVS crowd in a frenzy -- TDK's 200GB BD announcement:

http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11817

This is starting to look like a BluRay Xmas -- Maybe? :dev

 

[navychop]

Interesting. I'd prefer it to be a Blu-ray, or a dual format player. We shall see. I'll bet WM will hold off announcing how it is until shortly before launch. We'll probably know for sure from some other source first.

 

[r.jones1116]

I just found listing of supporters from C/Net for both high-def camps and guess what? TDK is a BLU-RAY SUPPORTER!!! I also believe that TDK produces BD discs. Since Walmart, TDK and Chinese manufacturer Fuh Yuan (is that correct?) are doing the deal, does this mean that TDK who is producing BluRay drives and discs for the PC are getting into the standalone market with Walmart and doing an inexpensive BluRay standalone drive? Or are they changing sides? Wheeeee -- what a ride!!

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6463_7-6462511-2.html

On their BD media products:

http://www.tdk.com/consumer/bluray/index.html

And to put the AVS crowd in a frenzy -- TDK's 200GB BD announcement:

http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11817

This is starting to look like a BluRay Xmas -- Maybe? :dev

Toshiba supplied parts for the PS3 so I guess they're possibly BD supporters.
You're right about one thing, it will be a blue xmas for bluray. That's when the fanbois will finally realize HDDVD kicked BD's badonkydonk butt.

Do you smelllllllllllllllll what HDDVD is cookin'?

 

[CochiseGuy]

I just found listing of supporters from C/Net for both high-def camps and guess what? TDK is a BLU-RAY SUPPORTER!!! I also believe that TDK produces BD discs.

They are. They're also a member of the DVD forum. TDK is also the company that developed the triple layer HD DVD disk that also increased the capacity of each layer from the current 15GB to 17GB - SL=17GB, DL=34GB, Triple Layer= 51GB. That is currently up for certification & approval by the HD DVD steering committee.

Like many companies, TDK has their fingers in a lot of pies. Like BD forum member LG, which is selling a BD/HD DVD dual player. And BD forum member Samsung which has announced a dual player.

EDIT: Found it. Joe, you accused me of not paying attention to CES 2007, because I didn't see where Disney said they had no intention of releasing on HD DVD. Well, I guess we both weren't paying much attention to what they other side had to say:

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 7, 2007, Toshiba and TDK announced that they have created HD DVDs with 17 GB layers, and demonstrated a triple-layer 51 GB disc.[7] Toshiba aims to secure approval of the new disc by the DVD Forum within this year.

Next topic?

 

[teachsac]

Pretty sure it is actually an HD-DVD player. The Chinese characters used in the article mean Blue-Light and is used when referring to both formats. The original article from Fuh Yuan specifically says HD-DVD throughout the article and has been discussed ad-nauseum over at AVS. Wally world is looking to expand on their Home Theater/electronics business and they will do it on the low end of the price spectrum. Wallyworld has not denounced the original article either.

In regards to the other articles that Wallyworld will force studios like Fox and Disney to start supplying their videos in the HD-DVD format or they will sever ties, I seriously doubt that would ever happen. Wallyworld will not stop selling SD-DVDs anytime in the near future, especially from a studio that caters to Wallyworlds market, low to middle income families. They will make the decision to stay on the BD side or go neutral based on the pentration of the players to the mass market.

FUh Yuan and TDK are also merging. I'm not saying that TDK is abandoning the BDA association, but they are in the business of making money, and they see an opportunity. I'm not saying BDA will not or does not have plans for a low-end CHinese or Korean player either. But at this time, I believe everything is still rumor until confirmed, and the original article does refer to HD-DVD.

S~

 

[navychop]

Nice post.

 

[JoeSp]

Good catch CC. Even I missed the Toshiba/TDK colaboration on the tripple layer disk. Where there is money to be had the Japanese will follow.

As for Toshiba suppling parts for the PS3 that is how business is done in Japan. Everybody helps everybody else out -- as long as they are Japanese. I purchased a Sony HDTV that had Sony replacing the Sony CRTs with Panasonic CRTS. I had a Toshiba DVD player that had Hitachi chips on the motherboard. The Japanese are always going to take care of their own first.

I find it interesting that what we have here are Japanese companies (the BD group) trying to kick out the DVD Consortium where as the HD-DVD group is trying to stay in the fold.

As for any retailer forcing a Studio to support a format good luck. I would imagine that before that happened that the studios would force the BD camp to come out with a low-cost BD standalone and force the Walmarts and Wallyworlds of retail to sell these players along with their BD movies. I really think that that is how this is going to play out. And the main reason is that BD is making retailers alot of money right now and that is why we have not seen anyone blink yet.

Worse scenario for the HD-DVD camp is that the PS3 sells 6 to 8 million in the US before the end of the year. Worse scenario for the BD camp is that they do not counter a low cost HD-DVD standalone with a low cost BD standalone. The next 8 months are going to be real interesting!

 

[tnsprin]

Wal-mart has come out and denied the reports of a cheap HD-DVD player. Full details several sites e.g.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2122715,00.asp

 

[r.jones1116]

Here's an update to the story......

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback186.html