The Taiwan based company, Fuh Yuan, which said last week they were going to manufacture 2 Million HD DVD players for WalMart had to make a retraction. They are now saying that Walmart inquired about their ability to "provide a schedule" along with "cost and quantity" details for us to evaluate.
Home cinema fans will be happy to know that their video Guru, Joe Kane, finally released "Digital Video Essentials" for HD DVD. The DVD version of this calibration disc as been very popular but a HD version was still not available until now. The Blu-ray camp will be jealous of that one because no date have been announced for a Blu-ray version.
But probably the most interesting new title is "Planet Earth: The Complete Collection" from the BBC. This wonderful documentary is a HD video, so no standard film transfer here! The series is already the top HD seller on Amazon, it's released on HD DVD discs also, and it does even better than "Casino Royale".
Universal released "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Nutty Professor" (1996). Paramount released "Failure to Launch" on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.
Walmart recently pass an order for 2 million Chinese made HD players. The manufacturer will be a Taiwan based company called Fuh Yuan in cooperation with TDK.
The problem? No one can tell right now if they are going to be a Blu-ray or HD DVD player. According to Akihabaranews, the press release says Blu-ray HD DVD!?! Will keep you posted when more information is available.
The players have an expected retail price of $299 and should be available before the end of 2008.
The HD DVD group has a nice offer for people who want to buy a HD DVD Player from Toshiba. From now to the end of July, if you buy a Toshiba HD DVD player, you will receive 5 HD DVD movies for free, a $100 value at amazon prices.
You can buy he HD-D1 (first generation) at $290.41
I didn't thought we could break the $200 mark so soon! What is the trick? There is no trick but the choice of movies is limited to the following titles:
Apollo 13, Casablanca, Four Brothers, The Rundownm U-571, Seabiscuit, Constantine, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Blazing Saddles, The Perfect Storm, The Chronicles of Riddick, Dukes of Hazard, Sky Captain and the Wolrd of Tomorrow, U2: Rattle and Hum and We Were Soldiers.
Here's also the list of HD DVD players from Toshiba you can buy to be eligible to the offer: HD-A1, HD-XA1, HD-D1, HD-A2, HD-A2W, HD-XA2, HD-D2, HD-A20. This is pretty much all the Toshiba HD DVD players available right now…
This is beating the hell out of the Blu-ray camp who still have a hard time catching up HD DVD on player prices.
The North American HD-DVD Promotional Group is now claiming that sales of set-top HD DVD players have finally hit the 100k mark. The number may not sound that impressive at first but when you look closely, the number does not count the HD DVD drive add-on for the Xbox-360 nor any HD DVD drive or burner. 100 000 stand alone HD DVD players is very surprising and certainly unexpected. 
We almost believe Sony when they said they have won the war. With this great news, HD DVD is back in the race. Let’s see if they can catch up on the movie releases and sales again!
For the first time in a long time, HD DVD has more new titles released in a week. Universal is taking the lead with "The Game", "The Jerk" and "Smokin' Aces". Genius is releasing "School for Scoundrels" and Weinstein is bringing "Feast" to the HD DVD library.
Warner is the only studio releasing Blu-ray titles this week. "The Dirty Dozen" and "Enter the Dragon" are released on Blu-ray discs but the have been available on HD DVD discs for some time.
The count is now 203 Blu-ray movies and 176 HD DVD movies.
Toshiba released a firmware update for many of their HD DVD Players currently on the market. If you are the owner of a HD-XA2, HD-A20, HD-A2, HD-A2W, or HD-D2, the firmware update 1.5 is for you. You need to connect to the internet using the Ethernet port to make the update or call Toshiba ((800) 319-6684) to get the update disc directly from them.
Why do I need this update you say? Here a Q&A released by Toshiba to answer this question:
Continue reading "Firmware Update 1.5 for Toshiba’s HD DVD Players" »
