No Cheap HD DVD Player From WalMart

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.

Source

Comments

[Nuttdriver]

Too bad they will only be 1080i. How can you market that as HD??
1080P is HD.
Why do you guys support HD DVD. Technology always advances. Why would you bother wasting your money on a crappy HD DVD player when Blu is proven to be far superior.

Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

So let me ask you HD DVD fans....can your player keep up with that?? New computers are getting faster and faster. Wouldn't you think a faster data rate is the next step in home entertainment?

[Boomer]

Excuse me, but 1080i IS considered High Def. There is a significant number of people who have TVs that are 720p that will go up to 1080i. Either way, this is High Definition. As for the argument about blu-rays holding 50gb to HDDVD holding 17gb---why is it that most blu-ray titles that have come out recently don't utilize the 50gb? Titles have come out on blu-ray that have LESS exclusives than a regular DVD?

And if you think I'm a HDDVD fan boy, you are mistaken. I own a PS3 with over 150 BD titles. I also own a Toshiba player with 60 titles.

[Walley]

80% of HDTVs out are only 720p/1080i so a 1080p deck would be a waste. 1080p sets are recent and still cost 2-3X the cost of a 1080i set. Newer HD DVD players are 1080p and the older 1080i ones thru firmware updates can play 1080p movies on a 1080i or 1080p set. I think the math goes like this. 1080 24P on DVD disc. A 1080i HD Player converts 24P to 1080i sends 2 halfs of picture in 60 fields to TV. The HDTV rebuilds 60i into 1080 30p frames. Your brain could not tell a 1080 60i from a 1080 30p image shown on two 40 inch LCDs side by side from 8 feet back. On a good 1080P set you couldn't tell a 1080i deck from the 1080p deck. On my HDTV 1080i looks better than 720p. Nothing wrong with 1080i Nuttdriver.