Chinese company resurrects HD DVD

01 Apr 08 16:19 by DoMiN8ToR in category Uncategorized To news archive

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The Chinese company "Pri Laneo" has announced in a press release that they acquired intellectual property licenses to all relevant patents and technologies that are required for creating HD DVD media as well as for HD DVD hardware. HD DVD had been fighting a battle to become the successor of the DVD with Blu-ray but recently Toshiba decided to withdraw from the battlefield.

The company also announced that it has closed deals for the pressing of HD DVD discs and distribution deals with several adult film studios on one hand but also with some major Bollywood studios.

The HD DVD devices will be shipped worldwide to also service current HD DVD customers. Shipping players to Chinese consumers will start this month already. Shipping to US consumers is expected in Q3 and to European customers in Q4 this year.

Retail prices for the first stand alone HD DVD players are expected to be at about 770 yuan ($130). Prices for PC HD DVD burners are estimated at about 530 yuan ($90). The players will upscale DVD’s to 1080p and will also be able to playback Ogg and Xvid files. However due to licensing problems they do not yet support DivX but a firmware upgrade is promised to be released as soon as the license is granted.

12 Comments

DukeNukem: Posts: 1003; Posted on: 01 Apr 08 16:37

NOW HD DVD burners come out ?!?!!? Perfect timing. If this had happened this time last year I can guarantee that Blu-ray would be already cold in the ground. HD DVD burners for $90. This is just blowing my mind. In an unrelated story, last night at Wal-Mart I bought the first six Star Trek movies (2-disc DVD Director's Cut) for $5 each. Yeah, I think they'll be selling on Blu-ray in a couple months for $40 each. Sorry $ony, no soup for you. :+

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 01 Apr 08 16:42

What day is this? Oh yeah, it's 1 April.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 01 Apr 08 16:48

Actually this could be true, I heard inside rumors about this before as the Samsung Toshiba joint venture would suffer to much about the HD DVD Blu-ray battle.

DukeNukem: Posts: 1003; Posted on: 01 Apr 08 16:50

Pri Laneo = April One Well, now I just feel silly. I'm not to blame, though. It's easy to believe that China could do such a thing. Prices are low on everything that comes out of that country. Slave labour is just awesome.