Onkyo drops HD DVD player...

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

I'm not answering with anger and never have, I'm far from angry, I'm just astonished at your attitude & refusal to take any criticism or any willingness to notice there are people with opinions other than yours.

The fact you see my response as anger tells me a lot.


Did you read the story?
That is what we are commenting on, do you have any facts to refute this story or should we just accept your view as the absolute truth?

Yeah I read the story which has no comments from Onkyo themselves. I also know that Onkyo is shipping units here. One of the family businesses is a store, and they are expecting the players next week at the latest. Onkyo reps are saying the numbers will be limited but that has more to do with demand than anything else. It's a high end HD DVD player and the majority appear to buy the cheapest. They never expected to sell high numbers of either side. I feel you should accept Onkyo's word (and press releases) over a poorly written and investigated piece by some small Italian mag.

The Onkyo and Meridian players are not going to make or break the HD DVD camp. It's the $180 you can spend to get a HD player of any kind that is pushing units. Just as the Pioneer and Denon units aren't going to be pushing BD but filling a very small niche.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Lotus

The Onkyo and Meridian players are not going to make or break the HD DVD camp. It's the $180 you can spend to get a HD player of any kind that is pushing units. Just as the Pioneer and Denon units aren't going to be pushing BD but filling a very small niche.

Yea they won't make or break either format but they will bring higher quality & more features to them, which hopefully will trickle down to my price range when I get a standalone.

The main reason I'm still using my Playstation 3 as my Blu-Ray player is the more expensive models are not a big enough jump in quality & features yet.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

Yea they won't make or break either format but they will bring higher quality & more features to them, which hopefully will trickle down to my price range when I get a standalone.

The main reason I'm still using my Playstation 3 as my Blu-Ray player is the more expensive models are not a big enough jump in quality & features yet.

Not to mention that both the PS3 and the Addon are far more reliable with updates easily available (coming on games, etc) that make it so your system can play titles.

The Onkyo modifications are as far as I know just enough to make it a better CD player.

I think the store is getting the Denon this week or next. I'm going to borrow a display model to compare for a day or two. I'm not sure if it's worth the premium price, but it might make me wait for their Combo player (we should get a glimpse or data on it at CES).

I'm a big fan of the Combo players right now. I'm hoping Samsung's 2nd gen Combo player next year is around $500. That would be close enough to a solution for most people.

[DaViD Boulet]

Right but you're the one who lied about Onkyo "dropping HD DVD player," when it was the Italian Distributor who wouldn't be importing.

No. I didn't lie. The article didn't say it was the Italian distributor's decision. They said it was Onkyo's decision.

Onkyo has difficulty in positioning its own player (the Europe list price is 899 euros) and has therefore decided to stop production. The scarce units produced have been redistributed in varios markets. It has been known that barely 11 units arrived in Italy, and no others will come. Germany has been more fortunate, with 20 units, and Spain will receive none.

Have I accused you of lying? You've given more misleading misinformation in these threads than any other single poster (this being yet another example) yet I've avoided accusing you of lying in spite of it. Please resist calling me a liar when I'm at least relaying an article as it's written.

Yeah I read the story which has no comments from Onkyo themselves. I also know that Onkyo is shipping units here. One of the family businesses is a store, and they are expecting the players next week at the latest. Onkyo reps are saying the numbers will be limited but that has more to do with demand than anything else. It's a high end HD DVD player and the majority appear to buy the cheapest. They never expected to sell high numbers of either side. I feel you should accept Onkyo's word (and press releases) over a poorly written and investigated piece by some small Italian mag.

If that turns out to be true, it doesn't make me a liar. It makes the Italian article inaccurate. Time will tell. If Onkyo has indeed ceased shipments to European disctribution chains, it will become clear by other channels.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

No. I didn't lie. The article didn't say it was the Italian distributor's decision. They said it was Onkyo's decision. If that turns out to be true, it doesn't make me a liar. It makes the Italian article inaccurate. Time will tell. If Onkyo has indeed ceased shipments to European disctribution chains, it will become clear by other channels.

The article states that according to the Italian Distributor that Onkyo is stopping production, and then states that Onkyo wasn't producing the units anyway as the reason they wouldn't review it (they had already reviewed the European XA2).

No other outlet anywhere is reporting Onkyo dropping the HD DVD player. Germany does in fact have more than 20 units on sale currently. Onkyo did alter the XA2, it's not just a rebadge.

The $899 Euros is more expensive than the USA. If Onkyo was really worried about its profits why drop it in Europe and not the USA?

Also and the biggest problem with your whole thread, if Onkyo ceases production of a unit, does that mean they're dropping it?

Nope. I'm rather sure that Onkyo isn't producing a large number of these units and there would be very little reason (see demand) for them to do so. Having a small production run doesn't mean they're not going to support, sell, or R&D another unit.

[DaViD Boulet]

Great. I'll take that as an appology that I didn't lie after all.

Also and the biggest problem with your whole thread, if Onkyo ceases production of a unit, does that mean they're dropping it?

ceasing production and "dropping" a unit sound synonamous to my ear, but maybe not to others. In any case, it's what I mean to communicate (ceasing production).

Nope. I'm rather sure that Onkyo isn't producing a large number of these units and there would be very little reason (see demand) for them to do so. Having a small production run doesn't mean they're not going to support, sell, or R&D another unit.

Good point. I'd be curious to see if they go combo or higher-end if/when we see future players.