What is Onkyo talking about?

[Mr Peabody]

A story says Onkyo Switches to Blu-ray, Onkyo abandons HD-DVD to shift focus on development of a Blu-ray player. Is it me or did this really happen last year when they quit making their $899.00 HD-DVD player? I haven't seen another by them. Or was it the part where they mention their player shared most of the parts of the Toshiba player, you could buy, for what, $149.00? Is Onkyo just jumping on the bandwagon to get some publicity or do they feel they need some kind of closure? I just got a chuckle out of this story.

[Woochifer]

Onkyo didn't officially drop HD-DVD until Toshiba's announcement. They had every intention of releasing their high end HD-DVD player, but Toshiba kept dropping the price points, so those players never made it into retail channels (at least in North America). Toshiba's strategy of taking on loss on each HD-DVD player in hopes of growing market share basically ensured that they would go it alone. Unlike Toshiba, Onkyo had no incentive to treat HD-DVD players as loss leaders.

[Mr Peabody]

Once the price hit bottom though on HD-DVD it would be hard to go back up. Do you think they would have tried the same player again if HD-DVD took off or were they planning a cheap player? Although, Onkyo may have had intentions, it still seems like it was over for them along time ago. As you say though it was Toshiba's fault more than their own decision.

[Woochifer]

Once the price hit bottom though on HD-DVD it would be hard to go back up. Do you think they would have tried the same player again if HD-DVD took off or were they planning a cheap player? Although, Onkyo may have had intentions, it still seems like it was over for them along time ago. As you say though it was Toshiba's fault more than their own decision.

Onkyo got screwed in this deal. They never announced anything else other than their high end model, so who knows if they were working on a lower end model. I know that with their DVD players, they don't sell any entry level models.

Toshiba basically made it unprofitable for anyone else to enter the HD-DVD market, because they weren't profiting themselves. If HD-DVD had taken off, it would have taken a while for any new partners to enter the fold, and those might have been off-brand Chinese companies rather than any mass market brand players or mid-market companies.

[pixelthis]

I tried an Onkyo DVD changer awhile back, and the menu was basically Toshiba , as
was the rest of the player, probably.
And any HD player they put out was probably going to be a rebadged tosh product.
But when it became obvious ( to everybody but sir talky) that the format was in trouble they decided to wait.
Bet they come out with a Blu player soon, but they will probably have to choose someone to outsource it for them, I beleive all of their players are outsourced:1:

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I tried an Onkyo DVD changer awhile back, and the menu was basically Toshiba , as
was the rest of the player, probably.
And any HD player they put out was probably going to be a rebadged tosh product.
But when it became obvious ( to everybody but sir talky) that the format was in trouble they decided to wait.
Bet they come out with a Blu player soon, but they will probably have to choose someone to outsource it for them, I beleive all of their players are outsourced:1:

burn out pixel, it was much more obvious to me than it was to many that HD DVD was on the ropes. I knew before you did, long before you did.

Back away from the moonshine hicky, not all players are outsourced as you so try and assert. Pioneer makes their own players, and Panasonic does as well. Both are made in Pioneer and Panasonic owned factories located in China.

Your assertion on Onkyo are completely wrong. Toshiba had an agreement with Onkyo to liscense a player design, improve on it with additional audio support, and take the higher end market of which Toshiba would withdraw the XA-2 from. However when Toshiba started slashing player prices, and did not withdraw the X-A2, Onkyo decided to pull out of the agreement. This was long before the Warner announcement, before Christmas, and before any public sign that HD DVD was in trouble. What you need to do is stop making armchair analysis, because it is clear you do not have the mental capacity to do so.

[pixelthis]

burn out pixel, it was much more obvious to me than it was to many that HD DVD was on the ropes. I knew before you did, long before you did.

Back away from the moonshine hicky, not all players are outsourced as you so try and assert. Pioneer makes their own players, and Panasonic does as well. Both are made in Pioneer and Panasonic owned factories located in China.

Your assertion on Onkyo are completely wrong. Toshiba had an agreement with Onkyo to liscense a player design, improve on it with additional audio support, and take the higher end market of which Toshiba would withdraw the XA-2 from. However when Toshiba started slashing player prices, and did not withdraw the X-A2, Onkyo decided to pull out of the agreement. This was long before the Warner announcement, before Christmas, and before any public sign that HD DVD was in trouble. What you need to do is stop making armchair analysis, because it is clear you do not have the mental capacity to do so.


We are not talking about pioneer and panasonic, we are talking about onkyo, and every DVD player of theirs has a toshiba interface and more tosh parts , with a few concessions to "quality" to set it apart .
theres a lot of incest in this part of the market, players are often mass produced
in asian factories to the specs of whoever orders one.
I was quite shocked to see an RCA five disc CD changer in Radio shack, shocked to see that it had the same layout and build of a five disc Yamaha unit.
Most companies use outsourcing for products they have little experience with, and it would be silly for Onkyo to put the R&D into a new player and build from the ground up, most likely tosh would provide the basic players and Onkyo would add the "upscale"
features.
No way would Onkyo waste money on duplicate research on what would basically be a tosh clone, because, unlike you, they know what they are doing:1: