Quote Originally Posted by Mr Peabody
Actually, I'm surprised they even planned to put one out at that price. They saw where Toshiba was taking the market and it's not like they were building a higher quality unit either. In my opinion this was a huge mistake and it doesn't look like Onkyo showed it's best integrity toward the consumer with it's intensions here.
I personally knew this was going to happen long before I posted it. This is where insider information really pays off.

At the time of the announcement of this new player by Onkyo, Toshiba had been telling some manufacturers they were discontinuing the XA-2. With the upper end price structure finally abandon, Onkyo thought they could position themselves where the XA-2 was, make some money off of its player, and become a viable manufacturer within the HD DVD community. Unfortunately for Onyko, Toshiba did not discontinue the XA-2, and continued to discount and discount which has pushed the market lower and lower. When Onkyo began sending out samples to European AV websites, it became apparent the market had shifted to a lower cost market, and there was just no point in Onkyo releasing a money losing player as RCA did. There is just no way for anyone to compete with Toshiba in the current HD DVD market plan. Toshiba is losing money hand over fist, how does the HD DVD PG think they can coax other manufacturers into this format. The cheaper Venturer player scheduled for a $199 price release is not going to be carried by Walmart who is the logical choice for this player, as they prefer to stick with Toshiba and the A3. With Toshiba doing what they are doing, the next victim of this cost slashing effort will be the venturer, because there is no need to make shelf space for a player already priced within range of the A3.

Another hint for the direction of HD DVD. There is a certain HD DVD exclusive studio that is A) No friend of the other HD DVD exclusive studio, B) is hopping mad that what they got for exclusive support of HD DVD is not nearly as much as what the other exclusive got. The one exclusive is still angry at the other for hyjacking a prominent director from their midst, but the payoff may just be the straw that broke the camels back. This information is so loudly propogating all over Hollywood, that only a deaf person could not hear it. I am going to be hanging with a film school buddy who is a higher up at a HD DVD exclusive (one that I have not worked at) and I am going to try and milk him like a diary cow.

Stayed tuned, this is getting interesting.