Venturer SHD7001 goes on sale in UK for 170 pounds
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 29th 2007 12:17PM
posted Dec 29th 2007 12:17PM
[Via RegHardware]
posted Dec 29th 2007 12:17PM
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i really like all the updates today good job keep it up.
They don't really like discounters over there, do they?
Can't you just import one from the States? An Amazon A3+ 7 Movies Instantly for $170 US is still better paying extra shipping and $100 in Customs fees.
I meant 5 movies instantly. :)
My thoughts exactly.
Power:
110V/60Hz US
220V/50Hz UK
I found the exact same product in Wal-mart canada for 199$can...Still gone wait for the format war to end before buying one.
see you in 2012, when the format war ends with the SuperHD disc.
If I were in the UK, i'd just hop on Amazon.com . But I guess this is a step in the right direction as far as getting HD-DVD into the mainstream in Europe.
They have the Toshiba A3 HD-DVD player going for $179 on Amazon.com... and you get 10 Free HD-DVD's
Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just hopping on Amazon.com and ordering one for us as it states on the page for the players that they only ship within the US.
UK prices are always absurd
(manufacturers don't refer to the UK as 'Treasure Island' for nothing......tho from this end of the looking glass we call it 'Rip-off Britain').
I think there are a few elements that our US posters are missing in this.
First of all the Venturer is effectively a rebadged Toshiba HD A3 - all the coming Chinese players are, they use the 3rd gen HD A3 as their 'reference design' (and not, as many expected, the 2nd gen HD A2).
Secondly Toshiba will not be selling their HD A3 in the UK or the rest of Europe officially.
This means that the Venturer SHD7000 et al will from now be the entry level players here, not Toshiba.
Importing from the US has always been an option (tho Amazon USA won't do it and a host of the big US retailers won't either) but the differing power requirements (and the need to constantly run a transformer) along with guarantee/warranty compliocations mean many of us wouldn't bother (tho of course some are happy to).
In the meantime, and until stocks vanish, the Euro version of the Toshiba HD A2 (the HD E1) is available on Amazon UK for £185.
But I must admit that given the prices of the Toshibas I do wonder why people would go for the Venturer at these current prices?
The HD EP30 (the Euro version of the HD A30) is currently retailing for only £188.97 and the excellently spec'd HD EP35 (our HD A35) is retailing for £249.99.
I suspect this is just taking a punt on the early adopting credit-hungry.
I certainly do not expect to see them going for more than £150 in the next 3mths as 2008 gets going and some proper competition arrives.
QVC = Overpriced Rubbish
Has to be said
I walked into an HMV at Stansted Airport today and I am not lying when I say that the HD section was 90% blu ray and 10% HD DVD. The situation for HD DVD in the UK is absolutely desperate at present. Now maybe HD DVD owners are importing their titles, or maybe blu ray is so dominant through PS3 that the battle is already over. I favour the latter explanation.
Personally I think neither format is trying very hard in Europe. Paying 30 euros plus for a disk in either is tantamount to rape. I personally have no intention of buying Blu Ray disks (since I own a PS3) until I see the prices come down. I'm off to the US soon, so I'll probably print out a list of titles that are known to be region free and buy some while I'm over. That's one thing I envy about HD DVD - the lack of regional encoding.
The region coding seems to be a double edged sword. I hate the whole concept of region coding and credit to Toshiba for making HD-DVD a region free format. Unfortunately the studios still get the final say as they control the release of titles. And in practice this has meant that blu-ray will get the titles released sooner than HD-DVD, like Rush Hour 3 (not that I have any interest in buying it). So this renders the region coding issue mute in most cases, especially for catalog releases. Either way, studio wins, customer loses. Oh and totally agree that QVC = rubbish.
*quote*
Now maybe HD DVD owners are importing their titles
============================================================================
Bingo.
I could buy my HD DVDs in a regular store but their prices almost uniformly so appallingly uncompetitive why should I even bother?
Every one of my HD DVDs has been bought on-line and several have been imported
(for instance I got the 5 disc HD DVD Blade Runner edition from the USA for the price of the 2 disc UK version).
The game console kids (and by that I really do mean the large chunk of under 18/21yr old PS3 owning kids) might be more inclined to need and make use of a 'brick and mortar' store.
It might be a reasonable expectation that they would be less likely to have creditcards/chargecards to complete on-line transactions.
Frankly I think anyone not making the most of their money on-line with the large reputable stores and HD DVDs region-free facility is plain nuts.
@maxpower, I agree. Superficially lack of regional encoding is a good thing for consumers. In an ideal world the concept shouldn't exist at all. I know the first thing I do with any new DVD player is disable regional encoding.
However the commercial reality is that studios do stagger releases in different regions and they're not going to release something region free on HD DVD / Blu Ray if its still in cinematic release elsewhere in the world. Disney could release Ratatouille in the US even though it was still in the cinemas in Europe - because Blu Ray discs can be region encoded. On top of that, the lack of coding in HD DVD allows for imports which is another thing studios may really want to discourage. So while region encoding is horrible for consumers, the reality is that its something studios want, at least as an option. It will play an important factor in studio support of formats.
Now as I stated. The number of Blu Ray discs in stores is far larger that HD DVD titles. This can be seen just by walking into an HMV or Virgin store. I do not believe that imports are the sole reason for this. It certainly eases imports but more likely its because HD DVD is virtually non-existent in Europe. Blu Ray isn't going to replace DVD any time soon while titles costs so much but it's very clear that its still winning, aided by millions of PS3s. I think it will become mainstream in the next year and I hope that will cause media prices to drop to reasonable levels. In the meantime, I have no intention of buying overpriced titles from Europe if I can get them elsewhere for less. There are plenty of region free Blu Ray titles that I would be interested in and I will take advantage of a trip to the US I have planned to check some of them out.
In the meantime, I hope the EU industry snaps out of their delusion that they can sell titles for such outrageous sums because it ain't going to happen.
@ maxpower
You've got to be kidding.
How can the region coding issue be moot if it means that supposedly 'Blu-ray exclusive titles' are nothing of the sort and are available on HD DVD - instead of not at all?
Or that it allows HD DVD owners to take advantage of currency movements - a good example would be my own experience of the HD DVD Blade Runner The Final Cut release.
I bought the 5 disc US edition for the same price (delivered inc taxes) for within pennies of the 2 disc UK edition?
Ditto the recent Amazon BOGO, 2 HD DVDs for $20!?
Thank you very much and may I have another!
There's nothing moot about it at all.
Those are very real and tangible benefits that I as a paying customer value very highly.
No kidding. For a non catalog title, blu-ray can get the (region locked) release earlier, while the corresponding HD-DVD release is delayed until the studio is ready to release it across all regions. I never mentioned exclusivity, just who gets it first. I guess you could call that temporary exclusivity but I could care less about if it's only a matter of a few months between regions.
The blu-ray version of the US 5 disc release of Blade Runner Final Cut is also region free and I too took advantage of the weak dollar and picked it up instead of the European 2 disc edition.