New Rob Enderle article

[bdrex28]

Interesting and I just don't see what he's saying in regards to Disney. He makes it sound like Disney is mad at blu-ray , which when you go to the link he provides is Disney blasting HD DVD not blu-ray.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/L...eek-60141.html

Black Friday: The HD DVD Barbarian Attack

We've known for some time that there would be a lot of low-cost HD DVD players driven into the market during the critical Christmas buying season. We were expecting it to be off-brand Chinese players, but it looks like Toshiba Latest News about Toshiba products are the ones that will be hitting stores in massive volumes in prices ranging from $170 to $200 for their previous- and current-generation low-end HD DVD products.

Of course, if you were awake last Friday, you saw that Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) Latest News about Best Buy and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Latest News about Wal-Mart blew out the Toshiba A2 products at $99 a pop. I'm writing this Thursday night, but I expect the stores will sell through inventory before you read this.

This makes the new steady price for the low end (after last weekend) of the Toshiba line under $200, and this puts the still expected Chinese products at an even lower price point and that is a considerable amount of price pressure on the approximately twice-as-expensive Blu-ray offerings.

If, as we understand, the new A3 Toshiba products do drop below $200, they have a decent built-in DVD up-converter and that would make them a really good buy even though they only go up to 1080i. The format actually looks better than the more expensive 1080p player on a 1080p set because of the superior de-interlacing technology in most 1080p sets.

This creates a sustaining insider bargain, one where people in the know get just what a huge value this is. If that perception is widely held, the folks who sell these things -- including Wal-Mart, which cornered the DVD market years ago -- will likely set sales records now that both K-Mart and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Latest News about Amazon.com have jumped on board. Hint: It appears Amazon will have them at a sub-$170 price.

Adding to the drama is the rumor that Warner Home Entertainment is planning to go exclusive with one platform. It will be basing its decision on how many of these inexpensive players are sold. Initially, WHE was releasing titles in HD DVD only.

We'll know in a few weeks, but the fact that Disney (NYSE: DIS) is anything but happy doesn't bode well for Blu-ray. When executives start blustering like this it isn't a good sign.

He links to this article, see the above bold print reference.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/disneyblu103107.htm