70°

Low-Cost DVD Manufacturer Funai Confirms Blu-ray Support

Low cost electronics manufacturer Funai (who make components for such low costs brands as Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox), has revealed in their latest financial report that they plan to launch a Blu-ray player. With 52% of the DVD player/recorder market in the US, it is very likely that a low cost Blu-ray player would be widely adopted, similar to the success Funai continues to have in the DVD market.

No specific player has been announced, nor any time frame, or manufacturer partnerships, but the inclusion of the bullet in their annual financial report alerts stockholders of their intention to move into the Blu-ray market. As a favorite manufacturer of Walmart (who awarded them a Billion Dollar Supplier Prize in 2006), these low cost players would most likely see wide distribution through the retail giant.

Hopefully, additional information about Funai's plans will be revealed soon.

Ayo the movie6196d ago

But seriously, this is another sign of Blu-ray overtaking HD-DVD as the next-gen format.

gta_cb6196d ago

i just hope its a sign of a PS3 price cut.

Bathyj6196d ago

What was it, everyone saying the first player under $200 would win?

Poor HDDVD, we hardly knew yee.

ITR6196d ago

I did.

The site doesn't even list a price.

Lowcost could mean $300-400 bucks for a Blu Ray.
Panasonic is the cheapest at $600.
Maybe $199 if it carried the Emerson name but not with the other two.

Toshiba is selling it's player this week with 5 HD-DVD's for $299.
From what I understand Toshiba will keep around this price..when it's next gen HD-DVD player hits..if not lower.

A cheapo brand HD-DVD player would easily hit $199 or below if Toshiba is doing it for only $100 bucks or so more.

hfaze6196d ago

"Toshiba is selling it's player this week with 5 HD-DVD's for $299."

And taking a hefty loss on each unit sold...

Last year when they were selling the HD-A1 player for $499.99, they were taking a $200-$400 loss per unit on those players...

http://www.engadget.com/200...

I can't imagine that costs have dipped low enough for Toshiba to NOT be taking a beating on those $299.99 HD-DVD players, especially when throwing in five movies at that price.

With HD-DVD taking a beating on software sales, and Toshiba taking a loss on each player sold, it makes you wonder how much longer they will keep up this charade...

ITR6196d ago

unixphreak911:

Our Toshiba rep told us they are making money off the $299 units.

I'm sure they lost money in the first yr. Most everyone did.

Costs always go down over time.

bootsielon6196d ago

Is not cheap. Cheap for a blu-ray player? Sure, right now. By holiday season, that'll be the standard for a Blu-ray player. So, if Funai gets into the business, I don't think it's too crazy to think they might reach the 200 number.

An by the way, a Toshiba Rep said they're making money on the 299? lol, what kind of Toshiba rep? Besides, THEY would say that. Why would they make it official? They're videoplayers, not game consoles, so that should never happen.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 6196d ago
BIadestarX6196d ago

My question is if this is a good thing for blu-ray manufacturers. I honesly don't know. But if Magnavox fills the street with low priced blu-ray player, how will companies like Sony, Sansung and others will be able to compete against that? Obviously this is great for the consumer. As of today, rarely anyone buys a high end DVD player when they can pay $50 for a Magnavox dvd player. They saturated the dvd player market. This will help the format war alright... I guess Sony is ok anyways since they can make the money of royalties.

kspraydad6196d ago

The Blu-ray.com article does NOT give a source. I went to FUNAI's website and reviewed its last 2 reports and there is NO mention of Blu-ray....

What is the SOURCE of this info?

Premonition6196d ago

Maybe it was at a press conference or something? so maybe they might say it on their site later or something.

ITR6196d ago

I found this off engadgetHD:

http://www.pcworld.com/arti...

"Takanaka wouldn't disclose Funai's target price for the player but a report in Friday morning's Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun industrial daily said it will cost around US$500, or about ¥60,000."

If $500 is right then it's only $100 bucks or so cheaper then the $600 Panasonic that just came out.

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110°

It's good SLI is dead and buried - and my wallet agrees

Kevin writes: "Multi-GPU gaming was one of those things that seemed like a good idea for as long as it lasted. I mean honestly, the idea of a modular approach to graphics upgrades – be that SLI or CrossFire – was brilliant. I repeat, the idea was brilliant."

darthv725d ago

Im old school... when i hear the term SLI, I immediately think of 3dfx. I still have a pair of 12mb Monster V2's in an old rig. I never tried out the more modern take on SLI or Crossfire for that matter.

Vits5d ago

I mean, it was mostly for bragging rights. It was a very temperamental tech that improved with newer iterations, for sure. But folks like myself, who have used it, probably recall that troubleshooting was an integral part of the experience and the value that you got out of the setup was really low.

However, none of that mattered because it looked sick as hell on a well-built PC.

Wretchedstain4d ago

I remember doing my research at the time 😂 I got 2 GTX 460's, as they in SLI were meant to be better than the 480 at the time. Not all games were optimised at the time, which meant some games meant setting them up for 1 card alone. Never forget the time I came home from night shift, turned on my computer like normal, went and made a cuppa, come back and it was still off. Tried to turn on again, and one of the 460's caught fire... good times.

shaenoide4d ago

Why ? For the price of two SLI cards you only get one RqtX card now...

OpenGL4d ago

Exactly what I was thinking. When SLI was around an Nvidia flagship card was $700, less than half the price of their current flagship.

90°

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