15 August 2007 – As the industry clearly pays no attention, I’ve decided to hold off mentioning the tedium that is the ongoing HD format war in this story and instead simply report the facts surrounding the latest party to join the fray. So, batting for the HD DVD side, Onkyo has announced the imminent release of its first player for that format, the DV-HD805 .
For the $899 RRP (about £530) you’ll be getting an HDMI 1.3 device capable of outputting both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless formats, Deep Colour support and 24 fps playback capability. As per HD DVD requirements an Ethernet port is on-board for extra HD DVD feature downloads as well as firmware updates should they be required.
The DV-HD805 also features an HQV Reon VX video processing chip, which Onkyo cite as the best in the industry and offers upscaling to 720p, 1080i or 1080p. The player is being recommended for use in conjunction with a reasonably high-end audio system using lossless codecs, but should work just as well with just TV speakers should you be so inclined.
Customers in the US will get their hands on the player in the autumn, while we British folks will be waiting a little longer. The picture above, by the way, is of a standard Onkyo DVD player, as no images of the HD variety are available yet.
source: press release
