... in line with the $99 Walmart promotion.. well OK 99 GBP in line with the UK US pricing rate.

'Ventura' resumably are just an importer of no brand Chinese or Taiwanese goods, so it looks like HD DVD is already in the shovelware category. :)

"Venturer didn't name a price, though back in September it said the SHD7001 would cost less than £200 - £199.99 is our guess"

There pricing will make it somthing odd like £198.87, with £25 p&p.

Name not posted to reduce the shame I feel.

Not going to fork out £200 for a possible (likely, even) "Betamax"

You can buy a Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player online now for £199 with 7 free HD-DVD's.

Better brand and better spec!

That said, this machine will be down to £149 or better very quickly and may give the format a boost.

...You can get it online at www.qvcuk.com or just call them up on 0800504030. If, like me, you really don't like talking to people, try 0800524232 and use Qcut. I like it that the man tells me all about TSV (er, today's special value) without me even needing to ask.

I think I've shared too much.

Name witheld incase my wife reads this.

It's nothing more than an obsolete rebadged Toshiba HD-A1.

Buy one at your peril, as it's almost certain to be incapable of playing the 51GB HD DVD discs. Infact hot rumour is, none of the current HD DVD players are actually capable of playing the 51GB discs either. Including the $99 Walmart fire-sale...

Save your money, Either pick up a 40GB PS3/Blu-ray player for £289, or if you really must have cheap and nasty brands, go for a Alba Blu-ray player...

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/27/alba_readies_cheap_bd_player/

Toshiba HDEP-30 is £199.99 - why would anyone choose a Venturer that goes up to 1080i, then they can have a Toshiba that goes to 1080p?!

I checked Wal*Mart's web site, and the SHD7000 is in stock and available for direct-to-store delivery for US$199.98. So...does HMRC collect a 70% markup for the privilege of listing prices in GB£?

Also, I wonder what QVC will charge for this on US television: probably closer to the £199 than the $199, as QVC is notorious for marking things up and using "squeeze tactics" to get folks to buy on impulse without thinking about the purchase. Another psychology of sales tactic, along with "common sense" prices ("Well, £199 SEEMS like a good price...") and "shiny, shiny".

Also, Wal*Mart price differences between "name-brand" HD-DVD and BluRay are about US$100, with 10 free BluRay movies thrown in to help with the price differential. And the PS3 is listed at Wal*Mart as a hi-def DVD player...

We have to pay at LEAST £200, so Toshiba can make up for the losses they're accruing in the US, just like Sony did with the £425 PS3 at launch.

Is sell somthing for less that the price elsewere, call it "Extra value" or some such, and add painfull P&P. Just look at there website. Its just stupid, but they are relying on the consumer to not know any better.

One exaple is I got an Arcos MP4 player a while back, and they were chargin about £5.00 less than alot of on line shops, but then chaged somthing like £115 p&p, where as everyone else was doing free p&p becuase of the price of the thing.

Amazing how you tell someone who may well be interested in an HD DVD player to go off and buy a BR device, citing the only reason as far as i can see being incompatibility. Which is something you don't know... congratulations.

I shan't bother with the well documented BR incompatibilities, like v1.1, v2.0 discs, web content etc that won't play on earlier models.

Ooops, too late.

Toshiba E1 can be bought for £149 at the moment if you look hard enough, with the 7 free discs too, and whilst it may not be able to play HD51 (as i said, no one knows for sure) it's still a bargain.

I just saw the Venturer HD-DVD player plus 2 free discs at WalMart in Canada for $199.97. Surely they will appear at Asda soon for £149... though £99 would be a game changing price :-)

Regarding possible HD51 incompatibilities, I thought one of the reasons for the ethernet port on every HD DVD drive was for firmware updates?