Toshiba has announced HD DVD standalone players will finally be available down under starting in December. Australia will receive the lower end second generation player
announced for Europe, the HD-E1 while the HD-XE1 is expected in February. They'll be paying a pretty significant premium, with the HD-E1 starting at $1,099 AUD ($845 US), compared to the $499
HD-A2 player coming soon to the U.S. The HD-XE1 will run $1,599 ($1,230 US) for 1080p HDMI 1.3-enhanced playback. Blu-ray players and movies are supposedly already on the ground in Australia, a reversal of the rest of the world where HD DVD has beaten its competitor to market. We couldn't actually find the Samsung player for sale anywhere or an Australian price, but the
Panasonic DMP-BD10 is listed on its Australian site for a mere $2,749 AUD. Ouch.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alsitair @ Oct 30th 2006 5:04PM
The Samsung Blu-Ray Player was 'launched' last week actually, although only a couple of stores even have demo models (mine doesn't). $1599
http://www.current.com.au/news/article/TJTZGQCAXV.html
Ed @ Oct 30th 2006 6:19PM
The funny thing is, the Aussies and the Brits don't seem to care for Blu Ray. Toshiba better push this thing hard so Blu Ray can disappear soon.
AA @ Oct 31st 2006 6:19PM
No Sony BDP's here yet either.
AA @ Oct 31st 2006 6:20PM
The Panasonic's nearly $3000-I'd go for the Tosh XE1 instead.
Juice @ Nov 1st 2006 8:47AM
Wow feel sorry for those is Aussie land, the HDDVD is expensive yet the Panasonic is still over twice the price of it!
J T @ Nov 4th 2006 5:54PM
Who said Aussies don't care about Blu-ray? I know that the only people here who care about the new DVD formats (most people don't) all want Blu-ray, but we're just waiting till everything gets cheaper or else go buy overseas.