Countdown to Onkyo's premium HD-DVD begins

Philip Wong | Oct 24, 2007

Heads up people! We have just received insider news that the Onkyo DV-HD805 will be launched at the upcoming International Sound & Sight Exhibition in Singapore on November 16. For those uninitiated, this is probably the first HD-DVD player in Asia capable of outputting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream audio output. It will be an ideal tool to unlock the HD soundtracks recorded on HD-DVD titles, paired with a next-gen A/V receiver. A fine example is the award-winning yet affordable S$1,019 (US$681.92) Onkyo TX-SR605.

The DV-HD805 is also a competent video-upscaling DVD and CD player. The video playback performance for the former is reinforced with an enthusiast-grade HQV video processor, while high-resolution 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converters are on hand to beef up stereo music reproduction. There's no official word on HDi interactive feature support, though there is short mention of "future Web-based content access" for its Ethernet port functions.

Take note that the above-mentioned features are still based on preliminary specifications and the set will be priced at a whopping S$2,899 (US$1,940.04) tentatively. On a separate note, the Onkyo DV-HD805 bears a cunningly similar resemblance to the Toshiba HD-XE1, right down to the buttons and A/V socket placements and LCD information display. Hmm… so who's the original equipment manufacturer for both players here?

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