In the (not so) raging format wars a new force, allied with Toshiba has entered the scene from French CE giant Thomson in announcing the launch of their HD-DVD player under the RCA brand. After a bit of a rocky start, the company said the RCA HDV5000 HD DVD player is now shipping to retailers nationwide at a suggested retail price of $499.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly &
Microdisplay Report

The unit was scheduled to ship on May 18 but was delayed presumably until mid June. However on the Wal-Mart site the device is now listed “In Stock” and reviews are starting to show up on AV blog sites as well.

One early CNET review done May 1st, concluded the V5000 specs and features are “essentially identical” with the Toshiba HD-A1 offering. Thomson did make some cosmetic changes like reversing the black and silver colors and changed the shape of the buttons.

That being said we were curious to see if the RCA unit had some of the same delay problems with disc loading and “boot-up” (yes, this is essentially a PC in a consumer electronic envelope). In fact, a recent blog consolidated the Toshiba HD-DVD player reviews and concluded that the HD-A1 was “not ready for everyday use due to delays in start up and loading” (see http://theaterathome.blogspot.com/2006/06/toshiba-hd-a1-review-roundup.html). This was echoed on other reviewer sites including an extensive DVD benchmark test done on the respected Hometheaterhifi.com site.

The one hope for the delay usability issue here is that the HD-A1 firmware is upgradable-and a fix is in the works from Toshiba. In fact we are told the RCA ships with firmware version 1.0/1.09/2.00 and since according to CNET the box is essentially identical to the Toshiba offering we may well be seeing gen2 firmware on line.

Since the RCA is so new, it was harder to find a review on this unit, but one did appear on AVS forum, here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7732671#post7732671 .

The good news is, no loading or start-up problems were reported as yet, but the reviewer did say it took about 35 seconds for the device to “accept commands after boot-up” so it’s still not clear if v.20 firmware is a fix or not. But here’s one data point, in a home test on both a Samsung and Pioneer SD players the loading time was around 10 seconds on either unit from insertion to the “FBI warning” screen.

Our take: The HD-DVD players are in the channel, but initial reviews on delay-usability of the Toshiba unit are not helping the company to win the format war and could stall the early momentum building for the product. The HD-A1 unit took a top slot in PC World’s 100 Best Products of the Year, coming in at a respectable number 14.

The Toshiba strategy is based on first-to-market and strong market penetration. While April reports showed strong initial sales as specific retailers sold out of their first shipments, sell-through numbers aren’t in yet. A recent web check of unit availability showed eight of ten on-line retailers in-stock with the product at prices ranging from full $499 retail to the best price at $429 from PC Connection (free shipping, no tax) but they were one of the two stores out of stock.

Now Thomson is entering the fray with the hope on the HD-DVD side that these two devices can garner significant market share during this short no-compete window, while the specter of Blu-ray, particularly in the form of its low cost $599 PS3 cousin, looms on the horizon. Can you feel the drama building? –SS