Overview
Yes the news is out! Venturer Electronics, headquartered in Markham, Ontario, Canada announced August 28th that it will release its first entry level high definition DVD Player, the Venturer SHD7000™ in time for the upcoming holiday season. Tentatively priced at $199.00 this player might be found for under $150.00 by big retail stores in an effort to allure customers hungry for high definition home theaters under budget. This tempting price will be the most affordable one for HD DVD players so far. Since Paramount®, DreamWorks®, Warner®, Universal Studios® and Microsoft® have shown their support for HD DVD more and more companies and manufacturers are now leaning towards the HD DVD group.
Let's explore in depth details how this new HD DVD player may work and benefit everyone. As per the brief introduction on SHD7000 the maximum output resolution from HD DVD will be in 1080i vertical lines @60Hertz. HD DVDs are recorded in 1920x1080 digital pixel resolutions @ 24 frames per second. On some new display units the picture can be displayed at the same frame rate but such units and cables to connect them are still very expensive at this time. But don't worry, prices are coming down. In the meantime there is no harm in watching a 60 hertz picture. It looks like a 35mm film. The good thing is that you don't have to replace or upgrade this HD DVD player in the future. If you want you can live with it for many years to come as it accepts and delivers HD signals.
Performance
This player will deliver pictures in 480P, 720P and 1080i. The highest output resolution in this case is 1080i which can be a good choice as HD DVD's full vertical lines are 1080. So it doesn't make much difference if the lines of resolution are delivered in interlace or progressive mode as long as the display unit has a nice scaler and processor. The player will also have Ethernet connectivity for net work. As the HDMI output has 1.2 versions it can pass decoded lossless sounds on HD DVDs such as Dolby TrueHD™, DTS-HD™ Master Audio and Dolby DigitalPlus™ in PCM audio. For digital bitstream higher bandwidth is required. The benefit here to send the decoded audio over HDMI instead of 6 analog channels is that bass management up to 7.1 channels can be done by the audio-video receiver with HDMI 1.2 versions input. Also the bit rate is not dropped. The picture part can be output in 1080 vertical lines @ 60 hertz. If the receiver has the capability these lines of resolution can be converted into progressive mode also.
Another good feature about this player is that it has a nice scaler probably with a Realta HQV™ chip which can up convert the standard DVDs to 1080 high definition, so the regular movies looks close to HD DVDs.
Pros and Cons
As we know this is an entry level HD DVD player, but good results can be achieved from it if a proper set-up is done. Use good quality HDMI cables. The first one should be in shorter length to reach the audio-video receiver and the second one can be longer to reach the display monitor. HDMI cables with 1080P @60 hertz and built-in repeaters are available from AccellCables™ at affordable prices.
The player can't process the picture @24 frames per second but if you go for a 1080 display unit it will be a good choice. This way full 1080 lines of resolution are matched on each side and much less or possibly no scaling is required on the display side. This can eliminate motion artifacts in the picture.
Specs
From the introductory announcement from the company it is obvious that the player will have HDMI 1.2 and component video outputs. HDMI will pass PCM digital audio. Component video may pass up to 480P lines if the HD disc contents are under HDCP compliance. The player will have one port for Ethernet™ connection. On audio side it will have one optical output for digital audio and this way the lossless sounds will be down mixed to Dolby Digital™ or NEO.6 sounds. Another audio output will be in left and right analogs. 6 channels analog outputs may not be possible in this low price range but with an HDMI receiver you don't have to worry about it.
Conclusion
So the bottom line is that this player can help you enjoy HD DVDs in high definition with a nice digital audio at a very affordable price. It is backwards compatible with the technology so your existing DVD library is not obsolete.
http://www.my411family.com/electronics/article.php?id=27&name=Venturer_SHD7000_Most_Affordable_HD_DVD_Player_Review
