Canadian distributor to launch first HD player under $US200 in time for holiday season.

The next-generation optical disc market got another shake today with Canadian distributor Venturer Electronics announcing it will deliver its first HD DVD player into the US market in time for this year’s holiday season.

That probably doesn’t sound like news until you hear the price – at US$199, the SHD7000 becomes the first next-generation disc player to fall under the critical $US200 price tag.

According to Venturer, the SHD7000 will support 1080i output plus an HDMI connection. Audio support will include Dolby’s TrueHD and come with built-in Ethernet connection.

The unit will also play DVDs and CDs with upscaling of DVD video to 1080i output an added bonus.

While Venturer Electronics does not state the price of the unit on its website, the price has been published by Gizmodo.

US retail giant Amazon is currently offering Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player for $US238.88. The best price available for a Blu-ray player is Samsung’s BD-P1200 selling for $US448.88.

While the Blu-ray Disc Association has been crowing recently about its sales figures in the US over the course of 2007, the recent Hollywood studio move by Paramount and DreamWorks SKG to jump exclusively to the beat of HD DVD’s drum has evened the battle again.

If anything, the price war being waged by the HD DVD forum through Toshiba and soon, Venturer Electronics should ensure that this holiday season is a very HD DVD affair.

Whether or not the SHD7000 is better value than the Toshiba HD-A2 will depend on your take of Toshiba’s five free HD DVD movies promotion that has been extended to September 30.

The choice of five comes from a select list of 15 which include:

• Apollo 13, Seabiscuit, The Chronicles of Riddick
• Casablanca, Constantine, Dukes of Hazzard
• Four Brothers, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
• The Rundown, Blazing Saddles, U2: Rattle and Hum
• The Perfect Storm, U-571, We Were Soldiers.

And you have to choose one from each group of three.

Either way, Blu-ray will have its work cut out for it this holiday season even with Sony’s PlayStation 3 price cut.