Venturer Electronics has announced that it will launch its HD-DVD player to the US market in time for the Christmas and Winter shopping holidays at a retail price “expected to be one of the lowest among entry-level HD DVD players."

The Chinese manufacturer Alco, through its Ventura brand, will bring to the North American market the SHD7000 model, featuring 1080i output resolution, Dolby TrueHD decoding, Ethernet port, and HDMI output. In addition, just like other HD-DVD players, it will also upscale standard DVDs to 1080i.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is reported to be $199. However, there is anticipation in several industry and media quarters that discounting may still bring the price down to $150 at some point to beat the the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on justreduced to $179 and Toshiba’s $250 entry-level HD-A2 player.

The SHD7000 will be distributed in North America by Venturer Electronics of Markham (Ontario), Canada, and sold through national retailers.

The model will also be distributed in Europe by Venturer Electronics UK at a price of around £200 (€300) or less, making it the lowest entry into HD DVD hardware.

Story filed 05.09.07