Thomson launches Divx players..........................
twice.com
Thomson, meanwhile, vowed to make its Divx players the highlight of its DVD marketing campaign this fall.
"Divx is one of the major innovations within the DVD group at the video level," stated Larry Pesce, Thomson DVD product management general manager. "We are confident that sales of Divx software will eventually marry what we see today in VHS rental trends [10 million transactions per day]."
Thomson withheld specific model announcements for its Divx players, but Divx sources said they expect two RCA Divx players and one ProScan unit this year. The entry-level RCA player is expected to carry a $499 street price. Open DVD players will start at $399, Pesce said.
Among the new standard-DVD units announced were the RC5210p ($499 suggested retail) and RC5510P ($599 suggested retail). The step-up unit offers built-in Dolby Digital decoding, DTS compatibility, optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, component video outputs, and color-coded universal remote.
Many of the new RCA DVD players -- Divx and standard -- include such feature improvements as DTS pass-through and onscreen speaker setup for Dolby Digital decoder-equipped models.
Pesce said initial DVD products will be sourced from Matsushita but Thomson plans to build its own Divx players. Thomson will offer a high-speed wireless phone jack that is fully compatible with Divx modems, he added.
Pesce said the entire DVD category is due for significant growth this year due to the imminent participation of major mass merchants such as Wal-Mart and Target. Thomson projected DVD player sales of between 800,000 and 1 million units this year. |
