Meridian HD DVD Player???  

I sounds like LG's denial about the dual format player.

except LG's was true. It was something they toyed with, then abandoned, and then slapped together real quick, or hasn't the fact that it's barely functional on the HD side given that away?

Meridian's customers purchase for the long haul, and they spend a lot of money.. Seems to me that they wouldn't be very interested in dropping $3-5000 on a piece of equipment that may be useless a year from now

Has Meridian likely purchased spec books and such? YES

Are they making a deck any time soon? NO

Who cares?

Cheers,

Grant

Exactly.

amir just squashed this and says the meridian was announced/real so these threads would best serve members if they're closed up.

Here's the link:http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post9417584

Don't care either....yawn

I read the original post and also Amir's post. It would be nice, however, to get something very official from the company about this to clear the air. It would also be useful to get some pricing/availability information since many rumors are going around about this as well.

Onkyo had a press release, one from Meridian would be useful.

As we know historically, many things announced at CES in January never actually are shipped, or are very late, so a bit of caution is always warranted.

Frankly, if any press spokesman in OUR company came out and contradicted a press release from the chairman in this manner, he'd be fired.

For someone whose job is press relations, John Bamford should know a lot better. He even goes so far as to talk up the competing format, which to me indicates a personal opinion got in the way of his job.

Until we hear an official press release from Meridian I will take neither Bamford nor Amir's word as being official.

He also claimed he worked personally with "Bob Meridian". There is no such person as the founder of Meridian is Boothroyd (Bob) Stuart.

Anyone who knows high end audio knows who Bob Stuart is and would certainly know his name if they worked with him personally. Sounds like damage control to me.

reopened: new info received

thread title revised

Thanks Mark.

Meridian has issued a press release


So the facts are:

* Meridian has become a member of the HD DVD PRG
* Meridian is involved in HD DVD audio (indeed Dolby TrueHD is an implementation of MLP)
* Meridian has not announced a player; they say that product development "takes some time", and for that reason they "cannot announce any product-specific details at this time."

In a followup he also clarified and pointed out that he meant Bob Stuart.

Wow, so indeed the HD DVD press release was wrong and Bamford was correct. Quite the slip up by someone in the HD DVD promotional grop.

I don't know how you get that out this press release. I read it as that they are developing a player, but not ready to release specs yet. I think Bamford was totally out of the loop when he denied the entire thing.

Yes, let us remember the wording of the press release before it gets wiped:

Actually, the press release isn't exactly "wrong".


It sounds to me like while they aren't quite yet putting their label on a specific player, they and Microsoft are helping to develop them.

I would think though that Meridian isn't in the rebadging business (and someone please correct me if I am wrong on that), so anything they develop would likely be from their R&D.

Actually no, here's the only passage that mentions Meridian from the press release:

"Several of the more innovative of the Asian manufacturers such as Alco, Jiangkui/ED Digital, Lite-On, and Shinco will add competitively priced HD DVD products to the market, and well-known brands such as Meridian and Onkyo will create HD DVD players as well."

http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-e...8012007-1.html

Since Meridian hasn't said they aren't releasing a HD DVD player, only that they havent announced one, technically the press release remains accurate.

In other words, the HD-DVD side desperately wanted to be able to insert some manufacturers' names into their press release, so they engaged in some back room dealing to allow it to be done. They were unable to get an actual announced player and time frame, though.

So sad.

And the new press release goes so far as to say they are currently developing them. That is in line with the HD DVD group press release.

Sad like this?

http://www.blogherald.com/2006/12/18...blog-for-good/

Comon they said they are developing a player and it takes time.......

be happy for HD DVD. They didn't lie at all. To be totally honest I would probably look past BD and get in a player even not a PS3 but a stand alone if they would just be honest and forthright. this underhanded stuff is childish. Not cool

That's not what they say. They say they are "working with Microsoft on the development of high-end players."

No mention of development of HD DVD players is made. For all we know, it could be cooperation to implement WMA on a DVD player or connectivity functions as the Pioneer Blu-ray player has.


Tu quoque's won't change the fact that claiming on a press release that Meridian will create an HD DVD player is undeniably disingenuous.

it is posts like this that are so sad and not helpful

I believe that Meridian's MLP (Meridian lossless packing) algorithm is included in DVD-A and is also included in Dolby TrueHD, which is included in BOTH the HD DVD and Blu-ray specifications. See wikipedia for details.

Meridian doubtless is collecting royalties from both hidef formats in some form and should therefore be considered a contributor to both. Whether or not they will build either player is another matter.

Grubert, with all due respect, and in all seriousness, why would Meridian in a press release specifically clarifing their support of HD DVD and announcing their entry into the HD DVD group would they imply anything else with a statement like that??

Even you have to think it is a big big stretch to think they they could possibly be talking about a WMV player and not developing HD DVD players. And that's even with the knowledge that right now Microsoft and Broadcom are working on the same technology to make less expensive HD DVD players.

If Meridian was putting out a press release that denied they were developing an HD DVD player, and made that statement, then you can absolutely infer that they could be talking about something else.

There's reading something into a quote, and there's reading a quote in the context of a press release and being able to put 2 and 2 together. I think you're reaching, and I say that having great respect for your postings of news and press releases throughout the forum. I can't go with you on this one.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree Grubert, I dont see anything in that press release that absolutely refutes that Merdian is/may be working on a HD DVD player, it looks to me that the HD DVD group just said more about it than Merdian would have liked.

Consistent with Meridian's product development approach, where standards of performance, particularly for audio and video are exceptionally high, product development takes some time, and for that reason we cannot announce any product-specific details at this time."

Doesn't specifically speak to their own player or some product being worked on with Microsoft. We could argue the semantics all day long, at the end of the day however Merdian did not refute they are working on a HD DVD player. This is the nature of press releases, more often than not in-between the lines are just as important as the lines themselves.

The HD DVD PRG press release states that Meridian will "create HD DVD players". When you say "create" that tells me they are actually making a physical product. The press release from Meridian says that they are "working with Microsoft on the development of high-end players." Not there high-end players, but high-end players in general. Toshiba probably considers the HD-AX2 a high-end player, and if Meridian helped developed that, then they have been working on development of high-end players without developing one for themselves.

The press releases supports this with its next statement, "Meridian has for some time been deeply involved in some of the core audio technology in HD DVD". This statement could easily translate to "Meridian is working with Microsoft to develop HD DVD players" because all players have to decode "core audio technology". Obviously, high-end players would be a part of the players they have been developing.

A good analogy for those of you who are still apologists even after reading that, is that Toshiba helped develop the PS3. In fact, you could say, "Toshiba is working with Sony to develop a high-end gaming machine." Of course, you will never see the PS3 with "Toshiba" written on it, or one produced by Toshiba, or people referring to the PS3 as a Toshiba product. That is the difference between "create" and "develop".

Any way you look at it, the HD DVD PRG press release was misleading and this new press release goes on to confirm that.