Onkyo's High-End HD DVD Player Due This Fall

After initially tipping its hand last June, Japanese electronics manufacturer Onkyo has officially announced that it plans to release its first HD DVD player this fall.

Having developed a solid reputation among home theater enthusiasts for their top-shelf A/V components, Onkyo's products are never inexpensive, but their customers will tell you they're worth it.

Looking at the price tag and the specs for the company's forthcoming DV-HD805 HD DVD player (view the full press release here), it seems Onkyo plans to continue in that tradition. Priced at $899, the company says its new HD DVD player was designed as a companion piece to its 2007 line of high-end audio receivers.

As such, the deck will be one of the first HD DVD players to stream all high-resolution audio formats via HDMI version 1.3a, including Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio and uncompressed PCM, as well as standard Dolby Digital-Plus and DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio.

The DV-HD805 will also be capable of native 1080p/24 frames-per-second video playback, and support web-enabled network connectivity per the HD DVD spec, allowing for new and unique content such as additional online supplemental materials and bonus features.

Finally, the manufacturer is touting the player's built-in HQV Reon VX video processor, which promises to deliver exceptionally precise video scaling, regardless of the resolution of your discs and/or display device.

Onkyo is the second high-end electronics manufacturer to officially throw its hat in the high-def format wars this past month -- Denon recently announced plans to launch its own similarly featured Blu-ray player, at the whopping price of $1,999.

Needless to say, we'll keep you posted as soon as further details and confirmed street dates are officially announced. Watch this space!