It was way above RM500 for the 9 items. My player is on the delivery vehicle already and FedEx didn't call me so I presume there's no tax for it. It's my lucky day I guess But yeah, just to be safe, keep the value of the package under RM500 and it should go through safely

Did you declare it for personal use? I ordered an amplifier from the UK once, I declared it as Christmas gift and it reached me without being taxed but the declared value was around RM800 (not the actual value of course).

Nope, no special declaration or instructions to amazon or fedex. Two other guys from the xbox section who ordered got taxed though

Sounds like you're the lucky guy. Any family members working for the customs department? Hahaha. Just joking.

It depends on luck anyway b'coz if the customs officer wanna tax it, you can't do anything about it either. I had been in such a situation before, I told him that it wasn't taxed previously, he told me that officer didn't tax it was his business but I wanna tax it. Argghhh ..... I felt like smacking him on the face. Luckily it was for my personal use, if it was imported for business purposes, these taxes will have an impact on my profit margins.

whoa damn! I just tried tossing a part of iRobot 1080p h.264 file to my 512mb CF card and tried playing it back with PS3...it really freaking works and it's smooth like hell!!! man can't wait for my external hdd to get here on Tuesday...I wonder if the PS3 would detect my PC as mass storage if I hook them up with a USB cable. Looks like I wont even be buying BD

How does it compare when you stack it up with a Blu-Ray movie running in 1080P?

Is there a player that plays both HD & Blue-ray DVD?

Not at the moment, maybe around next year, NEC has developed the chip for that so it will be soon. We'll definitely see one but lets start saving now.

LG Electronics has just announced one. THey will showcase the player next week from 7 January in the Consume Electronic Show at Las Vegas.



anyhow .. BHPhoto has just reduced the price of the A2 HD DVD player to $ 429.95 .. its getting cheaper by month

I guess it's best to wait than to buy one now, normally if you're the last to buy, you'll get a better price, deal and possibly the player will come with better specs too and of course, faster loading of blu-ray and hd-dvd movies. The current players take forever to start and play these movies.

I remembered paying RM2300 for a Toshiba dvd player last time, it was bare bones, nothing special, just a normal first gen dvd player but look at now, we're getting progressive scan, it plays SACD / DVD-Audio titles and now, it upscales to HDTV resolution via HDMI, it just gets better and better plus cheaper too so sometimes, it's best to wait, you don't really gain to be the first one to own it IMHO.

Don't buy DVD player now! Wait for next generation player.
I bought my 1st DVD player model SONY NS300 back in 2001 costs me RM 899. After that, cheaper model with more functionality.

its now $399.95 = (RM1440)

oh dear .. early adopter product never been this 'affordable'

I prefer to see more brands and choices for HD-DVD players. At least for the Blu-Ray camp, they have players from Samsung, LG, Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, etc to start with.

I thought that all electrical goods requires AP before they can be brought into the country. Does that condition still applies or is Custom relaxing the ruling?

When HD DVDp reaches around 200 bucks average price, that'd be about the time DVD becomes VHS.

you do notice that that their players are from MSRP $999-$1499, and many cant play CD .. how many optical players in the market cant play CD, even the RM89.99 VCD players can play CD ... sorry cant help it ..

multiple brand HD DVD players would be good. LG already has a HD DVD player out. Sony wont do HD DVD player until HD DVD is totally dead and buried. I would say we would see Samsung, Philips and Pioner HD DVD players before the rest .. but then Pioneer is still doing Plasma only ...



yupe and the price of the HD DVD disk too. If it reaches the DVD range then there is no reason not to go hidef.

anyhow - when HD DVD combo reaches maturity and capable of doing 30GB/9GB on one side, studios such as Universal would stop the releasing DVD all together making the transition of hidef much more smoother

AP? Not that I know of if you're importing it for your own personal use. Sometimes if the voltage is different, like 110V, they'll require you to get an approval from JBE. Just extra paperwork & $$$ to process the necessary documents.


Well, DVD won't be as bad as VHS lah, DVD has more titles than HD-DVDs or even Blu-Rays and it's still selling quite well, maybe we'll get cheaper original dvds in the future which is a good thing.


Some competition is good but many brands are reluctant to jump into the HD bandwagon yet and frankly, I don't think highly of Toshiba when it comes to HD-DVD players, if Marantz, Denon, Arcam, etc are also interested to make HD-DVD player I'm sure the picture and sound quality will blow Toshiba's own players away. For instance, Denon didn't create the dvd format but they have the best dvd players in the market or shall I say, audiophile quality.

Nah, movie studios can't just pull the plug on normal dvds, not everyone can afford HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays, this is Malaysia, we ain't staying in a foreign country, an original dvd in the UK is like the price of two plates for fish and chips, how about in Malaysia? If an original dvd here costs as much as two plates of fish and chips, then that's a different story. Frankly, original products are cheap overseas and they have those Christmas promotion like buying 5 titles and get 1 free. We don't have such luxury here. That's why dvds will still exist alongside with HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays for a long long time.

yes Universal, Paramount and Warner can. The so called HD DVD disks also play in regular dvd players you know ... it has both HD DVD and standard dvd contents ... that is actually a good way to trick consumers into hidef ... well that is one naughty idea anyway

Well, only a few titles are combo ones but I'll expect them to disappear pretty soon as you need to pay more for buying combo titles. It's doesn't come free to be honest.

i know .. that is why i said 'when HD DVD reaches maturity' meaning .. we see see 30GB/9GB Combo disk on one side, at the price range below HD DVD nearing to standard dvd. When that day comes, standard dvd's day is over. Basically consumers will see standard dvd looking disks at the standard dvd price that are also a hd dvd disk ... the 30GB/9GB one sided disk and proposed last year.

availability for the flipper 30GB/9GB disk is scheduled for Fall 2007. This means if they can get the price down, every single release on HD DVD will be in combo. Universal has said in their press release that 90% of their 2007 release will be in Combo.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/ind...p/t-698978.html

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=697405

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Added on February 26, 2007, 9:34 amooh news has it, the MSRP price for A2 will officially be dropped to just $399 when A20 is available in the market (basically no one is going to get A2 with A20 with 1080p and high end Silicon Optic Reon video chip) $100 more. The of A2 is said to be going to be drop again to $299 in fall. Or maybe Toshiba will be releasing 3Gen players from $299 up in fall. Wow that is actually the price of XBox 360

This post has been edited by g5sim: Feb 26 2007, 09:34 AM