Venturer Electronics, a maker of consumer electronics based in Canada, has announced that its low-cost HD DVD player will be available on the North America market by holiday shopping season. Even though the device will not support leading-edge technologies, it is likely to offer a nice value for mainstream customers who do not own expensive HDTVs.

“Responding to strong consumer demand for high definition video playback devices, Venturer will introduce the SHD7000 that offers the superior HD movie experience as defined by the DVD Forum,” a statement by Venturer reads.

The company’s SHD7000 player will lack full-HD will only offer 1080i maximum resolution (1920x1080, interlaced) which requires less advanced image processing and ultimately means more affordable hardware inside. Still, the player from Venturer will support Dolby TrueHD sound, HDMI connector and DVD upconverting capabilities, the feature-set that can satisfy unpretentious customers.

The suggested retail price of the new player will be just $199, according to an official claim quoted by DVDTown.com web-site, which is much more affordable compared to any existing Blu-ray or HD DVD player. It should be kept in mind, however, that Toshiba’s own HD-A2 player costs $299 and comes with five HD DVD movies, each of which is priced at $19.99.

The low-cost HD DVD player will indisputably drive the high-definition movie experience to the mass market. Given that contemporary DVDs only feature 720x480 resolution, even 720p (1280x720, progressive scan) and 1080i will provide considerable quality improvements to those, who own mainstream LCD or plasma HDTV-sets with 1366x768 resolution. As a result, HD DVD may become considerably more popular as a standard.