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Hitachi joins race to launch DVDs

Hitachi decides to launch its DVD players in November in the wake of Matsushita Electric's announcement last week of its intention to introduce a player.

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Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Hitachi has decided to launch its DVD players in November, in the wake of Matsushita Electric's announcement last week of its intention to introduce a player.

The planned introductions from the two Japanese electronics giants come despite Sony's postponement of its DVD player, due to what Sony said was a list of unresolved issues among the various factions overseeing the development of the nascent technology.

The Hitachi DVD player will go on sale in November for about $800, according to Japan-based reports. The Matsushita player is in the same price range.

Hitachi estimates the world market will be about 80 million players by the year 2000.

In addition to DVDs, the Hitachi player will also play music and video CDs. Hitachi is currently shipping samples of its DVD player.