Digital TV's price tag is set to remain out of reach for many punters despite a new contender to the set-top box distribution arena.
The slow-off-the-ground digital TV market will see DVB100 set top boxes distributed under the TEAC brand by the end of March.
However, TEAC's boxes will retail around the AU$700 mark set by forerunner Thomson Multimedia, whose shipment of 10,000 boxes was underwritten by the Seven, Nine and Ten network conglomerate.
"TEAC hasn't been given that advantage," Tim O'Keefe, director of Digital Business Consulting told ZDNet. "It's surprising that they're [TEAC]able to do it at that price."
And it seems the high Australian price tag is set to stay, with the boxes currently being sold fairly close to cost, according to O'Keefe.
O'Keefe explained that Australia's different software requirements meant costly changes had to be made to European set-top box models.
"I've got a feeling the margins are fairly tight on these boxes," he said.
DVB100 boxes are in 33 selected stores for demonstration purposes at the moment and a preliminary shipment of 460 will be available to the market by the end of March - a further 1500 will ship sometime in April, according to a TEAC spokesperson.
The TEAC box offers the same functionality as Thomson Multimedia's set-top box, according to Jeremy Corfield of Thorn Australia.
Thorn committed to 500 of the original set-top boxes from Thomson but in anticipation of a second generation boxes doesn't intend to stock the TEAC brand.
Thorn's Orion 32-inch televisions and set-top box bundles are available in its rental stores for AU$24.90 a week.
Thorn claims to have sold through its first batch of 100 Thomson boxes. Of another 150 boxes delivered to Thorn in the last few weeks Corfield said: "we expect to get through these by the end of the month.
The uptake of set top boxes appears to be slower from retail shelves.
"After the initial burst of interest things have quietened down," franchisee of Harvey Norman's Auburn store Wayne Campbell said.
"In the last month or so there have been very few people coming in to look," he added.
