I don't know how much savings there could be in dropping the DVD-Video portion of such a player, since you still need a video section of some sort to use DVD-Audio discs. That's probably why you don't see any audio-only universal players (plus the fact that the market for universal players gets a lot bigger when it includes a good video section that will let people use one player for video and audio).

There hasn't been much talk about it in a while, but I know that at one time Outlaw was kicking around a design for a universal DVD player. With the recent shift toward entry level (~$100) players and "audiophile) ($1000+) players, the options for players in the $400-$600 range have dwindled significantly in the last year or two, making it that much easier for Outlaw to try to carve out their own niche. It's a very, very complex product to develop, especially for a small operation like Outlaw, but I suspect it's still rattling around in the background somewhere. I'll probably get a Yamaha DVD-S1500 later this spring, but it would definitely be interesting to see what Outlaw could come up with.

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