Sony announces two new Blu-ray players
Sony took the wraps off two new Blu-ray Disc players yesterday at its annual Open House dealer show in Las Vegas.
Sony took the wraps off two new Blu-ray Disc players yesterday at its annual Open House dealer show in Las Vegas.
Both models – the BDP-S350 (available this summer for about $400) and the BDP-S550 (available in the fall for about $500) – are capable of delivering advanced interactive features such as BD-Live and BonusView (a kind of picture-in-picture offered on some newer Blu-ray Disc titles).
With BD-Live, users plug in an Ethernet cable for access to Internet-based content, including interactive media, as well as easy firmware upgrades for the players when they become available.
Both players also let users pop in a Memory Stick Duo card — containing videos, music or photos — while the BDP-S550 also ships with 1GB storage. The models also offer 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output; the ability to upscale regular DVDs through an HDMI connection; and support for AVCHD discs encoded with x.v.Color technology.
On the audio front, both models deliver up 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding and bit-stream output, as well as dts-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output. The BDP-S550, however, also adds dts-HD High Resolution Audio and dts-HD Master Audio decoding, as well as 7.1 channel analog audio output.
They'll need to role out lower prices before I'll get excited about Blu-ray.
that is crazy expensive but it is so worth it
you can still get a playstation 3 for cheaper, which also doubles as a blu-ray player, can have linux installed on it, has a built in web browser (and wi-fi) and of course is also a video game console
why not in canada?
These Blu-ray players will be in Canada — yes — but the Mylo will not, for some reason.
It's nice to see the advanced-functionality players starting to hit the market at price points lower than earlier, more basic players.
Expect major movement on price in time for the Christmas season. Now that it's won the format war, Blu-ray's window of opportunity will stay open only for a few short years before Internet-delivered video content begins to flatten disc-based media's growth curve. Sony knows this, and will move aggressively to build a solid base of disc-buyers as quickly as possible.
That means a major push for this holiday season. It'll play out just like DVDs did, only faster.
Just as kathartik said, buying the Playstation 3 is probably the best bet as it is so multifunctional. Most people over look this. It is unfortunate that the bluray vs HD "war" happens in the first place… didn't we learn from VHS vs Beta! We invest our hard earned money into a product and when that product goes obsolete the only one who loses is the consumer. Lesson to be learned…. stay out of the technology wars unless you are willing to be on the losing end when the dust settles. By the way, I knew that bluray would win… Sony invested way too much in the PS3 for them to just roll over and die.
kath is right its cheaper to just buy a ps3 thats what i'm doin
I don't know if Mark just left it out or not, but did I read correctly that these two BluRay players will only take Memory Stick Duo cards? Not Sd the most popular type?
Clear something up for me in laymans terms. I work in a store that is having an issue explaning to customers what the diffrence is between the PS3 True HD 7.1 audio and the True HD 7.1 audio coming out on the new blu ray players.