Well, this is essentially the CES "pre-show" day, but a number of companies put out press releases or had press conferences regarding upcoming Blu-ray players soon to hit the market.
New Blu-ray Player Announcements:
- Funai (a Japanese company specializing in producing low-priced electronics sold under various brand names) announced the NB500 player to be released in the second quarter 2008 -- the player will be BonusView capable (Profile 1.1), and support the bitstream output of HD audio codecs -- the expected MSRP is under $300
- Panasonic announced the BD50 Blu-ray player -- the player will be BonusView and BD-Live capable (Profile 2.0) and support the bitstream output as well as internal decoding of HD audio codecs -- the exact release date and pricing are currently unknown
- Panasonic also announced the SC-BT1000 Home-theatre-in-a-box featuring a Blu-ray disc player -- the player is BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable -- other specs and pricing are currently unknown
- Philips announced the BDP7200 Blu-ray player -- the player will be BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable -- the expected MSRP is $350
- Samsung announced the BD-P1500 Blu-ray player -- the player will be BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable), and support bitstream output of HD audio codecs -- the player will ship in June with an MSRP of $399
- Samsung also announced the BP-U5500 Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player -- the player supports BonusView and possibly BD-Live -- the player was expected to ship in the second half of 2008 and carry an MSRP of $599, though one wonders if this will still see the light of day
- Finally, Samsung also announced the HT-BD2 Home-theatre-in-a-box -- the player is BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable and the system features 7.1 surround sound -- release date and pricing are currently unknown
Wow! Considering these were just the pre-show announcements, CES 2008 is shaping up to be a huge launching pad for the "mainstreaming" of the Blu-ray disc format. Stay tuned for many more exciting announcements in the days ahead.
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