New Blu-ray Players on the Horizon

 

Many current Blu-ray owners consider the PS3 the ultimate Blu-ray playback device, with full BonusView and BD-Live capabilities, and decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio formats. 

While the PS3 certainly does make an excellent Blu-ray player (it reportedly plays games, too), there are many people who, for a variety of reasons, would prefer to have a more traditional standalone Blu-ray disc player.  Up until recently, those consumers have had to settle for slower players that lacked the latest features available on the Blu-ray format.

Well, all that has finally changed. Standalone players that are capable of Picture-in-picture capability (BonusView) and even internet connectivity (BD-Live) are starting to hit stores now.  For those looking for Blu-ray standalone players with all the latest bells and whistles take a look below at the recently released, and soon to be released, players that can serve all your playback needs.  For more detailed information on existing and upcoming players check out the player database accessible from the top of this page.

 

Released Players

Panasonic BD30: BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable.  MSRP: $499.  A great all-around player with the ability to bitstream all audio codecs to the latest receivers.

Samsung BD-P1500: BonusView capable, with firmware update for BD-Live (Profile 2.0).  MSRP: $399.  Bitstream audio output and the promise of a future BD-Live update make this a potentially excellent player.

Philips BDP-7200: BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable.  MSRP: $399.  Bitstream audio output and fast load times are impressing users of this just-released model.

Also, available now are excellent higher-end BonusView models from Denon and low-cost "house brand" models manufactured by Funai.

 

Upcoming Players

Panasonic BD50: BD-Live (Profile 2.0) capable.  MSRP: $699.  Due in May.  The higher-end sibling to the existing BD30, the BD50 adds BD-Live capability and internal decoding of all audio formats.

Sharp Aquos BD-HP50U: BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable.  MSRP: Expected at $699.  Due in May.  Not much is yet known about Sharp's second Blu-ray player model, although it is confirmed to bitsream all audio codecs and have BonusView compatibility.

Pioneer BDP-51FD and Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD: BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable.  MSRP: $599 and $799.  Due in June/July.  Pioneer's latest generation players are set to add BonusView capability and internal audio decoding of all the advanced codecs, paired with the outstanding build quality Pioneer's Blu-ray players are known for.

Sony BDP-S350 and BDP-S550: BD-Live (Profile 2.0) capable.  MSRP: Expected at $349 and $449.  Due in July and August.  Sony is surprising late to the game with their latest BD-Live capable players, but they look to be making it up with some great prices.  The S350 model can bitstream all the advanced audio codecs, while the S550 can also decode them internally.