BEIJING,
Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Sony intends to offer a Blu-ray Disc player in the middle
of this year that will feature superior capabilities to its current model
at a significantly lower price.
The BDP-S300 will cost 599 U.S. dollars -- about
400 dollars less than Sony's current BDP-S1, Sony said late Monday.
The BDP-S300 will be able to output a 1080P
signal, which is the highest of several levels of video quality that fall under
the high-definition banner. Many new televisions support 1080P, and it's likely
that consumers will increasingly look for this function, which until now could
only be found on the most expensive players.
It will also upconvert lower quality signals to 1080P
for output over the HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) connector and
can send out video at 24 frames per second, which is the rate used for films.
Other features include CD playback and compatibility
with "Bravia Theater Sync," a system that more closely integrates the control of
the player with that of the television by sending signals over the HDMI
connection.
Also included is multichannel linear PCM digital
audio output via HDMI, Dolby Digital Plus decoding, and compatibility with a
host of optical disc formats, including the AVCHD format used by some
high-definition video camcorders.
The new player will mean more price competition for
HD DVD, the format backed by Toshiba that is battling Blu-ray Disc for position
as the defacto DVD replacement for high-definition movies.
At present, the least expensive HD DVD player is
Toshiba's HD-A2. It costs 499 dollars but doesn't offer 1080P playback. That's
currently available on the 999 dollar HD-XA2 machine, but Toshiba said in
January that it would launch a third player, the HD-A20, offering 1080P in
"spring" this year for "around 600 dollars."
Both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD were commercially
launched in 2006 but so far have received a cool response from consumers. This
has been due in part to the high price of players but mostly to the format
battle. Many consumers are unwilling to bet hundreds of dollars on a player and
discs that might end up obsolete within a few years.
At January's International Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) in Las Vegas, a possible, albeit more expensive, solution was offered by
South Korea's LG Electronics. The BH100 player is compatible with both formats
and costs 1,199 dollars. It's already on sale in the U.S.
(Agencies)
