Sony Intros New Bluray Disc Players

With Toshiba's public withdrawal of HD DVD having virtually sealed the fate of the format, rival Sony has made some haste in announcing spanking new Blu-ray Disc Player models; namely, the BDP-S350 and the BDP-S500.

Announcing the Blu-ray Disc players at Sony's product showcase in Las Vegas, Chris Fawcett, vice president (Marketing) of Sony Electronics Home Product Division, said "the new devices bring home movie experience beyond cinema".

Both players support 'Bonus View' for viewing picture-in-picture content, and have external ports for users to add optional storage devices.

Meanwhile, the BDP-S350 is BD-Live capable, and has an Ethernet port for firmware upgrade and access to Internet-based interactive content.

The other player, the BDP-S500 does not require any firmware upgrade to enable interactivity features, and will ship with 1GB of storage.

The S350 and S500 can handle 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD decoding and bitstream output, as well as DTS-HD Master Audio bistream output. Whereas the S550 adds DTS-HD Master Audio decoding to 7.1 channel analog audio output.

Both players feature 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output, and are compatible with a wide array of video formats, including BD-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on DVD/CD recordable media.

Sony said the BDP-S350 will ship this Summer for about $400, while the BDP-S550 will be available this Autumn for around $500.

In a separate announcement, DreamWorks Animation SKG said that it is locked in an exclusive deal to distribute DVDs on Toshiba's HD DVD format, even though the latter plans to quit HD DVD technology.

Explaining further, DreamWorks Chief Executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, said, "We have a partnership with Toshiba, and have an obligation to see this through. As you know, we have been well-compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We're poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so."