AfterDawn: News

Sony to sell two new Blu-ray standalones in Europe

Sony Europe said yesterday that they will begin shipping their latest Blu-ray disc standalone player, dubbed the BDP-S500 in Europe starting in October and that the new player will be the higher-end brother to the company's BDP-S300 which will also begin shipping in October.

The S300 will retail for 599 Euros and the S500 will retail for 899 Euros when it hits retail shelves. Both players will come bundled with the Spiderman trilogy, added Sony.



Among the featured specs are 1080p upscaling, 24p True Cinema, support for the x.v.Color standard, and HDMI. The more expensive S500 will have HDMI 1.3 as well as support for Dolby and DTS-HD1 audio.

"Blu-ray is taking off, and the BDP-S300 player is designed to give many more people a way of joining the party in style," Sony Europe Home Entertainment chief Hiro Shinohara said in a statement.

Source:
BetaNews

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 Aug 2007 8:39

• Previous article

• EFF shows how RIAA lawsuits have failed

• Next article

• Wii becomes UK's fastest selling console

• 10 comments

• hughjars

  Well here's how to pull a fast one.....'profile 1.1' is supposed to be mandatory from Oct 2007.
  
  Neither of these players are profile 1.1 compliant - talk about selling built-in obsolescense to people.
  I wonder how happy people will be to know that if they buy these they'll miss many of those supposedly vital high def extras?
  
  According to it's won manual the S300 can't even play blank BD -R or BD -RE's.

  30.8.2007 09:00 #1

• domie

  In the high tech fast moving world we live in, only an idiot or someone with cash to burn would buy first generation anything at those prices...wait 6 months and buy it at half the price or wait six months more and get a blu ray recorder model at the same price the player will originally sell at.

  30.8.2007 09:50 #2

• domie

  I suppose what i'm really trying to say is, anyone really interested in blu ray for its HD and massive storage capacity will surely wait for a blu ray recorder not a player ?

  30.8.2007 09:50 #3

• Unfocused

  This is probably aimed more towards the sheeple and not the well informed consumer.

  30.8.2007 16:18 #4

• xtago

  cheapest blu-ray player I've seen online is 320 pounds.

  30.8.2007 21:35 #5

• nobrainer

  Originally posted by hughjars: Well here's how to pull a fast one.....'profile 1.1' is supposed to be mandatory from Oct 2007.
  
  Neither of these players are profile 1.1 compliant - talk about selling built-in obsolescense to people.
  I wonder how happy people will be to know that if they buy these they'll miss many of those supposedly vital high def extras?
  
  According to it's won manual the S300 can't even play blank BD -R or BD -RE's.Well that's just sony all over, selling incompatible products packed with DRM to make it even less compatible at extortionate prices!
  
  no hdmi 1.3 for the cheaper model, and even though hdmi is capable of the multi sync sony have made it BRAVIA TheatreSync only, talk about monopolising.
  
  there is dvd-r -rw +r +rw but no support for cdr's or cdrw and no support for bd-r
  
  Q. will there be an rj45 connector on this model for those all important BD+ phone home abilities and "security" updates?
  
  http://www.the-blu-ray-store.com/blurayplayeroverview.html

  31.8.2007 01:57 #6

• Andrew691

  Originally posted by hughjars: Well here's how to pull a fast one.....'profile 1.1' is supposed to be mandatory from Oct 2007.
  
  Neither of these players are profile 1.1 compliant - talk about selling built-in obsolescense to people.
  I wonder how happy people will be to know that if they buy these they'll miss many of those supposedly vital high def extras?
  
  According to it's won manual the S300 can't even play blank BD -R or BD -RE's.
  Quick question about all this profile 1/1.1/2 stuff, will newer movies that have features that require a newer profile version not play at all on older players? If so then I can see the whole updating profile thing as a huge problem, if it only stops the older player users from using the newer features then does it really matter? they never exactly had them in the first place did they? so how can you miss what you never had. Its the same with any product really, make a perfect first model and theres no incentive to buy another one ever again because your current on "does everything". Is a rather common thing, and in their eyes not doubt a "good" business decision.
  
  Also anyone got a rough conversion of 599 Euros to something else, just so I can compare to other things...

  31.8.2007 02:20 #7

• killalot

  £411 about, save your money and wait till all the fuss has calmed down

  31.8.2007 03:17 #8

• hughjars

  The Blu-ray 'profile 1.1' saga rolls on and just gets sillier & sillier.
  
  Now they are delaying it's mandatory imposition until Nov......and rushing out as many non-profile 1.1 compliant machines as they can in the meantime.
  Talk about cheating the customer.
  
  I can't help wondering if all those supposedly advanced Blu-ray features (many of which rely completely on the player being 'profile 1.1' compliant) that they're using to advertise Blu-ray with are now just sheer out-right misrepresentation and false advertising.
  It's pretty dishonest however you look at it.
  
  So that's not one 'profile 1.1' Blu-ray player on the market now
  or likely to be for months
  (what's the bets they miss Nov too?).
  
  I see the $2000 Denon has been delayed until at least Q2 2008 and now it turns out that the Samsung dual format player (which was claimed as 'profile 1.1' compliant) is now quoted in it's German specs as 'profile 1.0'.
  
  See here - Samsungs Press release for IFA says the price is 999euros
  
  (£689/$1378US)
  
  http://presse.samsung.de/downloads/i...ektronik. zip

  31.8.2007 05:52 #9

• borhan9

  Sounds impressive and i have come up with this conclusion that i will buy a ps3 as my blu-ray player amd then i will be a HD DVD standalone player to cover my high definition needs.

  9.9.2007 23:20 #10