Philips announces Blu-ray lineup

No surprises here, but Philips is finally getting official on their BDP9000 Blu-ray player, along with that SPD7000 TripleWriter Blu-ray burner and their 25GB Blu-ray media. We saw the Philips player back at CES, but haven't heard much since. Available in the third quarter of 2006, the unit has a suggested retail price of $999, and, well, it plays Blu-ray discs. The burner is slater for Q3 as well, and we had heard of an August launch previously, so we're guessing we'll see both of these devices around then. Philips is prepping Blu-ray media as well, and they're planning on releasing their 25GB discs this month, with 50GB to follow "soon." No word on media pricing, but Philips doesn't seem to willing to break with the pack on their other products, so we're guessing $20 might do the trick.

[Jonathan @ Jun 14th 2006 11:23AM]

Ironic- in the photo, "BLU-RAY" looked like "BLU-RRY" when I first looked.

[Brendan @ Jun 14th 2006 11:23AM]

Here comes the pain!!! To the HD backers...

[JimD @ Jun 14th 2006 11:26AM]

Why are these players twice as much as HD-DVD players?

[gio @ Jun 14th 2006 11:38AM]

The only difference with my HDMI Samsund DVD player (up conversion)and Blu Ray Player would probably be 15%-20% increase in clarity. I'll wait when it drops down to $299. I remember when I got my first Panasonic DVD Player at $700

[Mile @ Jun 14th 2006 11:48AM]

Can't I just buy 10 $49 players and connect them serially somehow to increase their resolution?

[iDZ @ Jun 14th 2006 1:23PM]

"Why are these players twice as much as HD-DVD players?"

because the $500 HD-DVD players are stripped down versions... the nicer HD-DVD models are actually $800.

(e.g. the Toshiba HDXA1 vs the HDA1.)

[iDZ @ Jun 14th 2006 1:54PM]

mile, the problem with connecting 10 dvd players to each other is that once they start talking, they'll inevitably rise up against us.

[Impossibilium @ Jun 14th 2006 2:09PM]

Gio, you are mistaken. The difference in quality at full output resolution would be over 200%. Up conversion does only that, it upconverts the existing image to fool the display into thinking it's seeing HD, so the internal scaler doesn't have to screw around with it. It cannot add detail that was never there.

An upconverted 480p DVD disc still only contains 480 lines of data regardless of how much upconversion you put it through.

That doesn't even come close to the clarity of actual 1080p content encoded onto a disc.

[hmurchison @ Jun 14th 2006 5:39PM]

"because the $500 HD-DVD players are stripped down versions... the nicer HD-DVD models are actually $800.
"

Ummmmmmmmmm the $800 HD DVD player has more DSP and an RS232 port for control.

The HD-A1 at $499 has everything that these $999 Blu-Ray boxes have an more. Notice the missing ethernet port on the Sammy and Sony units. Note the inferior support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD.

You get a lot for your money with the HD DVD unit.

[Perrey Z. @ Jun 15th 2006 12:09AM]

New design from the one shown at CES 2006. i prefer the prototype one. looks like Sony's strong leadership in the Blu-Ray Camp is forcing all members to price their devices at a minimum of $999. and the media at starting at $20.00.

[hrhih @ Jun 15th 2006 12:26AM]

its because blu-ray requires a completely different laser, among other things, while hd-dvd players are said to use a lot of the same processes/types of components. this is why a lot of people dislike blu-ray, the players will be extremely expensive while the trade off is only a slightly bigger disc which IMO wont even matter because i dont think many people will need much more than a double layer hd-dvd. im going for hd-dvd personally because i want inexpensive to be the standard but bluray is definitely putting up a strong fight. it wont be as easy a victory over sony as it was in the past i believe. hopefully im wrong.

[darryl @ Jun 16th 2006 11:34AM]

"...the trade off is only a slightly bigger disc which IMO wont even matter because i dont think many people will need much more than a double layer hd-dvd."

...and 640K RAM is more than enough - why would you need more?

[Firozali A. Mulla @ Jun 19th 2006 4:50AM]

Philips announces Blu-ray lineup

I left the school in 1962. The first tape recorder and the radio was Philips as there is a factory of Philips in Arusha Tanzania.
Since then I have Phipps jump from the long spool tapes to Cassettes and DVDs and now the blue high tech DVDs that give the immense storage. The log “ Simplicity at the touch” has been the promise Philips has kept and will stay. This Dutch company has given more to the IT in the West after the Far East companies.