Philips BDP7100 Blu-ray player lands at IFA

Not a ton of new specs to behold on this new Blu-ray player, but Philips's BDP7100 does everything it should (1080p output, HDMI CEC, 24p, True HD, and DTS HD support). No word if it's got HDMI v1.3 or Blu-ray 1.1, and Philips also neglected to mention the price and availability of this new Blu-ray player of theirs, but we still dutifully thank them for their morsels of information and sheepishly ask for a second helping of porridge, kind sirs. One more image after the break.

[Blake @ Aug 30th 2007 11:40PM]

Looks sexy enough.

Lets just end this stupid format war.

[Dave @ Aug 30th 2007 11:58PM]

You can't expect to end the war with a more expensive product and an incomplete specification.

[Blu-Sam @ Aug 31st 2007 12:10AM]

Let me know when Blu-Ray player reach at $200 tag.

[Dave @ Aug 31st 2007 12:34AM]

Let me know when a hybrid blu-ray/hd-dvd player reaches a $200 price tag!

[maina231 @ Aug 31st 2007 12:54AM]

i rather get a PS3 at the moment, this player won't be less then 800 bucks

[Blacksheep @ Aug 31st 2007 12:55AM]

Pffft, I'm sticking with my BetaMax, I know it will win in the end!!!

[SHopkins @ Aug 31st 2007 11:04AM]

I'm currently supporting both formats... HD-A1 (paid $300 refurb when they were still selling for $500 retail) and BDP1000 (paid $350 refurb when they were still $700 retail). Now these players, after only 1.5yrs and 1yr respectively, are getting a bit long in the tooth (the HD-A1 more so than the BDP1000). I'm looking to replace both with newer players that sport noticeable upgrades but fall in to lower price brackets. The HD-A2 is an easy choice at $200, maybe less by the time I buy. With BluRay it's much harder. There's nothing under $400 that gives me ANYTHING I don't already have.

I know one of the BluRay group's goals is to prevent a hardware price free-fall like what happened w/ DVD around 2001, but there have been no price reductions from 1st gen all the way to the 3rd gen of Samsung players, or 2nd gen of Panasonic /Sony/Philips players. There's very little TrueHD and no DTS-HD Master support, there's marginal internet connectivity support, there's no fully-functional HDMI 1.3 support, and most importantly... there's no price drop.

Toshiba's first generation players had what I would consider standard first generation issues (mainly load time) but a full feature set and great image/sound performance. The second generation became more refined, maintained the robust feature set, and drove the prices down. The first generation of BluRay players were more refined but lack a full and networking feature set as well as a finalized disc requirement spec. The second and third generation players have added very little to that and haven't lowered prices either. I'm willing to support both formats, but if BluRay isn't willing to either bring prices down or add key features (though they should be doing both), then there's no incentive for me to upgrade from my first generation player.