Sharp announces AQUOS BD-HP20U Blu-ray player for US

Looks like those whispers we heard about Sharp's forthcoming announcement of (yet another) Blu-ray player were true, as the firm has chosen CEDIA as the locale to introduce the US market to its slim-profile AQUOS BD player." The BD-HP20U will be the first product "outside of the Sharp LCD suite to carry the AQUOS name," and will feature HDMI 1.3, 1080p24 support, AQUOS LINK, component outputs, compatibility with the lossless audio formats, and 1080p upscaling of vanilla DVDs. According to Sharp, the unit itself will boast a "piano black finish with one of the slimmest designs in the industry," and if all goes as planned, we should actually see this one hit shelves later this month for $549.99.

[KC @ Sep 6th 2007 10:54AM]

As good as having 4 or 5 times the number of players available from Blu-Ray manufacturers compared to the 3 or 4 manufacturers of dedicated HD-DVD players (RCA, Toshiba, Onkyo and maybe some one else) is - having more players means getting more shelf space - another super expensive player is not good.

$549 is to much. It's more expensive then a PS3, and is nothing more then a Blu-Ray player. Blu-Ray needs to get their equipment costs down at the consumer end or they will find themselves in a tight spot this holiday season

[Kevin Murphy @ Sep 6th 2007 6:26PM]

And where is Profile 1.1? And is ethernet THAT hard?