Sony announces BDP-S350, BDP-S550: first new Blu-ray players since the fall of HD DVD

Those waiting for the next generation of Blu-ray players, here you go: Sony's got two new ones for you today, the BDP-S350 and BDP-S550. Both feature BD-Live (and thus Ethernet) and USB (for external) storage, while the S550 has PiP (BonusView) and 1GB of onboard storage. As for the rest of the specs, well, expect TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, dts-HD (and dts-HD Master in the S550), AVCHD and xvYCC color support, and, of course 1080 60/24p. The S350 will hit for $400 this summer, while the S550 will run you $500 this fall.

Gallery: Sony announces BDP-S350, BDP-S550: first new Blu-ray players since the fall of HD DVD

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[Montusama @ Feb 26th 2008 3:08AM]

Sony might break even now, since they don't have to do the wonderful game of competition.

[AlexP @ Feb 26th 2008 3:36AM]

Because Blu-Ray consortium = only Sony.

They still have to compete with companies like LG and Engadget.

[AlexP @ Feb 26th 2008 3:37AM]

... Did I really just say Engadget?

Wow.

[DrXym @ Feb 26th 2008 4:06AM]

Last time I checked, there were a dozen or so consumer electronics companies competing for your blu ray bucks. An MSRP of $400 probably means $350 on the street and there will be cheaper players than that if its still too much.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 26th 2008 5:39AM]

Sony still has plenty of competition: Panasonic, Samsung, DENON, Hitachi, Phillips, Sharp, Pioneer, and Thompson (RCA) are marketers of Blu-ray Players.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Blu-ray_Disc_devices

[Bobby @ Feb 26th 2008 5:41AM]

Sony should sell them at least at $1000 to suck last dime from those loosers voting for blue dad

[AlexP @ Feb 26th 2008 6:10AM]

I don't know if Thomson dropped HD-DVD yet, so you might want to take them out of your list.

[AlexP @ Feb 26th 2008 6:10AM]

Oh, should've pointed out that they were only manufacturing HD-DVDs during the "war".

[Leo @ Feb 26th 2008 7:16AM]

your damn right sony's got competition - don't forget toshiba.....oh wait

[Scooby Doo @ Feb 26th 2008 1:37PM]

Someone please explain to me why the cheapest BR player is no cheaper than a PS3 at retail stores. Competition my ass. Either the stand alone players are priced artificially high or the PS3s are subsidized to push the technology. Any real competition is gone now that HD-DVD is out of the picture. Don't hold your breath for a stand alone less than $200.

[caleb @ Feb 26th 2008 9:16AM]

Why do people keep pushing this ignorant line of thought. You don't have to have a format war to have competition. Just think of all of the markets where there is no format war and yet there is still competition. For example:
All of them

And yes. the PS3 has been heavily subsidized to increase its market share as both a gaming console and a BD player.

[Montusama @ Feb 26th 2008 4:30PM]

You're right, SONY has competition but none of those companies, including SONY themselves have to push the price of their players down, for market share, now that HD-DVD has left the building. Prices will lower on these players but the rate of fall will be lower

(if that makes any sense)

[Eric Van Boven @ Feb 26th 2008 3:09AM]

bout freaken time. catch up to what hddvd was after they die. least we can buy players now with ethernet.

[Cash @ Feb 26th 2008 5:01PM]

Yeah, and for only twice as much as what some of us already paid for a similarly equipped HDDVD player. Business without competition must be pretty sweet, huh Sony?

Oh, and to folks who say "What about LG, Samsung etc," it's not competition if they are charging the same ungodly prices for essentially the same products but with different branding.

[prateeko @ Feb 26th 2008 3:21AM]

Ethernet, hmmmm?

I guess this means we can expect firmware updates in the future. I guess this means it may be safe to buy a Blu-ray player other than the PS3 now (well, and not have to worry about it not being able to keep up with whatever spec they're on this week).

[nak @ Feb 26th 2008 3:44AM]

I know the laser is blue, and the name is "blu", but do people really want a blue component? White, silver and black are the colors these days, not blue. I wouldn't buy one simply because it'd look ugly with the rest of my stuff. At least the HD DVD people had the good sense not to make their equipment red.

[teel @ Feb 26th 2008 4:40AM]

Well said. I can't be that hard to produce it in multiple colours for those who actually like their livingroom equipment not to puke on aesthetics...

[JJ @ Feb 26th 2008 11:29AM]

Actually, if it's anything like my BDP-S300, which in all the pictures has a blue tint to the display area, it'll actually look almost completely black, not blue. Unless you hit it with some really bright lighting, you can't even tell.

[hothotdisco @ Feb 26th 2008 3:49AM]

Meh. Give me a $200 blu-ray player and maybe I will start caring.

[Vanillacide @ Feb 26th 2008 4:10AM]

Meh! Give me a Blu-ray player that costs at least a couple of thousand bucks from a high-end AV brand and maybe I will start caring.

[I @ Feb 26th 2008 4:31PM]

@ Vanillacide

Started caring yet?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/26/goldmunds-eidos-20-bd-blu-ray-player-costs-17k/

[Down @ Feb 26th 2008 3:51AM]

The player actually looks nice.

[Hydra_ADL @ Feb 26th 2008 3:55AM]

I wonder if the BDP-s350's load time has improved over the BDP-S300

[Daza @ Feb 26th 2008 4:08AM]

I certainly hope so, I used the stopwatch on my mobile to time the BDP-S300 from loading the movie to actually playing it, and it came in at just over 4 minutes on Spiderman 3 which was bundled in the box. Absolutely infuriating, other players do take a while (2-3 minutes from load to play) but there is no excuse for this. Really hope it's been rectified in new units.

[Prey521 @ Feb 26th 2008 4:13AM]

Wow Daza, 4 minutes? That is beyond ridiculous. My Toshiba HD-A2, after the last updates, goes from power, to movie playing in under 1 minute and closer to 45 seconds.

[DrXym @ Feb 26th 2008 4:08AM]

Take a look at the pictures. The S550 player sports a BD-Live logo but the S350 doesn't. Not that I think it's an important feature but its worth noting. An oversight?

[Prey521 @ Feb 26th 2008 4:12AM]

I like the look, and that S550 sounds mighty nice. I hope it drops a considerable amount for the '08 holiday season.

[matt @ Feb 26th 2008 4:31AM]

Ethernet ports do not always mean firmware updates. Knowing sony and how they pull BS on everything it would not surprise me if it were more for "consumer tracking" or some other BS to spy on consumers or some type of call in thing to make sure it does not backup blu's when they start making their way into the general public. or maybe it is to release a rootkit attack on your lan that it will download with the next given firmware. all in the name of protecting yourself from yourself.

yeah i know it sounds paranoid, but come on how many times has sony done BS like this, and does anyone think they will not continue to do it?

[jc @ Feb 26th 2008 5:39AM]

So why are these things still so big????

[AlexP @ Feb 26th 2008 5:47AM]

They are?!

[Aprime @ Feb 26th 2008 6:29AM]

**checking if my new nickname and avatar work, don't mind this

[Poom @ Feb 26th 2008 7:59AM]

Yeah, they are. I was surprised at the size too when I see Sony's bluray players in the sony shops. They don't look big from the press shots, but they are.

[Aprime @ Feb 26th 2008 8:13AM]

I have yet to see one outside a Sony Style store, eh.

Didn't find them to be that big, but my DVD players are semi-old so I don't know.

[vdogg89 @ Feb 26th 2008 1:51PM]

i know, why the heck do they have to make the players so big just because its "new technology"
my friend took apart his bd player and it was a tiny drive, with the rest of the huge box empty. its just a scam to make it look expensive. Oh, and dont worry sony. dont bother dropping the prices, just make them go up, we dont mind

[mattclarkie @ Feb 26th 2008 7:35AM]

If these have 1gb of storage that means they are or can be Profile 2.0. I am definately going to get one of these, and use my PS3 to tide me over.

[alexmueller @ Feb 26th 2008 12:38PM]

This article makes no sense if they both have BD-Live which is profile 2.0 then you don't need to mention that one has Bonusview profile 1.1, because they would both have it because the new profile has all the features of the older profile, obviously, so so which is it engadget? Did you mean to say one player was profile 2 and one was 1.1?

[EugeneB @ Feb 26th 2008 8:30AM]

When will blueray player get to 100 dollar price point? Will it be in 2010 or 2011?

[John T. Haller @ Feb 26th 2008 12:44PM]

Feature complete (profile 2.0) standalone Blu-Ray for under $200?

... still waiting ...

[TD @ Feb 26th 2008 8:50AM]

Why would I pay 500 bucks for a standalone player, when I can get a ps3 that is an entire media server in addition to a blu ray player and game console for $350?

[blueray @ Feb 26th 2008 8:52AM]

I wanted to know whether these new Sony Blu-ray players will play 720p WMV-VC1 video files? Can someone also confirm if other BR players from Toshiba etc. will play 720p WMV-VC1 files? I have read that Blu-ray supports WMV-VC1, but I wanted to confirm. Do we require compulorily 1080p to play in Blu-ray players or 720p would also do? Thanks in advance.

[Myk @ Feb 26th 2008 9:00AM]

bluray player from Toshiba? Either you're extremely clueless or you're extremely cruel. :D

[wud_e @ Feb 26th 2008 9:16AM]

WOW. I won't be getting a Blu-Ray player until 2 years from now at these prices.

I don't know why we can't have 2 DVD mediums anyways. We have Cable TV and Satellite. Not only that Satellite has to major carries. HD-DVD was the same HD quality if not better at a lower price. Oh well. Stop holding on.

[Broo @ Feb 28th 2008 9:35AM]

As long as the players are $400 - $500 Blu-Ray will be a niche item; once they get to $100 - $150 us 'common folk' will be able to buy them (or maybe just get a PS3 and say it is for the kids). If they don't get out of a niche market will the prices ever really be able drop (economy of scale or something)?

I saw a post that the BDA is hoping consumers will soon start to 'rebuild their video library' in Blu-Ray; do they believe that most people are seriously considering buying all of their movies a second (or a third for some) time? I may purchase several in Blu-Ray that I really like but my other 80+ movies are fine on standard DVD (or NetFlix).

[Jamus @ Feb 26th 2008 9:19AM]

$400? $500? "Fall"?
Sheeeeesh, talk about sore winners... the least they could do is finally start dropping the price on players since they are going to own the field. Oh wait, now I remember. They don't have to since they are the only game in town. Thanks Sony.

I wonder who will be the first to hit the $199 point? Maybe some Chinese manufacturer will step up to the plate by Christmas?

[Reapman @ Feb 26th 2008 12:01PM]

Only game in town? You better notify Pioneer, Samsung, LG, etc etc that the players they make don't exist!!!

Seriously how can anyone that posts on these forums still say Sony is the only Blu-Ray maker in town? I mean, it makes as much sense as saying you bought your computer from Microsoft.

[Jamus @ Feb 26th 2008 12:09PM]

Clarification on my info... Blu-Ray is the only game in town now that HD-DVD is out of the picture. Not that Sony is the only Blu-Ray manufacturer.

[Reapman @ Feb 26th 2008 12:39PM]

Ahh... gotcha. Well if you want cheap prices don't look to Sony and such, but I'm already hearing about some so called "lesser" brands coming out with BD players this year. They're saying Sub $300, and unsure as to the specs, but I imagine by the end of the year you'll be able to get one sub $200.

Honestly DVD is a competitor to BD still, and if you look at CD or even DVD technology, they were just fine without a competing alternative format (ok DVD had DIVX, not that DIVX mattered)

[Neeko @ Feb 26th 2008 9:21AM]

Listen Sony,panasonic,Sharp,LG etc and whoever else makes a Blu-ray player.... You will not put any dent in the DVD market if you continue to keep these prices above $300 or atleast you better price them to compete with the PS3. Why would anybody buy this instead of a PS3? And Cmon you've beaten my HDdvd..Fine iam cool with it now were are the players priced closer to HDDVD? Enough me nore anyone in my salary range are rushing out to purchase a $500 bluray player.

[Cotay @ Feb 26th 2008 6:38PM]

After approximately two years on the market, you could get a DVD player for around $300-$400 (I paid $400 for a 3rd generation Panasonic A110 in May 1998). So now that we are approximately two years into BD, we are seeing a $399 player announced. That is actually about right on schedule with the price drops of DVD players. I see nothing that is highly unusual about Sony's pricing strategy. Also, DVD didn't hit the $100 price point until the end of 2000...more than four years after players hit the market. So if past rates are any indication, we won't be looking at reasonably affordable players until the end of this year or early/mid next year. I certainly don't think we will see a $100 player until sometime in 2010.

[Demaar @ Feb 26th 2008 9:30AM]

So what does this player have over the PS3 exactly, and whatever it has can Sony add that with PS3 firmware updates?

The PS2 was an easy entry for DVD, but it was a piece of crap, really. Just weighing up my options on BD...