Sharp's BD-HP20S: a (cheap?) no-nonsense Blu-ray Disc player
Somebody, somewhere has to get their hyperbole under control when calling this Sharp's "first" Blu-ray player. Fact is, we've already seen the Sharp BD-MPC70, BD-HD1000, BD-MPC10, BD-HP1 (hint: BD = Blu-ray Disc) devices. Now if what they mean is that it only plays Blu-ray discs (no recorder, no receiver, etc), well, why even bother? Regardless, their new BD-HP20S is expected to ship in the fall and features HDMI 1.3 output in support of Dolby TrueHD's raw bitstream form. It will also feature a "Quick Start" option which plays newly inserted discs in just seconds. As a stand-alone player, we do expect it to be Sharp's cheapest -- now that's noteworthy.
[Via Blu-ray.com, thanks Dave]
