Blu-rayDisk
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Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player now less than a PS3
Prices on next-gen optical HD players continue to plummet today with Sony's announced price drop on their new BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player. At $499 list, it's now priced for $100 less than the Playstation 3 which currently reigns supreme as the cheapest (and noisiest) BD player on the market. In fact, the move might even cannibalize PS3 sales now that BD buffs have a cheaper source for HDMI 1.3 playback from a unit offering a traditional remote control and A/V stylings. It's still $100 $200 or so more than Toshiba's cheapest HD DVD player which recently shed a Benjamin in time for Father's Day. But hey Sony, Toshiba... it's not the price that's holding back interest. It's the uncertainty you've created by launching two essentially equal but incompatible formats onto the world of consumer electronics. If you don't get your houses in order soon, your problems won't be with each other. Rather, it'll be be those traditional and not-so-traditional CE players offering set top boxes with big disks and HD video on demand that form the roots of your demise.
Sharp's AQUOS BD-HP1 Blu-ray HD recorder
The Blu-ray Disc camp just unrolled another: the BD-HP1 AQUOS hi-vision recorder from Sharp. Yes, it records, to single-layer (only) BD-R/RE in MPEG-2 format with AAC audio for about 2-hours and 10-minutes of 1080p video at 24Mbps. Of course, it will also playback DVD±R/RW and DVD-RAM discs as well. It comes packing 1x HDMI (presumably with Familink support), Japanese D4, S-Video, and composite video outputs; optical/coaxial digital audio; and support for 7.1ch sound. It also brings 2x Firewire allowing the BD-HP1 to augment your existing hard disk recorder set-up for BD dubbing. Hitting Japan like a mutated lizard for ¥150,000 (about $1,238) starting March 20th. [Via Impress]
