Marantz BD8002 Blu-ray player revealed

29 January 2009 15:07 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Marantz has unveiled its flagship Blu-ray player, the BD8002, describing the player as "an ultimate-quality, reference standard High Definition source component".

The BD8002 offers a 1080p image, 24 frames per second, and decoding of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

Marantz promises the "high quality" video and audio processing means standard DVDs will look and sound "almost as good" as HD material, upscaling them to 1080p.

Equipped with HDMI 1.3a, the high-end device offers an "unrivalled" 12-bit/297MHz video chipset and a 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta processor with the HQV system for what's said to be "the ultimate high-definition video resolution".

As well as Blu-ray and DVD discs, the BD8002 can handle VCDs, SVCDs, MP3s, WMA and DivX video files, display JPEG images and has an SD card slot.

Sadly, all this tech is only offered with Profile 1.1 and does not offer the full Blu-ray experience that Profile 2.0, or BD-Live brings.

If this lack of full functionality doesn't put you off the Marantz BD8002 is available now for £1799.