Sony announces first of new Blu-ray devices including BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player

New player, VAIO desktop, Blu-ray drive and discs coming soon

17 March 2006 13:36 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Sony may be citing Blu-ray has the problem behind the delays for its new PlayStation3 console, but that hasn't stopped the company setting out its plans for letting us know the details on suggesting pricing and availability for its dedicated players.

Announced at a conference in Las Vegas, the new offerings include a home player, VAIO desktop and notebook computers, an aftermarket internal computer drive, and recordable/rewritable media.

Headlining Sony's new product debuts are the BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player and the VAIO RC desktop computer. The player is targeted to ship in July for about $1,000.

The VAIO PC with Blu-ray Disc will be available for about $2,300. Both the VAIO RC desktop and notebook with a Blu-ray Disc drive will be available by early summer.

In April, Sony plans to begin shipping 25GB BD-R (write once) and BD-RE (rewritable) discs for about $20 and $25 each, respectively.

The 50GB BD-R and BD-RE dual-layer discs will come in subsequent months for about $48 and $60.

BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc Player will deliver 1920 x 1080p output, support various high quality video codecs, including MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC and VC1 and offer an analog component output for 1080i so people who own HD-capable televisions without HDMI can enjoy the Blu-ray Disc experience.

The new BDP-S1 model is compatible with standard DVDs.

The BDP-S1 player offers uncompressed multi-channel linear PCM digital audio output via HDMI, delivering optimum surround sound to an HDMI- equipped receiver. The player also has optical digital audio out and 5.1 channel decoding capability for backward compatibility with existing receivers.

The BD-ROM/R/RE player supports DVD playback from DVD/DVD+R/+RW encoded discs, as well as MP3 audio files and JPEG images stored on DVD+R/+RW discs.

The VAIO RC Series computers, Sony's first Blu-ray desktops, will be geared towards aspiring moviemakers. The VAIO RC Series will be shipped with a 25GB Blank BD-RE (rewritable) blank disc.

The BWU-100A will be an aftermarket internal Blu-ray Disc drive for computer use, will support recording of 25GB and 50GB BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs at 2X max speed.

They are capable of burning a full 25GB disc in about 30 minutes. The drive will also support recording of standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW, Double/Dual Layer 8.5GB DVD+R, DVD-RAM and CD-R/-RW media, making it a true all-in-one "tri-mode" recorder/reader.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Blu-ray, Sony