Samsung introduces four new Blu-ray systems
Samsung has announced four new Blu-ray products that are all due to launch later this year - one of which is the highly anticipated BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player which supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD media formats. The other three product announcements involve systems that play back only Blu-ray formats so let’s get to the details.
The Samsung BD-UP5000 Duo HD player has the following specs according to PC Magazine:
- Support for Blu-ray and HD DVD
- HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) processing
- 1080i to 1080p HD deinterlacing
- Support for HDi and BD-Java-based interactive menus
All great stuff but it appears we were all off the mark when it came down to pricing and timing. The Samsung BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player will come out during the fourth quarter of this year for a price of $1049. So much for the $500 dollar pricing that many suspected this player would come in at.
On the standalone front, Samsung will be releasing a third generation Blu-ray player in the form of the Samsung BD-P1400 which features:
- Blu-ray playback only
- Supports lossless DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD
- Supports 5.1 audio
- Ships in September for a price of $549
A higher end Blu-ray player coming from Samsung is the BD-P2400 which features:
- Blu-ray playback only
- HQV video processor - upscale DVD to 1080p over HDMI
- Supports lossless DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD
- Supports 7.1 channel audio
- Ships in October for a price of $649
Finally, Samsung is introducing a new home theater system called the HT-BD2 Home Theater Solution with Blu-ray. As the name implies, the all-in-one home-theater-in-a-box supports Blu-ray playback and comes in a piano black finish and blue LED accent lights. There’s also an active subwoofer with five tower and two satellite rear speakers. The system supports DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD. This system is due in the fourth quarter for a price of $1499.