Sony Japan held a press conference today in Tokyo to unveil a total of 6 new Blu-ray recorders [JP] and 2 Blu-ray players [JP], which will become available in Nippon in the next few weeks (no word about markets outside Japan yet).
7 of these 8 models are equipped with Sony’s new CREAS chip, which upscales 8/10-bit TVs to 14-bit through SBMV (Super Bit Mapping for Video).
First, the recorders, beginning with the T-series:
The BDZ-T75 comes with a 320 GB HDD, BD Live, 24p True Cinema, digital TV tuner, DLNA, memory card ports, HDMI, component and S-Video. The BDZ-T55 is the same but lacks DLNA.
Prices: $1,300 for the BDZ-T75and $1,000 for the BDZ-T55. Both recorders will be released October 10th.
The BDZ-L95 from the L-series is equipped with a 500GB hard drive, is compatible to AVCHD/JPEG, ready for x-Pict Story HD slideshows and x-ScrapBook pages and supports “One-touch” and Handycam dubbing. Otherwise, it’s equal to the T75. The BDZ-L55 has only a 320 GB model and can’t record two TV programs simultaneously but apart from that, it’s basically identical to the L95.
Prices: $1,550 for the BDZ-L95and $1,200 for the BDZ-L55. In Japan, both recoders will go on sale September 29th.
The X-series is Sony’s top-end Blu-ray line. The BDZ-X100 boasts a 1TB hard drive and all features the L-series and T-series models have (except for AVCHD/JPEG support and the One-touch dubbing button, which is strangely exclusive to the L series). There is also the BDZ-X95, an identical model, just with a 500 GB HDD.
Prices: $2,500 for the BDZ-X100 and $1,800 for the BDZ-X95. Both recoders will be released September 29th.
Sony also unveiled two new Blu-ray players. The BDP-S5000ES comes with a hefty price tag of $2,700 but has to be Sony’s best Blu-ray player to date. It features the CREAS chip and a 14bit/297MHz video D/A converter as major selling points. The BDP-S350 lacks the CREAS chip and is rather inexpensive (at $410).
The players will hit the Japanese market December 12th.
Suck it Bluray with your monopoly on the hi-def format, over-bloated prices, and inferior format. $2,700 for a player. Yes, we should all be happy Bluray won the format war.
“The BDP-S5000ES comes with a hefty price tag of $2,700 but has to be Sony’s best Blu-ray player to date.”
I think if eveyone will hold on to their dollars for a few months, we will see some more products coming out that will have as good or beter upconversions for far less money. The Blu Ray manufacturers sold 1/4 million Blue Ray players the first week after Thanksgiving and made a killing at Christmas, so that’s a lot of money that should be available for better R & D for the Blu Ray players and their chips.
With our economy, these guys are going to have to get competitive. I’m always in a hurry to get the best I can for what I can afford, but as far as Blu Ray is concerned, I’m able to hold out a while longer. My music DVDs still sound and look good with my old panasonic. I think we will see some that will also play the SACDs as well, even though there are some out there already. Those don’t have the new chips though.
Sit tight and watch for the new player releases. I predict the Blu Ray movie and music concerts should come way down in their price as well.
Mike