The BDP-5003 Blu-ray player was announced back at CEDIA ‘08 and the player is finally shipping. The question now is, who will buy the $299, Profile 1.1 player? Sherwood make quality AV equipment, but while Yamaha and Integra might be able to con their fanboys to bite on old technology, chances are Sherwood purchasers might look to more up-to-date offerings from Sony or Samsung. Besides the old Profile 1.1 spec though, the BDP-5003 does offer solid performance with 60 and 24 Hz 1080p playback and both Dolby and DTS lossless audio support. 

Sherwood via CEPro

We won’t be at CEDIA until next week, but the news doesn’t slow down for us. Sherwood is the latest with the pre-show leaks and we can’t wait to peek these Blu-ray players. The BDP-6003 should have a sticker price of $499 and fully support BD Live. The $299 BDP-5003 loses the Blu-ray Profile 2.0 cert along with BD Live support, but both models sport HDMI 1.3 output and an Ethernet port for easy upgrades. The pricier BDP-6003 is only going to be sold in certain channels and the lesser expensive model is meant for the Best Buy / Circuit City crowd when they drop sometime during September. No pictures just yet, but as soon as we spy ‘em at the show, we’ll send over an update.