James Delahunty
27 Feb 2007 7:48
Sony has announced that the company will offer a new, cheaper Blu-ray Disc player to consumers this summer. The player will cost $400 less than Sony's BDP-S1 Blu-ray player, which sells for $999. The new BDP-S300, will be priced at $599, bringing the price of the stand-alone Blu-ray equipment to the PS3 60Gb model price. While it will be the cheapest stand-alone for Blu-ray, consumers can still choose a 20GB PS3 for $100 less.
The BDP-S300 will also be much smaller and more compact and will support playback of CDs. The price is still too high for most consumers when DVD players sell for $50, but any price cuts are great news for users hoping to invest in high-definition content.
On the other side of the format war, HD DVD stand-alone players can be found for $400, or a consumer can pick up an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive to use with the console or a Windows XP/Vista operating system for $200. Blu-ray managed to outsell HD DVD titles in January, helped by the PS3 consoles that have been sold.
According to Sony VP Randy Waynick, "Eighty percent of people who buy a PS3 also buy Blu-ray movies to go with it."
Source:
DailyTech