Sony unveils two Blu-ray Disc players

UPDATE: Both will be compatible with BD Live

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 2/26/2008

FEB. 26 | UPDATE: Sony’s debut Web-enabled Blu-ray Disc set-tops will start hitting retail in the next several months.

The manufacturer’s first such BD Live player, the BDP-S350, will launch this summer as ‘ready’ to handle Web-enabled features. It will have an Ethernet port for downloading content, but it won’t be able to actually playback the BD Live material until a firmware upgrade is made available at a still to be determined date.

Sony’s second model, the BDP-S550, is slated to street in the fall as a full-fledged BD-Live player.

The BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 are priced at about $400 and $500, respectively, matching the current prices for BD set-tops. Each model features 1080p video playback and is compatible with audio formats 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output. The higher-end BDP-S550 is considered to have some audio advantages over the BDP-S350.

At the time of CES, Sony had dubbed its first BD Live efforts Sapphire 3 and 4. It’s not clear if any hardware specifications have been tweaked since that time.

“Building on the exceptional picture and sound quality of previous players, Sony’s next-generation Blu-ray Disc models bring exciting interactive features to life and offer consumers a ground-breaking experience,” said Chris Fawcett, VP of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Product Division. “These new devices bring home movie experience beyond the cinema and into a whole new realm of entertainment.”

In general, BD Live hardware is playing serious catch-up to the software. A handful of titles have already rolled to retail with Web-enabled features, including Lionsgate’s January releases War and Saw IV, even though there are no compatible BD Live players currently available at stores.

Late last summer, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment talked up National Treasure as one of its planned BD Live titles. But the title is now streeting on BD sans Web-enhanced features, presumably because of limited player options. Disney has slotted Sleeping Beauty to bow in October as a BD Live disc, packed with online shopping capabilities and a Web-based ‘Virtual Castle’ feature.

Disney did not respond for comment about changes to its BD Live slate.

Also, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has promised to street its first BD Live software titles in 2008 but hasn’t detailed the releases.

Both of Sony’s latest players, the BDP-S350 and the BDP-S550, will launch as the manufacturer’s first players with Bonus View, which is the Blu-ray Disc Assn. term for picture-in-picture functionality. Starting Oct. 31, all new BD players were mandated to be able to playback such features, where a separate video stream runs concurrently with the main film.

To an extent, Bonus View BD set-tops also are in limited availability compared to picture-in-picture BD titles already at retail. Examples include Sony’s Jan. 1 release Resident Evil: Extinction. Presently, Panasonic’s latest BD player is one of the few Bonus View set-tops on the market. The PlayStation 3’s built-in BD player has been recently upgraded as Bonus View-capable as well.