New Sony Blu-Ray players and home theatre

Since the HD-DVD format is dead producers have decided to release a few New BluRay players.

Sony has released two recently. BDP-S350 ($400) and BDP-S550 ($500) both support Bonus View function which was recently addend to some films on Blu-Ray discs. BDP-S550 supports BD-Live function and has an Ethernet port which will enable easy firmware update and access to online multimedia.

Both models have USB ports that enable connecting external discs. Moreover, BDP-S550 has 1GB of internal memory. The resolution of both devices reaches 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema. In case of DVD disc the resolution is increased.

When it comes to sound both models support 7.1 Dolby® TrueHD, Dolby® Digital Plus. BDP-S550 supports also dts®-HD High Resolution Audio and eight-channel analogue sound.

Both BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 support AVCHD disco with the Picture in x.v.Color™ (xvYCC) technology assuring high quality picture. Both players are compatible with most video formats, including BD-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD and CD-R/RW.

It seems that both BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 are a bit smaller in comparison to the older players. It is because they are to suit the new home theatre sets: HT-SS2300 and HT-CT100. Both BlueRay players will most probably be available more or less on holidays.

The next four home theatre models are to supplement BDP-S350 and S550, and those are STR-DG920, STR-DG820, STR-DG720 and STR-DG520. All of them are compatible with BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 players. The cheapest of them ($200) supports only six channel sound the rest of them support 7.1 format. They cost $600, $400 and $300 respectively. They will be available from June. Below you can see the STR-DG920 model.