Sony to Introduce New Blu-Ray Players

According to Sony’s President, Ryoji Chubachi, some new Blu-Ray players will be hitting the shelves around summer.

The new players will be able to download bonus materials like trailers and games from the Internet

The BDP-S350 player Sony plans to introduce this summer for “about $400″ will be the company’s first to feature an Ethernet port, allowing it to connect to a home broadband connection. However, it won’t be able to access Internet content when it ships - a software upgrade will be available later to enable that feature, known as BD-Live.   A second player, the BDP-S550, will be available this fall for “about $500″ and will be BD-Live-capable when it ships.

Both players can show picture-in-picture content and will be the first Sony Blu-ray players to do so, apart from the PlayStation 3 game console, which gained this feature via software update last year. The picture-in-picture feature, called Bonus View, can be used to show director or actor commentary in a small window while the movie plays.

 

“So, why should you, the consumer care?  One reason is that the current PS3 with the software upgrades is much more cost effective than the Blu-Ray player models above listed.  Another is that the wait time needed for the software upgrades to enable the PnP functionality.  The PS3 is the best choice at the moment, until Sony gets everything smoothed out with its hardware issues as a result of their victory in the Hi-Def DVD race.  What is Sony going to do next?  Stay tuned!