Pioneer has begun shipping three new Blu-ray standalone players, all three of which were introduced at CES in January.
The Elite BDP-23FD will include BD-Live support, “audiophile-grade” capacitors, and the company’s “Precision Quartz Lock System” which helps the player avoid all jitters during playback.The player also includes “48-bit color, 7.1-channel audio and RS-232 support” and will cost $599 USD.
The less expensive, $399 USD BDP-320, has the same Lock System, BD-Live and 48-bit color, but will lack special case design and some of the audiophile-grade features.
The low-end BDP-120 will retail for $299 USD and will remove the lock system and will downgrade to 36-bit color range. The player will also not include the 1GB of internal storage needed for BD Live and will rely on external USB storage.
Result for: standalone players
Acer, the large notebook manufacturer has announced that it will be “pushing” Blu-ray notebooks beginning in the Q2 of this year.
The company, which had been signed to both Blu-ray and HD DVD, also predicted that the initial boost in Blu-ray sales would be seen in notebooks and not in standalone players.
Scott Lin, president of Acer, said the company’s reasoning for the notebook push was that “most homes do not yet have Full HD (1080p) ready TVs, a notebook with a Blu-ray disc drive and full HD panel will have more advantages over a stand-alone player.”
There are little details known about the specs of the new laptops but there will be a gigantic 18.4-inch screen model as well as a 16 inch model. Both will have 1080p Resolution.
Result for: standalone players
JVC has announced they have finally stopped production on VCR standalone players, marking the end of an era for the now dead format.
There are, of course, still other manufacturers producing combo VHS/DVD players or even combo Blu-ray and VHS players, but JVC was the last to make complete standalone VHS players.
The VCR is 33 years old, and over its lifespan 900 million VCRs were produced, 50 million by JVC.
Thanks for the memories, standalone VCRs.
