Sony’s new Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300, is now shipping to major US consumer electronics retailers and specialist dealers for a list price of $499 – $100 lower than the $599 pricetag announced in February.

The price cut is due to falling production costs and the growing demand for Blu-ray products, according to Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony Electronics' home products division. "The BD format gained great momentum in the past several months, and we're going to capitalize on that with the new model," said Fawcett. "The player gives a broader consumer segment the opportunity to experience the exceptional quality of Blu-ray Disc format at a competitive price."

The new model output 1920 x 1080/24p high-definition video through an HDMI connection. The player supports various video formats, including MPEG2, MPEG4- AVC and VC1. The new BD player is also compatible with most standard DVDs and has the added feature of 1080p upscaling through HDMI to 1080p capable HDTVs, thus improving the picture performance of existing DVD libraries.

The BDP-S300 is expected to broaden the high-definition disc player market while delivering new features including the DolbyDigital Plus audio codec as well as BRAVIA Theatre Sync and CD playback.

Story filed 11.06.07