Panasonic Unveils $1,300 Blu-ray Player

Panasonic on Thursday announced plans to debut its first Blu-ray Disc player, along with a matching receiver and speaker system for home theater enthusiasts. But moving to the high-definition format won't come cheap; Panasonic's DMP-BD10 player will cost $1,300 USD.

The Blu-ray player, SA-XR700 receiver and SB-TP1000 speaker package will reach retail outlets in September, Panasonic said. The delay will give time for Blu-ray to establish itself in the marketplace. Sony's new format is just starting to get out the door, with the first Blu-ray movies appearing on store shelves this week.

Rival format HD DVD has had a slight head start, hitting United States retail outlets in April with Toshiba's $499 and $799 USD models. The company has not released sales figures, but only shipped 10,000 units for the launch. An HD DVD recorder will make its debut in Japan next month for a cost of around $3,470 USD.

Still, consumers are not rushing out to upgrade to high-definition DVD for a number of reasons. The rival formats have fragmented the market, meaning many movies are only available for one platform. In addition, high costs mean the new players are only attractive to enthusiasts and early adopters.

Production delays are also affecting both formats, but most notably Blu-ray. Pioneer announced earlier this month that it is pushing back its BDP-HD1 Blu-ray Disc player from this summer into the fall. Likewise, Sony's PlayStation 3 game console was delayed due to a decision to utilize a Blu-ray drive.

Only Samsung will have a Blu-ray player available this summer.

Although consumers have months of waiting ahead, Panasonic's DMP-BD10 boasts impressive specifications. The player integrates a 296MHz, 14bit video D/A converter with 4x oversampling for 1080i/720p output. Panasonic says it can "theoretically reproduce up to nearly 4400 billion colors."

Backward compatibility will also enable the DMP-BD10 to play standard DVDs and CDs. Older movies can be up-converted to 1080p.

"Panasonic is proud to be a leader in the development of cutting edge Blu-ray technology, which is the most significant technological advance in home entertainment since the arrival of the DVD almost a decade ago," commented Reid Sullivan, Vice President of Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company's Entertainment Group.