Samsung's Duo Gets Re-Priced
by Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/7/2007 6:44:00 AM
“We are keeping a very close eye on the pricing ratio between premium and sell-through single format players,” said Reid Sullivan, Samsung digital A/V marketing VP.
Samsung’s digital audio marketing manager James Kiczek presents the HT-BD2 Blu-ray Disc home theater system at CEDIA Expo.
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The BD-UP5000 Duo HD player, which still has a vague “fourth-quarter” estimated time of arrival, will feature all of the mandated and many of the voluntary standards in both the Blu-ray Disc and HD
Sullivan said Samsung is looking at special holiday promotions to push the deck, but details will be announced later.
On the Blu-ray side, the player features include BD-Java interactivity, and an Ethernet port enabling firmware upgradeability for possible additional feature enhancements.
The high-end player will include Silicon Optix’s HQV video processing technology, and will output high-definition formats including 1080p.
In other announcements, Samsung set the price on its mammoth 70-inch 1080p LCD TV at a $40,000 suggested retail. The set, which is part of Samsung’s 93 series, is due to arrive in “the fourth quarter.”
The unit uses LED backlighting connected to a system — recently re-dubbed “SmartLighting” — that produces improved black level and contrast performance. The system, which employs 64 banks of LEDs that are precisely dimmed and brightened at rapid intervals to generate deeper blacks, boasts a 500,000:1 dynamic contrast level.
SmartLighting will also be featured in the company’s 81 series LCD TVs due this fall. Those models will include the 40-, 46-, 52- and 57-inch screen sizes.
Samsung is also showing for the first time, here, what it is calling the industry’s first home theater system with an integrated Blu-ray Disc player.
Model HT-BD2 ($1,499), which is due in December, supports all of the advanced multichannel channel surround codecs up to 7.1 channels, and include five tower speakers, two satellites and a subwoofer.
