NEW YORK — P&F USA brought the
industry’s opening price point for a new
Blu-ray home theater in a box (HTiB) to
a suggested $299 as part of its rollout
of three new Philips-branded Blu-ray
HTiBs and a Philips-branded hometheater
sound bar.
All three BD HTiBs in the rollout,
which expands the company’s BD HTiB
selection to three from one, incorporate
Profi le 2.0 BD player, wired Ethernet port
and 5.1-channel speaker system. The
two models at a suggested $349 and
$549 will be the brand’s first HTiBs to
stream Internet radio and video-on-demand
services via the Internet. And the
$549 will be the brand’s first HTiB with
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
certification and first HTiB in years with
wireless surround speakers.
The $299-suggested HTS 3051 Bluray
HTiB, already shipping, features one
HDMI 1.3 output; coax and stereo RCA
inputs for TV audio; 5.1 speaker system;
1,000-watt output; and decoding of the
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital
Plus and Dolby True HD surroundsound
formats, said P&F marketing
director Keith Michael. It also features
front-panel audio aux input, and
a USB port and SD card slot are designed
to reproduce music, video and
photos stored on a USB stick or memory
card. Supported video formats include
DivX.
The HTS 3051 is already promoted at
Walmart at an everyday $288, Michael
said.
The $349 HTS 3251, also shipping,
adds DivX HD video playback, streaming
of Internet radio stations via the vTuner chip, and streaming video-ondemand
from NetFlix, CinemaNow
and Blockuster, Michael said. It also
adds decoding of the suite of DTS
HD Master Essentials surroundsound
formats. Power output is still
1,000 watts.
At a suggested $549, the HTS 5580
adds wireless surround speakers with
detachable pedestals, iPod dock,
front left-right speakers with offset
drivers to widen the soundstage, and
DLNA certification. It ships at the
end of June or early July.
The new sound bar, shipping in
July, is the $249-suggested HSB 2313
with wired subwoofer, four left and
four right full-range drivers, decoding
of Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Virtual
Speaker technology, which delivers a
virtual surround-sound experience
from left-right speakers.
