Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray Player

Now here’s a pretty looking Blu-ray player which you can buy in relative peace, considering there is but one commercial physical format left available where high definition content is concerned – Blu-ray. Thanks to the demise of HD DVD, Sony is able to introduce the BDP-S550 Blu-ray player this fall for approximately $500, bringing the following specifications and features right into your living room :-

• 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output
• Standard DVD playback with 1080p upscaling via HDMI
• 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding
• dts-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output
• 7.1 channel analog audio output
• Support for AVCHD discs
• Compatible with D-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on DVD/CD

Frankly speaking, if I had the choice between the BDP-S550 and a PS3, I’d gun for the latter. After all, the PS3 wins hands down when it comes to versatility, but if you’re a purist and don’t find the convergence argument convincing, then be prepared to fork out $500 for the BDP-S550.