Philips gets attack of the Blus

They're like buses

Typical. You don’t get any Philips Blu-ray players for, well, ever, and then along come three at once.

Unveiled today at the Philips press ‘extravaganza’ in Lisbon, the three new standalone Philips Blu-ray players are the BDP3000, BDP5000 and BDP7300, set to cost around 200 euros, 250 euros and 300 euros respectively.

Live kicking

The first deck out of the traps, in March, is actually the highest-spec model, the BDP7300. This deck – like the cheaper models, actually – is fully compatible with BD-Live ‘online’ features, and delivers 1080p upscaling of your old DVDs as well as being able to output Blu-rays using their native 1080p/24 format.

This top-end deck also decodes all the 7.1-channel lossless HD audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio) and carries Philips’ own video artifact removal algorithms and 3D noise reduction systems.

Plus it will let you play your own HD camcorder recordings in the AVCHD format in full HD quality, and carries 1GB of built-in storage for downloading BD Live applications.

Turning Blu green

The BDP5000 and BDP7300, meanwhile, deliver a remarkably low quoted standby power output of just 0.2W, as well as sporting high-speed USB 2.0 ports on their front panels.

And all three models can play DivX Ultra files, plus WMV, MP3, WMA and JPEG files.

Finally, just to keep you on your toes, there will actually be a fourth player in the Philips Blu-ray range, the BDP9100. But this model is designed to form part of a 7.1-channel AV receiver system Philips is launching in line with its Cinema 21:9 TV.



MOST READ

New Mac mini pics leaked?

More ports all round

Learn more

The best iPhone headphones

Want to ditch those standard Apple 'phones? We put five alternatives to the test

Learn more