Philips Unwraps its Blu-ray Disc Player

June 13, 2006--Philips Electronics is delivering the ultimate High-Definition (HD) experience with the sensational debut of its Blu-ray Disc (BD) player and all-in-one PC Writer. The anticipated consumer electronic Blu-ray Disc Payer (BDP9000) and all-in-one PC Writer (TripleWriter) will be available in the third quarter of 2006.

Philips' Blu-ray Disc player is loaded with features that provide the most stunning pictures available including an HDMI output that supports the latest 1080p resolution. It also supports a component video output that will provide brilliant imagery and DVD upscaling to 1080i. Rich surround sound is heightened with multi-channel HD audio decoding and digital audio optical outputs. Fully backward compatible, it allows consumers to play their existing DVDs and CDs as well as their Blu-ray Discs.

The new TripleWriter drive links personal computers with consumer electronics. PC users can back-up the contents of their hard drive - photographs, movies, music libraries and more - all on a single, storage-rich disc. The drive features recording and playback of all popular optical storage formats including various CD, DVD and BD media. Philips' TripleWriter can be built into any personal computer drive featuring an S-ATA interface.

"Blu-ray represents a surge forward in the home entertainment viewing experience," said Scott Levitan, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Philips Consumer Electronics, North America. "With the overwhelming support of studios and manufacturers, consumers can be sure that the HD future lies with Blu-ray."

As consumers migrate to HD sets, they see that a standard DVD doesn't offer the HD content that they want. Blu-ray Disc delivers on that promise with pristine 1080p picture quality and booming surround sound.

As a leader in the consumer electronics industry, Philips is one of the companies responsible for the development of the Blu-ray Disc Format. As a Board member of the Blu-ray Disc Association Philips is highly involved in the technology and development of the Blu-ray Disc standard, just as the company led the revolution of the CD and DVD formats.

Blu-ray Disc has the technological advantage to be the industry leader with the support of more than 170 companies including virtually all of the major CE manufacturers and PC manufacturers, seven of the eight major Hollywood studios who are responsible for nearly 90% of current DVD sales, leading games developers (for PS3 platform) and music labels.

Blu-ray solutions are the answer to an evolution in HD entertainment and digital archiving, providing massive amounts of storage. A current, single-sided standard DVD can hold roughly 4.7 GB of information - about the size of an average quality two-hour movie with a few added features.

An HD movie, which boasts a much clearer image, requires a disc with five times more storage. Philips' single-layer 25 GB1 Blu-ray Disc make massive storage a reality by holding more than six hours of HD video, 12 hours of standard definition content or 36 CDs on a single disc. That is more than five times the storage capacity of a single-sided standard DVD.

The capacity of a Blu-ray Disc enables the playback of full-length feature movies using MPEG2 encoding - the native compression technique for HDTV broadcasts - or even more capacity with advanced codes such as AVC and Windows Media Video HD (VC-1). It is the only recording format providing 25 GB of storage on a single-layer disc and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc.

Both the BDP9000 Blu-ray Disc player and the SPD7000 TripleWriter drive will be available in the third quarter of 2006. The BDP9000 Blu-ray Disc player will have a suggested retail price of $999. Philips is now shipping 25 GB, single-layer recordable (BD-R) and single-layer recordable and erasable (BD-RE) Blu-ray Discs.

SOURCE Royal Philips Electronics