Availability of Samsung Player to Coincide with First Wave of Hollywood Blu-ray Movie Titles
Sydney, Australia, 22 September, 2006 – The exciting race to be the first Blu-ray disc player on the Australian market, has been officially won by Samsung, with launch of the Samsung Blu-ray BD-P1000 disc player. Samsung Electronics Australia, announced today that the industry’s first Blu-ray disc player has been shipped to retailers in the Australian market and is available now. Two of Australia’s leading retailers, Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi have put their support behind this new technology as Samsung’s Blu-ray leads the way in the offering consumers the ultimate home thearte experience.
Blu-ray is the next generation disc format which offers close to five times the resolution of conventional DVDs making it the highest picture quality available on the market. This backwards compatible unit is able to upscale regular DVDs to HD-like quality (1080i), so your favourite movies will always look their best with the Samsung Blu-ray player. The new Blu-ray format is being supported by many of Hollywood’s leading movie studios, including Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE), Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox and these studios will release Blu-ray content shortly. The innovation of Samsung’s Blu-ray player marks the latest technology breakthrough brought to market by Samsung and further underscores the brand’s commitment to offering consumers the perfect home theartre system.
“The emergence of Blu-ray is an enormous boost for HDTV owners, video enthusiasts, and for those who actively seek the best picture and sound possible in their home theatre,” said Samsung’s General Manager-Marketing, Kurt Jovais. “Until now, there hasn’t been a pre-recorded media solution for consumers to take full advantage of the pristine picture their HDTVs are capable of producing. As the first company to deliver a Blu-ray player in the Australian market, Samsung has reinforced its commitment to provide consumers with the most riveting and innovative home theatre experience possible.”
Blu-ray is the premier next generation optical disc format and is supported by more than 170 of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser which better utilises the space on the disc allowing more than five times the amount of information.
Samsung BD-P1000
The Samsung BD-P1000 plays Blu-ray software titles at the highest resolution available via a native 1080p HDMI output for films digitally mastered in 1920 x 1080p. The BD-P1000 also up-converts conventional DVDs to 1080p through the HDMI digital interface so the picture quality of any traditional DVD will look noticeably more detailed when used with the disc player. The BD-P1000 is backwards compatible and plays both standard DVDs and CDs in addition to supporting all DVD formats including, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R.
Additionally, Samsung has included a 10-in-2 multi memory card interface that supports all the major formats including Compact Flash™, Secure Digital™, XD Picture Card™, Memory Stick™ (all TM) and others. By including a memory card interface into the Samsung BD-P1000, the native high definition resolution contained in 2-megapixel and larger digital still pictures can be fully rendered on a high definition television via slide show functionality built into the player.
Connectivity includes HDMI, Component, S-video and composite outputs. Supported audio formats include: Dolby Digital & Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, MP3 and 192KHz LPCM. The BD-P1000 is now available in stores at a RRP of $1599.
The launch of the Samsung BD-P1000 coincides with a major influx of Blu-ray content. Seven of the eight major movie studios have already announced titles for Blu-ray, with the initial line-up of recent hits, including Mission Impossible 3 and Ice Age. Together with a number of classics to be released, by the end of the year there will be a substantial number of movies in Blu-ray format.