Sharp Aquos Blu-ray Player

[stratman]

Ok Sharp fans here's some news you will like. In a pre-emptive CEDIA press attack, Sharp announced it's new Blu-ray Disc player for the US market. This is the first time the name AQUOS won't be applied to an LCD tv. The Aquos BD-HP20U will start shipping this month at an msrp of $549.99. It will output full HD 1080/24 fps video and includes built-in HDMI 1.3 inputs.

According to the press statement Sharp is saying that key components of the player including laser, pick up beam and driver unit are proprietary and built in house. It will also sport Aquos Link which allows integration between Aquos products.

Supported surround available through HDMI include decoded Dolby True HD lossless audio, Dolby Digital Plus and 7.1 digital multi-channel sorround. The player will also support BD-ROM/R discs, DVD video, DVD-RW/R, DVD+RW/R and audio CDs. It will upsacle standard DVDs via HDMI to 1080p.

It comes in piano black finish.

On a different note Sharp also announced that after November 2007 it will no longer produce any CRTs for the US market, as if anyone cares.

 

[j_garcia]

What do they mean pre-emptive? I posted this info back in July. Everything was mentioned previously except price and the fact that it would wear the AQUOS naming. Good to hear that they designed it all in house too though and that it isn't just a rebadged player from someone else.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33306&highlight=sharp

 

[stratman]

That might have been a "dry" run back then, to test market reaction sometimes companies do that. This is their "official" unveiling. I wonder if there was "friendly" persuasion by the Blu-ray disc group especially that Onkyo just debuted their HD DVD player, still this is all good news for both camps, everyone is getting new players out which, for now anyway, shows support intent. For the consumer its great, all these new releases will bring prices down on the older models which still happen to be good machines.