Sharp's AQUOS BD-HP50U / BD-HP21U Blu-ray players eyes-on

The whole Profile 1.0 thing kind of put a damper on Sharp's latest Blu-ray players, but since they were showcased at the company's CEDIA booth, we figured it prudent to take a few snapshots and pass 'em along. Design wise, the two are exceptionally similar, and we can't say with good faith that the HP50U is really worth the extra coin. Hit the gallery below and see if you can pick the two apart... and, go!

Samsung Believes Blu-ray have 5 Years left

While the HD format wars are over, Blu-ray still has a long way to go before it can tackle its main competitor: DVD. Many consumers still haven't converted to Sony's next-gen format, and Samsung UK director Andy Griffiths doesn't believe there's much time left for Sony's format. "I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10", Griffiths told Pocket-lint in an interview.

The time to capitalize on Blu-ray is now, the Samsung head said. "It's going to be huge", he told Pocket-lint. "We are heavily back-ordered at the moment." The company is one of few that's heavily invested in the format, with numerous Blu-ray players available on the market.

There will always be new formats on the horizon, but we find it unlikely that Blu-ray will extinguish in so little time. With HD adoption still slowly growing, so too will Blu-ray's momentum. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see where home video stands in the next decade.

Pioneer's Elite BDP-09FD Blu-ray Player

Pioneer has proven time and time again that they make nothing but the highest quality home theater gear. And their new Elite BDP-09FD BD-Live Blu-ray player is no exception. Boasting the 16-bit QDEO video processor and a video decoder by Renesas Technology, the BDP-09FD features first class video decoding, I/P conversion, video scaling, and video adjustments of both HD and SD content. It will also display DVD's in 1080p/24fps with a compatible display and utilizes Pioneer's Adaptive Bit Length Expansion to reproduce the color of the original studio master.

The BDP-09FD's audio capabilities are just as high-end as its video features. It supports full decoding and bit-stream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio audio formats and a devoted Wolfson WM8740 Audio DAC for each analog audio channel. For all these features you'll pay out the tune of $2200.

First Blu-Ray Player - From LG Electronics

The long expected Blue Ray Disc player was released on July 31, 2008.
LG electronics and Netflix.Inc are the source to unveil the product. The name of the disc is LG BD 300 Network Blu Ray Disc. The announcement of the player has come earlier this year.

This has the ability to capture the movies and TV episodes from the Netflix directly to your television…

This drive will play high definition Blu Ray discs. This has a facility to up-convert standard DVD’s to 1080p, to read the synopsis and rate the movies. In normal players, we don’t have the facility to forward and rewind but here the facility is available in this drive.

Along with this drive, we will have the remote control to access the drive just like other electronics equipments.