Sony Japan held a press conference today in Tokyo to unveil a total of 6 new Blu-ray recorders [JP] and 2 Blu-ray players [JP], which will become available in Nippon in the next few weeks (no word about markets outside Japan yet).
7 of these 8 models are equipped with Sony’s new CREAS chip, which upscales 8/10-bit TVs to 14-bit through SBMV (Super Bit Mapping for Video).
First, the recorders, beginning with the T-series:
The BDZ-T75 comes with a 320 GB HDD, BD Live, 24p True Cinema, digital TV tuner, DLNA, memory card ports, HDMI, component and S-Video. The BDZ-T55 is the same but lacks DLNA.
Prices: $1,300 for the BDZ-T75and $1,000 for the BDZ-T55. Both recorders will be released October 10th.
The BDZ-L95 from the L-series is equipped with a 500GB hard drive, is compatible to AVCHD/JPEG, ready for x-Pict Story HD slideshows and x-ScrapBook pages and supports “One-touch” and Handycam dubbing. Otherwise, it’s equal to the T75. The BDZ-L55 has only a 320 GB model and can’t record two TV programs simultaneously but apart from that, it’s basically identical to the L95.
Prices: $1,550 for the BDZ-L95and $1,200 for the BDZ-L55. In Japan, both recoders will go on sale September 29th.
The X-series is Sony’s top-end Blu-ray line. The BDZ-X100 boasts a 1TB hard drive and all features the L-series and T-series models have (except for AVCHD/JPEG support and the One-touch dubbing button, which is strangely exclusive to the L series). There is also the BDZ-X95, an identical model, just with a 500 GB HDD.
Prices: $2,500 for the BDZ-X100 and $1,800 for the BDZ-X95. Both recoders will be released September 29th.
Sony also unveiled two new Blu-ray players. The BDP-S5000ES comes with a hefty price tag of $2,700 but has to be Sony’s best Blu-ray player to date. It features the CREAS chip and a 14bit/297MHz video D/A converter as major selling points. The BDP-S350 lacks the CREAS chip and is rather inexpensive (at $410).
The players will hit the Japanese market December 12th.