Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that Samsung had pulled one of its expected Blu-ray Disc players from its holiday lineup, and that it had delayed its highly anticipated format-bridging player until the end of the year. The company was mum at the time the rumors began, but today the company has confirmed its product availability plans.
The good news: Samsung says it is on track to deliver the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player to retail outlets by mid- to late-December. That means you may yet have a shot at snagging one in time for the holidays.
Further good news: Samsung has confirmed that the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player will be BD Profile 1.1-ready, meaning it will have all of the necessary hardware in place to comply with the Blu-ray Disc specifications that will be in place and enforced after October 31. This move was expected, since the dual-format player missed its originally planned October ship date; nonetheless, this is the first official word on the subject from Samsung. Samsung says it will issue a firmware update at the end of January 2008 to allow the playback of BD Profile 1.1 discs; given that the company sites the need to test actual movie discs to ensure compatibility, presumably, that means the company anticipates Hollywood content that tap Profile 1.1 features to be out by the end of January.
Samsung also today confirmed it had canceled the BD-P2400 player from its lineup. That news doesn't surprise me: Already, I'm getting the feeling that high-definition players are careening along the path towards commoditization. The differentiating feature of the BD-P2400 --namely, the inclusion of HQV video processing--just wasn't enough to justify its existence at a $100 price premium over the $550 (MSRP) BD-P1400 (already available).
I have been on the phone with Dell tech support for the past 45 minutes and they know nothing of an XP downgrade disk. Please be aware before you call them.