Philips' S$399 budget Blu-ray player for Asia

Philip Wong | Aug 24, 2009

(Credit: Philips)

Philips has set a new yardstick in affordability for Asia with its latest entry-level BDP3000 Blu-ray player. Retailing at just S$399 (US$287.30), it offers most of the latest bells and whistles as well as excellent disc compatibility. This Dutch entry is one of the first in its class to support VCDs commonly used for edutainment programs in Asia. The BDP3000 also stands out with DivX Ultra certification and is capable of playing back such video files in high definition. Other multimedia formats compatible out-of-the-box include JPEG, MP3, WMA and WMV.

Like many budget kits, users will need to connect a USB thumbdrive to download BD-Live interactive features via its Ethernet port. There's one key difference. The BDP3000 lacks built-in DTS-HD Master Audio Essential decoding for high-resolution surround sound increasingly standard among its peers. Currently, Philips is promoting a GoBlu campaign in Singapore and throwing in a S$100 (US$72) trade-in discount for any VHS and DVD player from August 25 to September 30. This player is also available in Malaysia and Thailand for US$221 and US$294, respectively.

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