By CNET.co.uk staff
15/03/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/others/0,39037627,61996490,00.htm

	The Sony BDP-S300 costs a US dollar more than its PS3.

As we perch on the edge of our seats waiting for the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD scuffle to end, we have plenty of time to predict which format will be triumphant. The latest salvo is Sony's announcement of a seriously cut-price Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300.

It's a step up from the enormous BDP-S1--it's cheaper, smaller and amazingly will now play audio CDs (an amazing technological leap forward). The BDP-S300 also features built-in decoding of Dolby Digital Plus and support for Sony's wide color gamut, which should produce better high-definition pictures. The player will also control other Sony kit via the HDMI port.

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Amusingly, the S300 will have a retail price of US$1 more than the 60GB PlayStation 3, with the former being priced at US$600. So, we are forced to wonder, who will be prepared to buy a standalone player when they can have an entire game console for the same price?

Sony is currently committing to only a US launch for the player, but as the gargantuan BDP-S1 is available only in the US, that's not exactly a huge surprise. Come on, Sony, stop ignoring the rest of the world. We need our hi-def fix too.

So is this a sign that the largest single advantage HD-DVD has--price--is about come to an end? HD-DVD has already seen its disc sales lead eroded this year, so a price cut bringing Blu-ray hardware closer to HD-DVD players is surely going to be bad news. Especially when Blu-ray has slightly more studio support--and James Bond on his way.

This story appeared originally in Crave UK.