Posted Tue May 17, 2016 at 05:45 PM PDT by Steven Cohen
The BDP7501 will be the second Ultra HD Blu-ray player to hit the US market.
Philips has announced pricing and availability for its first Ultra HD Blu-ray player. The Philips player will be available in two models: the BDP7501 with a brushed aluminum chassis and the BDP7301 with a piano black chassis. Both units are set for release in June for a suggested retail price of $400.
"4K Ultra HD Blu-ray provides consumers with the opportunity to own and enjoy stunning 4K content without the glitches that can occur when streaming large 4K files," P&F USA executive vice president of sales and marketing Karl Bearnarth said. "This is a significant step in the transition from HD to 4K Ultra HD, and one that we believe will quicken consumers' adoption of 4K, especially as they see what the combination of 4K, HDR and Ultra HD Blu-ray's wide color gamut can achieve."
The BDP7501 and BDP7301 Ultra HD Blu-ray players feature a compact design along with HDR support, HDMI 2.0a and 1.4a outputs, a dedicated HDMI audio out, and HDCP 2.2 compliancy. In addition to Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback, the device offers Blu-ray 3D support and 4K upscaling. HEVC and VP9 decoding are integrated as well, allowing customers to watch 4K videos from streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube. Likewise, the players include Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, and passthrough for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats. Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB connectivity are also included.
The Philips Ultra HD Blu-ray player will now join Samsung's previously released UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player, which also retails for $400. In addition, Panasonic recently released its own DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray player in Europe for £600, but exact US pricing and availability have not been detailed yet. Likewise, Sony has announced plans to offer an Ultra HD Blu-ray player as well, but it is not expected to arrive until 2017.
Sources: Yahoo News, TWICE
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