Blu-ray DVD player launch planned for September
With the new player, the company "proves its commitment to providing the best high definition entertainment experience for the home," Matsushita Electric Industrial’s US subsidiary said in a statement.
The price for the DMP-BD10 player has not yet been fixed but will be below $1,500, the company said.
Supporters of the Blu-ray format, led by Matsushita and Sony, are waging a fierce battle against a rival HD DVD format pushed by Toshiba and NEC, with the two sides vying to set the common standard.
Matsushita’s newly appointed president Fomio Otsubo last month expressed confidence that the company and its partners would win the battle.
The Blu-ray disc technology, which will be used in the Sony PlayStation 3, is expected to have a greater storage capacity than HD DVD but also to be more expensive to make, at least in the short-term.
The Hollywood studios have pushed the Sony and Toshiba camps to settle their differences and develop a single format in an effort to avoid a replay of the VHS-Betamax war between two types of video cassette tapes in the late 1970s.
The two sides failed, however, to reach a deal and are now pushing ahead with the separate technologies billed as offering cinematic quality images and opening up new possibilities of interactive entertainment.
Last week Toshiba said it might have to delay the launch its HD DVD players in the US by about a month to April to coincide with the launch of movies for the player.
The Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported last week Toshiba will start selling its HD DVD player in Japan later this month.
Sony has been selling an earlier version of the Blu-ray Disc recorder/player since April 2003 but so far no movies are available in the format.
Sony Pictures said last month it hopes to start selling the first wave of Blu-ray disc titles in May.
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