In the early days of Blu-ray Disc, several manufacturers seemed a little behind the curve in their Blu-ray player offerings, notably omitting features found on the competition such as web-enabled features and internet content streaming. Sharp was one of those companies, offering BD Profile 1.1 players (BonusView) while virtually everyone else had BD Profile 2.0 (BD-Live).
All that changes with their new BD-HP52U AQUOS Blu-ray Disc player, introduced last week and shown at CEDIA Expo in Atlanta. The new player will support BD-Live features and will offer Netflix instant streaming including streaming in high definition. Netflix streaming is perhaps the most popular of the current online content features due to Netflix's current pricing model. As long as you are a Netflix customer, subscribing to one of their "unlimited" rental plans (which start at $8.99/month for one DVD out at any time), then you can stream any of the 12,000+ Netflix online streaming-eligible titles to your PC or Netflix-enabled device. While the selection might not be as robust as VUDU or Amazon Video-on-Demand, these other services charge per title viewed which can add up quickly.
The player also features on-board decoding of lossless audio formats (including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) to multi-channel PCM over HDMI, as well as bitstreaming support for use with a modern A/V receiver with its own on-board HDMI audio decoding. In the video department, the player offers DeepColor and x.v. color support, as well as upconversion of standard definition DVDs to 1080p output.
The BD-HP52U is expected to start shipping in October for a MSRP of $379.99. Netflix online streaming support will be enabled as a free firmware upgrade shortly after the player's launch.
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