Audio Video News

Does the BD abbreviation stand for Blu-ray Disc or Blu-ray Delayed? The latest setback has Pioneer Elite's BDP-HD1 pushed back from July to September, while reports now have Sony's BDP-S1 sliding from July to August 15th. On the plus side, the Pioneer Elite player's price has officially dropped from $1800 to $1500.

This is rather startling news as just last week at HE 2006 the Sony folks made such a big to-do over the official launch of Blu-ray, which is still salted for June 20th, less than two weeks away. Demonstrations were held, and members of the press were even given a full production copy of Hitch on Blu-ray.

As things stand right now, only Samsung will be providing a standalone BD player for the retail launch of BD movies. That player will cost $999 and as of yesterday, Samsung's PR firm told me it expects the player to be ready before June 20th.