Shane Buettner

Snuck into the HD DVD Group's presentation Sunday night was the explosive anouncement that true high-end is about to meet HD DVD- Meridian is releasing an HD DVD player!

Some interesting info at Sony's press event included an update on PS3's shipping and availability. They're still selling fast, but the good news is enough quantity is getting out that you might be able to get one without being injured or paying thousands on Ebay.

Sony had prototypes of two new standalone Blu-ray players that will hit stores in 2007. No real pricing or delivery dates were offered, but both players were dubbed as <I>Sapphire</I>. You'd expect these players to be lower cost models to compete with Toshiba's $500-$600 HD DVD players, but since the 70" LCD weighs in at over $30K, who knows?!

Among the many treasures on display at Sony's CES booth were several prototypes of flat panel displays based on Organic LED- or OLED. The model shown above was 26" diagonal, and there were several models on display that were sized appropriately for portable Blu-ray players or personal media players.