Following Toshiba fairly conservative entry into the world of Blu-ray, with their solid but low on features first Blu-ray player, the expected has happened and Toshiba's new Blu-ray player lineup is now starting to add in the features.
One thing that Toshiba said after the defeat of HD DVD was that the future lies with digital distribution. So it was somewhat surprising when their first Blu-ray player did not support any form of digital distribution, despite competitors like Samsung, LG, Panasonic and even Sony providing support. So it isn't much of a surprise that their new line up will feature not only Netflix, but also Vudu, CinemaNow, Pandora streaming support.
The least expensive of the new lineup, the BDX2500, will also be wireless ready via USB dongle, and will feature onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio with 7.1 analog audio outputs for those that have yet to upgrade their receiver.
The BDX2700 comes with Wi-Fi built in and will retail for around $250, $50 more than the BDX2500. Both players will be available soon. The flagship player BDX3000 won't arrive until the third quarter of 2010, and it will support 3D Blu-ray, but no further details are available (although one can assume it supports all the features of the other two new players).
So the big question is whether the BDX3000 will support enhanced DVD upscaling via the renowned XDE engine, and whether it will have DLNA support or even a built in HDD like the new LG Blu-ray player also just announced at the CES.
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One thing that Toshiba said after the defeat of HD DVD was that the future lies with digital distribution. So it was somewhat surprising when their first Blu-ray player did not support any form of digital distribution, despite competitors like Samsung, LG, Panasonic and even Sony providing support. So it isn't much of a surprise that their new line up will feature not only Netflix, but also Vudu, CinemaNow, Pandora streaming support.
The least expensive of the new lineup, the BDX2500, will also be wireless ready via USB dongle, and will feature onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio with 7.1 analog audio outputs for those that have yet to upgrade their receiver.
The BDX2700 comes with Wi-Fi built in and will retail for around $250, $50 more than the BDX2500. Both players will be available soon. The flagship player BDX3000 won't arrive until the third quarter of 2010, and it will support 3D Blu-ray, but no further details are available (although one can assume it supports all the features of the other two new players).
So the big question is whether the BDX3000 will support enhanced DVD upscaling via the renowned XDE engine, and whether it will have DLNA support or even a built in HDD like the new LG Blu-ray player also just announced at the CES.
More: