UPDATE: Full details of Onkyo's £400 DV-BD606 Blu-ray player
UPDATE: Onkyo has just slashed the price of its first Blu-ray player by £50, bringing it down to £399.99. It's available now in all black, or two-tone black and silver as shown.
Onkyo's PR man has just dropped off a review sample of Onkyo's new DV-BD606 Blu-ray player, expected to go on sale shortly for £400 – £200 less than Denon's recently unveiled DVD-1800BD.
A quick glance inside the box and at the spec sheet tells us it will upconvert SD video to 1080p, play CD, BD-Video, BD-R, BD-RE and DVD-Video disc, supports 1080p/24fps video and will pass Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream audio via HDMI to a compatible AV receiver.
It comes with Bonus View for picture-in-picture audio and video, supports Deep Colour, uses 192kHz/24-bit audio DACs, has one optical and one coaxial digital output, a component video out and HDMI 1.3a connectivity.
The player also has a memory card slot, on-screen display and is Profile 1.1 out of the box. Additional content can be stored on SD cards, using an internet-enabled computer, and then played back when inserted in the fascia mounted slot.
But it has no multichannel analogue outputs for connecting to older (non-HDMI) AV receivers.
However, for AV receivers without HD audio decoding, 7.1 channel audio can also be decoded internally and delivered as a PCM signal over the HDMI connection.
And if you want to spruce up the picture quality of your existing DVD collection, MPEG and 3D noise reduction can be selected via the on-screen display.
We'll be reviewing the Onkyo DV-BD606 in the January 2009 issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, on sale from December 11th. And if the powers-that-be agree, we may even be able to bring you the review online a little before then.
Comments
How come none of the higher end BD players are offerring Profile 2.0? This is certainly an incentive to buy a low end player rather than a high end one. Or?
Er, I'e just read the opening sentence so ignore my last blonde post.
The picture has changed, is this a different model or just design?
Onkyo has just confirmed the UK retail price will be £450 rather than £500. And a quick Google search will probably find it for less than that.
i agree does look cheap
Hmmm, I really question the wisdom of companies having more premium (priced, not necessarily quality) BD spinners in the current economic environment and with BD's slow take up rate in the market.
Sony have finally learnt their lesson and have specials on the marvellous BDP-S350 - JB HIfi are doing these for just $391.00 Aus -Unbelievable. The Aussie units from JB ship with Profile 2.0 updates (apparently they are opened in Australia, the firmware updated then reboxed for the distributors. At the Sony central stores in Melbourne they have s350 for $399 plus 5 BD titles -also good value. But why don't these cheapskate companies bundle a HDMI cable? My $200.00 Popcorn hour media tank came with one, can't see why they don't ship it with them, instead I have to fork out another $100 Aus for a 1.5 mt cable!
You want BD to be the next popular format? Have realistic (dare I say it, non-priced fixed - well they did it with the LCD screens didn't they?)entry level machines. BD for the masses!
Looks a bit cheap in a Matsui kind of way.
Don't forget to mention the incredible flimsy remote in the review. Quite appaling that a player with a premium pricetag comes with such a piece of plastic.