Yamaha takes the wraps off its new Blu-ray player and AV receivers
Yamaha is on a bit of a roll at the moment. Having heard little from the company last year, we've recently been inundated with new products and the latest to pop un in our email inbox is the £700 BD-S2900 Blu-ray player.
It's joined by three new multichannel products, the RX-V1900 (£900) and RX-V3900 (£1300) receivers and the flagship DSP-Z7, a £2000 amplifier.
The company's first Blu-ray player is equipped with a 1080p/24fps-compatible HDMI connection, 12-bit Deep Colour, HD audio bitstream output and video upscaling to 1080p.
It's a Blu-ray Profile 1.1 model and can handle BonusView functions such as picture-in-picture video and audio that can be viewed in a smaller window within the main screen.
Blu-ray player matches top-end receivers
Designed to match Yamaha's new top-end receivers, the BD-S2900 also includes an RS-232 interface and IR in/out ports for custom installation. You also get an SD card slot, on-screen display with GUI (graphical user interface) and five picture modes (normal/soft/fine/cinema/user).
Joining the Blu-ray player in Yamaha's new line-up is the flagship DSP-Z7 multichannel amplifier. It delivers 140W across all seven channels, decodes all the latest HD audio formats and is DNLA-certified for networking with other devices.
That's not all. It's Bluetooth (A2DP) compatible, uses advanced video processing with support for Deep Colour and x.v. colour and comes with 22 DSP sound processing modes and auto set-up.
If your budget is a little more modest, you can choose from the network-capable RX-V3900 (140W x 7) or the 130W x 7 RX-V1900 which lacks the network functionality of its bigger brothers, but still decodes all the latest audio formats and includes Yamaha's proprietary Cinema DSP processing.
We'll be testing the Blu-ray player, and any of the other models we can get our hands on, as soon as possible.
Comments
£700 does seem a little steep cosidering the competition.
Did Yamaha decide their pricing points before the credit crunch?...
Why pay £700 for a BD player when the £200-250 Sony and Panasonic machines are getting so much praise?
I'm looking forward to reading your judgment over the V1900 and V3900.
Yikes, £700. When Alba makes one you'll know Blu-ray has broken into the mainstream.