Sony’s Blu-ray Player Delayed Yet Again
October 19, 2006
Sony’s BDP-S1 has been delayed, again, three times to be exact. (at least that’s my count) Originally scheduled for release on August 15th the player was then bumped back to October 25th and now SonyStyle.com states “Targeted Availability: On or about December 4, 2006”.
What is it about this player that’s causing the delays? Could it be the blue laser diode shortages caused by Sony gobbling up every blue laser diode they can get their hands on for the PS3? Well according to Andy Parsons of Pioneer “player manufacturers are unlikely to be affected by a blue diode shortage because they are manufacturing far fewer units compared to the millions of PS3s Sony is producing.”
So that must not be it… or maybe it is, as Pioneer’s oft delayed BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player is rumored to have been postponed until January, although select dealers are expecting demo units to arrive shortly. This would seem to indicate the player is complete but a shortage of some key-part is holding up mass production.
So it looks like Samsungs’ BD-P1000 and Panasonic’s DMP-BD10 ($1299) may very well remain the only stand-alone Blu-ray players available throughout the holiday season 2006. Philips and Sharp announced players for the “third quarter of 2006” and “fourth quarter 2006” respectively, but we’ve yet to see any firm launch dates for either of those players.
–Update– Jason Unger of Electronic House sends word that according to a Sony spokesmen, the BDP-S1 was delayed “because of a software problem inside the hardware of the unit”.
Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under Blu-ray
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Gordon Lee