Earlier this week Sony has announced it will launch new, cheaper versions of Blu-ray players for this summer. The BDP-S1 player available now on the market has a price of $999, so demand isn’t quite high on such products. Actually if your are looking for the best deal for a Blu-Ray player you might want to take a look at the gaming console PlayStation 3. The $499/$599 PS3 comes equipped with a drive capable of reading Blu-Ray discs and it is also a next-gen gaming console so you really can get two great products at less than half the price.

However, there are people who are not at all interested in the gaming part (I know hard to believe), and these people just want a device capable of playing movies that come on the Blu-ray discs. For this people Sony intends to release in the following months a cheaper player, the BDP-S300, at a price of $599, but rumours of an even cheaper one ($499) have reached our ears. From the informations we have we hear that the BDP-S300 will mainly have the same features as the BDP-S1, fact that leads us to believe Sony desperately wants to win the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray war.

The two competing formats have been claiming the victory for themselves from the time the reached the market, but although Toshiba’s HD DVD had a better start, it appears the Blu-Ray Disc is catching up and might even get the lead all thanks to the PS3. However, at the time being there is no clear winner and it might not even be one for years, that’s why we are recommending to wait a little longer, or to buy a device capable of playing both types of discs.

Filed under Hardware, Home Entertainment