CES 2008: Samsung BD-UP5500 Blu-ray and HD DVD dual player for HD virgins

Even if HD DVD has made a shock exit from the arena, there's no harm in announcing a dual player and, indeed, that's what Samsung has done. It's designed for those who are new to the whole HD world and in an Honoree for the CES 2008 Innovation Award. The BD-UP5500 is a fully functional Blu-ray player, including Bonus View in a sleek, slim cabinet, also offering HD DVD playback.

There's an HDMI 1.3 connection, easy-to-read display and direct touch controls, and consumers can take advantage of a wealth of interactive features and bonus content like picture-in picture settings, camera angles and commentaries. The device supports the latest audio decoding with 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD Bistream output. Of course it's all just a standard DVD / CD player, and packs all this into a 2.3" design which is, shockingly, piano black. No word on price yet, but availability looks set for the second half of the year.

Samsung

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