Onkyo launches first Blu-ray player: DV-BD606
Onkyo, which made its high definition disc player debut on the HD DVD side last year, has finally launched its own Blu-ray player.
Focusing far more on video and audio quality than on the newer interactive features of Blu-ray, this Profile 1.1-compliant player offers full 1080p playback including 24fps “film mode”, Deep Colour via HDMI, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats including direct bitstream output via HDMI or 7.1-channel audio output, and superb audio quality thanks to a 192kHz/24-bit DAC from Burr-Brown.
Supporting BonusView features means that picture-in-picture functionality is available. However, the handful of discs currently offering interactive and online functions won’t realise their full potential on Onkyo’s machine. Whether this is an issue depends on how much you value having this additional functionality of Blu-ray — interactivity isn’t high on my list of priorities compared to video and audio quality, though it is possible to get decent machines that do handle Profile 2.0 stuff for less cash.
Yes, the price. It costs £399.99, making it a fairly expensive purchase. However, when you consider that it should also do a fine job of upscaling your existing DVD collection, as well as playing audio CDs, it’s not a bad piece of kit at all. If you’re really into everything Blu-ray has to offer, though, you’d be best off looking at another player.
Product page (via HDTV UK)
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