Released in the United States this month, Sony plans to launch its BDP-S470 and -S570 Blu-ray players on the European market as well. The devices play DVD's and Blu-ray discs at a Full HD resolution, which is upscaled when required.
The players are Sony's answer to the uprise of 3D Blu-ray. This technology uses active shutter glasses to make images appear three-dimensionally. While the BD-S470 requires a firmware upgrade to display such images, the S570 already features support for the technology.
The players can be connected to the internet either by cable or wirelessly: the S570 has an integrated wireless network card, while the S470 requires a seperate Sony UWA-BX100 adapter. Through the Bravia Internet VIdeo service, items such as YouTube videos can be displayed on the television. Downloadable widgets also allow information from sites such as Twitter, Flickr and Facebook to be shown.
Sony has added a USB-port to the front of the players, allowing an external storage device to be connected. It's also possible to play media files such as DivX and MKV-videos from other devices by means of DLNA. Owners of an iPhone or iPod Touch can download an application to control the Blu-ray players.
The Sony BDP-S470 is set for a European release in April, sporting a recommended price of 230 euro. The BDP-S570 will be launched in June and costs 270 euro. A seperate WiFi-adapter for the S470 is to cost 80 euro.
Sony BDP-S470
Sony BDP-S570
