14 DAY TRIAL // Although Sony has announced/launched its fair share of products lately, it would really seem that it is keen on delivering a specific model for just about any tiny niche of the CE market. For this reason, the Japanese company has just "unwrapped" at CEDIA 2008 its BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray player, a multimedia playback powerhouse, which, besides being BD-Live capable, features an Ethernet connection that allows users to connect to the Internet for easy firmware updates and also comes equipped with an external flash memory port.
One of the features that will most certainly draw the users' attention to the BDP-S5000ES is its upscaling capability. Thus, the BDP-S5000ES incorporates Sony's new Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology that converts standard-definition signals (480i) to 1080p and outputs a full HD equivalent resolution signal to 1080p TVs via HDMI. Additionally, the model adds Sony's new Precision Drive HD, which allows it to detect and correct wobbling discs from three directions, stabilizing playback of bent or scratched Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.
Despite the fact that the S5000ES is built pretty much on the same platform as most of the company's other BD players, it does incorporate a few interesting innovations, which actually explain the rather hefty price tag. And one of them is the 14-bit HD video processor, which improves standard definition and high-definition picture quality with the help of HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping technologies.
The HD Reality Enhancer continually analyzes bit by bit the original source, sharpening edges and reproducing detail, while reducing the effects of film grain. On the other hand, Super Bit Mapping delivers smoother color gradation realizing true 14-bit equivalent color tone from 8-bit sources connected via HDMI.
The audio department is quite well developed too, since Sony's player offers 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD Master Audio, and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio decoding and bit-stream output, as well as analog 7.1 channel output with Advanced Current Segment Audio D/A converters for legacy AV receivers and decoders.
As mentioned right from the start, Sony's new BDP-S5000ES is one expensive product, since it will sell for an estimate 2,000 US dollars when it arrives in stores (both online and retail ones) at some point in November.
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