Sony unveils new year DVD lineup
This week's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas has seen Sony announce a whole raft of new DVD players to take it into the new year, including three single-disc models, two five-disc changers, two of those wonderful portable players, and a complete "lifestyle" system.
The DVP-C670D and DVP-C660 five-disc changer models, for those of you too lazy to get off the sofa to put a new film in, feature Sony's Precision Drive System for increased accuracy in tracking and playback, and Advanced SmoothScan Picture Search for smoothing out the transitions between video frames. The DVP-C670D also features Digital Image Enhancer technology. This uses digital processing to sharpen the edges of DVD images. It also boasts built-in Dolby Digital decoding.
Both models are shipping in the US in July, the DVP-C670D for $500 (£300) and the DVP-C660 for $400 (£240).
The first of Sony's portable players is the DVP-FX1, which is the first Sony portable to feature a 7-inch LCD TFT screen. It comes housed in magnesium alloy casing and the Lithium Ion battery gives you up to four hours of portable DVD pleasure. Plus it comes with an optional card battery lead. The whole thing is only as thick as three DVD film boxes.
Perfect for "camping, boating and the beach", according to Sony, it's out in the US in May for around $1,500 (£910).
If you'd rather lug a portable television around with you, Sony presents its second portable -- the DVP-F5. The lack of a screen brings the price down to a slightly more affordable $600 (£365). Out in the US in June.
For an all-in-one home theatre system there's the DVD Dream System, rather more prosaically called the DAV-S300. This is a compact 5.1 channel system that incorporates a 180 watt digital switching amplifier. As well as a combination DVD/CD player it features an AM/FM receiver and Dolby Digital and dts decoding. In US in March for $600 (£365).
At present there are no details of UK launch dates for any of the players.
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