Well, it looks like Acer is remaining on the fence. Last week they joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, now today the North American HD DVD Promotional Group announced that Acer has joined them as well. It does make sense, as with their acquisition of Gateway they have PC products with both formats now. So they’re already de facto in both camps. Though as a member of the BDA, Acer is more deeply involved with Blu-ray. The BDA sets the standards, the HD DVD group is, as the name implies a promotional/marketing organization.

Press release below:
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Toshiba is promoting their previously announced 3rd generation players at CEDIA. The HD-A3, HD-A30, and HD-A35 will list for $299.99, $399.99, and $499.99, and be available in October, September, and October, respectively. The A3 is limited to 1080i output, while the A30 and A35 support 1080p/24 output over HDMI. As a promotion, all three players will include two free movies – the HD DVD releases of Warner’s ’300′ and Paramount’s ‘The Bourne Identity’. Additionally, the ‘five free disc’ offer is being renewed, and will run from October 1st, 2007 through February 28, 2008. So purchasers of these new players will receive seven free movies in total.

Toshiba will also be running an HD DVD marketing campaign through the holidays and into 2008, including a cooperative effort with NBC Television Station group for promotions during Sunday Night Football broadcasts.

For more information, see the press releases below:
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Lots of news coming out of CEDIA. Sony announced two new Blu-ray players – the BDP-S500, which I’ve previously posted about, and the BDP-S2000ES. The latter is the first Blu-ray player in their ‘Elevated Standard’ (ES) line. The BDP-S500 slots in above their current BDP-S300, which has an MSRP of $499, with an MSRP of about $700. The BDP-S2000ES will MSRP for around $1,300 – pretty pricey, but it is one of their premium line products. Frankly, I’d rather see Sony cut the price on the BDP-S300 and/or offer a lower end player for around $300, or less. I expect them to have something in that range for the holidays, but we’ll see.

Blu-ray.com is also reporting that Sony announced a 200-disc Blu-ray Media Center, the HES-V1000. The unit has a 500GB hard drive to store digital media (video, music, and photos), as well as the 200 discs. All of this content is accessed via an XMB (Cross Media Bar) similar to the one on the PS3. It will be available in October for an MSRP of around $3,500.

For details on the BDP-S300 and BDP-S2000ES, see the press release below:
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