Blu-ray is not dead! That was the rallying cry by Samsung and other manufacturers at CES 2009 earlier this year with a slew of new product releases centered around Blu-ray high definition disks, a format which has failed to catch fire after the collapse of the rival HD DVD format last year. The potential resuscitation of Blu-ray could mean good things for those film buffs who like their movies to look crisp, clear, and beautiful. And if you've ever seen a movie on a Blu-ray disk, you'll know that the picture quality is incredible. (You'll never want to go back to standard def DVDs again.)
Perhaps the snazziest looking Blu-ray player on display at CES was Samsung's BD-P4600 which is so slim and slick, you can mount it on a wall while using it to play the latest Blu-ray disks (The Dark Knight!) on an HDTV.
Only 1.5 inches thick, the BD-4600 has one of those industrial designs that we just love – simple and elegant with nice touches including a piano black casing with red accents and clear edging. If you don't want to mount it on the wall, the BD-P4600 comes with a stand which lets you place it on a table at a 25-degree angle.
An included 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi dongle connects to one of the disk player's two USB ports and lets you wirelessly stream video or audio content from services such as Netflix or Pandora. There's also 1GB or internal flash memory to give you room for BD-Live, an interactive function that lets the BD-P4600 communicate with the Internet for additional multi-media content.
Price: TBD
More info: www.samsung.com