Philips Unwraps its Blu-ray Disc Player for Ultimate HD Home Entertainment

Philips' Blu-ray Disc player is loaded with features that providethe most stunning pictures available including an HDMI output thatsupports the latest 1080p resolution. It also supports a componentvideo output that will provide brilliant imagery and DVD upscaling to1080i. Rich surround sound is heightened with multi-channel HD audiodecoding and digital audio optical outputs. Fully backward compatible,it allows consumers to play their existing DVDs and CDs as well astheir Blu-ray Discs.

The new TripleWriter drive links personal computers with consumerelectronics. PC users can back-up the contents of their hard drive -photographs, movies, music libraries and more - all on a single,storage-rich disc. The drive features recording and playback of allpopular optical storage formats including various CD, DVD and BDmedia. Philips' TripleWriter can be built into any personal computerdrive featuring an S-ATA interface.

"Blu-ray represents a surge forward in the home entertainmentviewing experience," said Scott Levitan, senior vice president ofmarketing and sales, Philips Consumer Electronics, North America."With the overwhelming support of studios and manufacturers, consumerscan be sure that the HD future lies with Blu-ray."

As consumers migrate to HD sets, they see that a standard DVDdoesn't offer the HD content that they want. Blu-ray Disc delivers onthat promise with pristine 1080p picture quality and booming surround sound.

As a leader in the consumer electronics industry, Philips is oneof the companies responsible for the development of the Blu-ray DiscFormat. As a Board member of the Blu-ray Disc Association Philips ishighly involved in the technology and development of the Blu-ray Discstandard, just as the company led the revolution of the CD and DVDformats.

Blu-ray Disc has the technological advantage to be the industryleader with the support of more than 170 companies including virtuallyall of the major CE manufacturers and PC manufacturers, seven of theeight major Hollywood studios who are responsible for nearly 90% ofcurrent DVD sales, leading games developers (for PS3 platform) andmusic labels.

Blu-ray solutions are the answer to an evolution in HDentertainment and digital archiving, providing massive amounts ofstorage. A current, single-sided standard DVD can hold roughly 4.7 GBof information - about the size of an average quality two-hour moviewith a few added features.

An HD movie, which boasts a much clearer image, requires a discwith five times more storage. Philips' single-layer 25 GB1 Blu-rayDisc make massive storage a reality by holding more than six hours ofHD video, 12 hours of standard definition content or 36 CDs on asingle disc. That is more than five times the storage capacity of asingle-sided standard DVD.

The capacity of a Blu-ray Disc enables the playback of full-lengthfeature movies using MPEG2 encoding - the native compression techniquefor HDTV broadcasts - or even more capacity with advanced codes suchas AVC and Windows Media(R) Video HD (VC-1). It is the only recordingformat providing 25 GB of storage on a single-layer disc and 50 GB ona dual-layer disc.

Both the BDP9000 Blu-ray Disc player and the SPD7000 TripleWriterdrive will be available in the third quarter of 2006. The BDP9000Blu-ray Disc player will have a suggested retail price of $999.

Philips is now shipping 25 GB, single-layer recordable (BD-R) andsingle-layer recordable and erasable (BD-RE) Blu-ray Discs.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI)is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe'slargest, with sales of EUR 30.4 billion in 2005. With activities inthe three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technologyand 161,498 employees in more than 60 countries, it has marketleadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patientmonitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting andsilicon system solutions. News from Philips is located atwww.philips.com/newscenter.

1- 1 GB = 1 billion bytes: Actual storage may be less