Sharp ships latest Blu-ray Disc player

One for Santa's sack?

By James Sherwood • Get more from this author

27th November 2008 15:17 GMT

Sharp has launched a Blu-ray player that it hopes Santa will want to load onto his sleigh this Christmas.

Sharp's BD-HP21H: 24p playback

The 1080p BD-HP21H player can display video at cinema-like 24f/s - with discs that support it. Ditto Blu-ray's picture-in-picture mode, which the BD-HP21H can also display.

DVD movies can be upscaled by the BD-HP21H and, although there’s no mention of a memory card slot, you’ll be able to display JPEG format still images from a disc to your TV.

If you’re already kitted out with one of Sharp’s Aquos TVs then you can take advantage of the Blu-ray player’s Aquos Link feature, which lets you operate the player and TV with a single remote. Yes, that's Sharp's name for the control relay facility that's part of the HDMI specification.

Sharp also claimed that the player’s an eco-friendly one that’s been designed with “low energy consumption” in mind. It uses 26W of power when running, falling to 0.5W in stand-by mode. Or you can turn it off and cut the consumption to zero.

The Sharp BD-HP21H Blu-ray player is available now for £250 ($385/€298).

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