P&F USA will launch its first UHD Blu-ray player in the US next month with the Philips-branded player. It will come in two design variants and sell for $399, which is the same price as Samsung’s player.

Philips UHD Blu-ray player
The Philips-branded UHD Blu-ray player was announced at CES 2016 and it will start shipping in the US next month, says P&F USA that has licensed the Philips brand for USA. 

The player obviously supports all three pillars of the UHD Blu-ray standard; 4K, HDR (high dynamic range) and wide color gamut. It has been equipped with two HDMI outputs, one HDMI 2.0a for video and one HDMI 1.4a for audio. It supports HEVC decoding as well as VP9 decoding, the latter required to stream YouTube in 4K. The player also supports Netflix. Furthermore it offers support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA and passthrough for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Like all previously-announced players, the Philips model will support the open HDR10 standard but not the optional Dolby Vision format.


- "This is a significant step in the transition from HD to 4K Ultra HD, and one that we believe will quicken consumers' adoption of 4K, especially as they see what the combination of 4K, HDR and Ultra HD Blu-ray's wide color gamut can achieve," said Karl Bearnarth, P&F USA executive vice president of sales and marketing.

The Philips disc spinner is the second player to hit the market in the US, following Samsung’s early roll-out in February. Panasonic is planning to launch its UHD Blu-ray player in the US later this year.

The Philips UHD Blu-ray player will be made available in two designs. BDP7501 is a brushed aluminum version, whereas BDP7301 is a piano black version. Both will start shipping next month for $399.99 dollars. It will not be available in Europe.

- Source: P&F USA via Twice