Sony announces high-end Blu-ray player

Breaking this year's IFA mould and not just announcing yet another new flat-screen telly, Sony has unveiled a Blu-ray player for those that laugh in the face of the credit crunch.

Given the catchy title of BDP-S5000ES, this new BD player by Sony offers some nifty new features.

Top of the list is the sci-fi sounding HD Reality Enhancer, which is said to reduce jaggies and film grain by continuously analysing your Blu-ray disc's video stream, making for a much smoother movie watch.

Alongside this, Sony has added a bitmapping tool into the equation. This is meant to brighten and enhance colour, bringing 8 bit video depth to 14 bit.

All this video enhancing sounds impressive and is almost impressive as the player's sound which decodes and bit streams ALL audio formats. Nice.

BD-Live

It's not just what's underneath the bonnet either, as the BDP-S5000ES boasts premium build quality too.

A Precision Drive HD transport mechanism is plonked into the centre of the player and is encased in an extra hard chassis, which reduces vibration and enhances the audio even more.

The player is BD-Live so all your Profile 2.0 discs will play effortlessly. Because it is BD-Live, there's an Ethernet connection and it also comes equipped with the PS3's XMB menu system.

Unfortunately, there's no word on a UK release date or pricing as of yet, but as Sony is describing the player as 'premium', expect to pay a premium when it is released.