Pioneer Electronics (USA) today introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas one of the world’s first Blu-ray Disc players, marking an innovation in home entertainment that allows consumers to experience the ultimate in high-definition home theater. "Blu-ray is one of the most exciting innovations in home theater consumers will see from the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, and Pioneer is at the forefront of this new market with one of the world’s first Blu-ray Disc players as well as a Blu-ray Disc computer drive," said Russ Johnston, senior vice president of marketing and product planning for home entertainment at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.

Blu-ray Discs have the capacity to store up to 50 gigabytes of information on a single disc to meet consumers growing demand for high definition content. This new optical disc format enables consumers to purchase or rent major movie titles and enjoy all the benefits of high definition audio and video quality with a 5-inch optical disc that looks very similar in size and shape to a DVD. The increased disc capacity will enable movie studios to include a complete high definition movie on a single disc with more features than currently available on DVD including interactive features. The same technology will be used in Pioneer computer drives that will record up to 25 gigabytes of data for computer back-ups, home movies, music and other computer files.

HD Quality & Interactivity

Pioneer’s new BDP-HD1 Blu-ray Disc player is designed to deliver 1920 x 1080p output, the highest of the three high definition signals, providing consumers simple access to amazing audio, video and interactive content. It will now be as easy as stopping by the neighborhood video store to bring HD quality movies into the home. Hollywood studios are filling their end of the bargain by releasing some of the hottest movie titles on Blu-ray Disc and adding interactive features not possible with DVD because of its limited space capacity. The American public has grown to love DVD and once they experience Bluray Disc, they’ll feel the same emotional attachment to this new technology. Pioneer’s BDP-HD1 does offer backward compatibility for standard DVDs so consumers can maintain their existing DVD movie collection as they begin a new Blu-ray Disc collection.