NAD Electronics, known for its high end audio/video components has introduced its start-of-the-air Blu-ray disc player, the T 587 player. It claims to loads Blu-ray discs in seconds, significantly quicker than most other players that currently take over a minute. Like other high end players, this also features Blu-ray's latest Profile 2.0, providing BD Live capability.
For video performance, it supports 24 frames per second at 1080p, eliminating the 3:2 pull down issue, such as with most players outputting NTSC. It features Deep Colour and xvYCC Extended Colour Space, which provides a very wide colour gamut, which in turn means a more natural looking image when used with a HDMI 1.3 capable HDTV set. Like other Blu-ray players, it can upscale DVDs up to 1080p.
Its audio features are quite impressive with support for all the main Blu-ray audio codecs including the latest Dolby and DTS lossless audio codecs. Its audio bitstream can be sent out via HDMI, Coax or Optical with support for up to 10.2 channels when playing back content using Dolby Digital Plus. To reduce unwanted noise, the player uses specially designed rubber feet to reduce vibrations.
Its range of connections include HDMI 1.3, Ethernet, composite & component video, coaxial, optical and analogue left & right audio and a front-panel USB port. For playback, it supports Blu-ray content on BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE formats, PAL & NTSC DVD content on DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats and Audio content on CD. It will also play back photos, MP3 files and WMA files on CD-R/RW and USB drives.
However, while the lower end Blu-ray players are finally breaking the $200 barrier, this player still remains at the expensive end with a suggested retail price of $1,499. It will be available from authorised NAD dealers this December.
