No Arcam BD Player Until 2009

[Jodi]

Yesterday (7 March 08), I talked with an Arcam representative at their North American headquarters, Audiophile Systems, Ltd., in Indianapolis. (Arcam is one of a number of high-end audio manufacturers that make up a global confederacy known as Audiophile Systems, Ltd.)
Those of you that are waiting for the "big dogs" on the high-end audio porch (like myself) to begin unleashing true, bulletproof BD players will be interested in reading this.
He says that although Arcam has been researching high-definition video for about three years, they (like many other electronics manufacturers) wanted to wait for the format war (Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD) to be settled and over with.
Now that the war is over, they are pushing full-speed ahead with their first BD player. But it won't be until 2009 at the earliest. He says he would be surprised if Arcam showed off a first BD player at the Vegas CES in January 2009.
He did give excessively high praise for Sony's PlayStation 3 as a BD player!! He commented that the PS3, functionally, is the best BD player out there. PERIOD. He says he likes the PQ and SQ of the PS3, but he has seen and heard better stand-alone BD players. He added, "...and you get a game system to boot..." He says (as ALL Arcam products are built from the ground up) that they do strive for an absolutely bulletproof BD player of their own that would eclipse the PS3 in PQ and SQ (as hard-core audio- and videophiles would expect from Arcam).
I personally look forward to that first Arcam BD player. The current models of standard DVD players (both in the DiVa line and in the FMJ line), however, are no slouches!! They are among the best looking and sounding sDVD players for the money (ranging from $999 to $2999) IMHO.
So, just letting you all know.

Jodi