Pioneer, a leading maker of consumer electronics and a backer of Blu-ray disc technology, announced at Consumer Electronics Show pricing details about its Blu-ray disc player for the living room and Blu-ray disc burner for personal computers. Apparently, the former will cost $1800, whereas the latter is expected to cost about $995.

Pioneer’s new Elite BDP-HD1 Blu-ray disc player will be able to playback various, both single-layer and dual-layer, Blu-ray discs and various DVD media. The device is capable of decoding of H.264 (MPEG4 AVC), WMV and MPEG2 (standard DVD) video streams. The BDP-HD1 will process audio in DTS-HD, Dolby Digital, WMA, MP3 and LPCM formats. The players can output video in up to 1080p (1920x1080) resolutions using HDMI interconnection and multi-channel audio using the same method.

For those operating a networked home, the Elite BDP-HD1 was designed with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) guidelines.  When utilizing the IP networking capability, users will be able to access and easily load protected content currently stored on a DLNA compliant server or Windows XP PC using Windows Media Connect. In addition to photos, music and movies, users can download new content straight to their computer for immediate viewing on a television through the player.  The unit’s playsforsure compliance provides compatibility with all existing Microsoft software.

The BDP-HD1 player will be available in June, 2006, for suggested retail price of $1800.

Pioneer also unveiled the pricing for its already known Pioneer BRD-101A burner designed for professionals and content creators for the purpose of testing and evaluating high definition consumer Blu-ray disc titles during the authoring process before replication. The part will be available this quarter for the price of $995.