Samsung Electronics, a major maker of consumer electronics, confirmed Wednesday that its – and also the world’s – first Blu-ray disc player for consumers will be available in U.S. retail as early as on the 25^th of June, as planned. By releasing the player, Samsung Electronics becomes the world’s only supplier of appropriate product type for several months.

“As the first company to deliver a Blu-ray player in the U.S. market, Samsung has reinforced its commitment to provide our consumers with the most riveting and innovative home theater experience possible,” Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of marketing for Samsung’s audio and video products group.

The Samsung BD-P1000 plays Blu-ray software titles at the highest resolution available via a native 1080p HDMI output for films digitally mastered in 1920x1080p. The BD-P1000 also up-converts conventional DVDs to 1080p through the HDMI digital interface so the picture quality of any traditional DVD will look more detailed when used with the disc player. The BD-P1000 is backwards compatible and plays both standard DVDs and CDs in addition to supporting all DVD formats including, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R.

Samsung’s Blu-ray disc player also features a 10-in-2 multi memory card interface that supports all the major formats including Compact Flash, Secure Digital, XD Picture Card, Memory Stick and others. Connectivity of the BD-P1000 includes HDMI, component, S-video and composite outputs. Supported audio formats include Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, MP3 and 192KHz LPCM.

Samsung said that the industry's first Blu-ray disc player has been shipped to retailers in the U.S. market for availability on June 25^th for a minimum advertised price (MAP) of $999. Earlier Sony said that its home video arm would release several BD titles to the U.S. market on June, 20. It is unclear how many players Samsung has shipped.

Competing HD DVD standard players from Toshiba and Thomson cost from $499.