Electronics giant Sharp has recently announced three new lines of Blu-ray players for the Japanese market, which are all slated to hit stores by the end of the year.

The first is the BD-HDW that will launch in two distinct variations; the HDW15, which comes equipped with a 500GB hard drive, and finally the HDW30, which includes the top 1TB hard drive. Both of the BD-HDW models will feature digital and analog tuners, a less than 1s quick-start, gold plated HDMI ports, and support for Dolby TrueHD. Both of these models are expected to hit the Japanese market on December 1st, in time for the Christmas holiday season.

The last two models are the BD-AV1 and BD-AV10, which are expected to ship October 27th. The BD-AV1, which has support for BD-RE v2.1 (but only support writing to one layer) will come in three colors (black, white, and red).

The BD-AV10, a more advanced model, will also support BD-RE v2.1 and support writing up to two layers. Furthermore, the AV10 will have four-color choices (Black, White, Red, and Silver). Neither of these two models will have internal hard drives, but they will both feature digital tuners.

At this point, no pricing has been set for any of the players, and it is currently unknown whether or not they will be released in European and North American territories.

Stay tuned to PlayStation Universe for more information as it becomes available.

Source: Blu-ray.com