Skype Invades the Living Room on Up-Coming Sony Blu-Ray Players

Skype video conferencing on the PC has been the reality for a while now, and their recent expansion into mobile devices has helped turned the software client into a household name. With few places left to expand it should be no surprise that the VOIP solution is coming to the living room, but this time you’ll find it packed into upcoming Sony Blu-Ray players.

At the Sony CES booth in Las Vegas they were showing demos of the interface which requires not just the player, but a separate proprietary camera accessory. Video quality will be limited to SD resolution at launch, and according to Sony representatives they have no plans at the current time to make the leap to HD.

With Video calling being a built in feature of Kinect, I’m a bit surprised Sony hasn’t tried to make this happen first on the PS3 first. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if they end up changing their mind, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

The Best New Blu-ray Player

They're the cornerstones of our home theaters—and there's always an ungodly number of them at CES. We scrutinized this year's more intriguing 3D Blu-ray players and found the one that looks like the king of the hill.

Samsung BD-D7000 This slot-loading Blu-ray disc drive is tiny. Like, external DVD drive tiny. But don't let that fool you. The BD-D7000 comes with some mighty loud bells and whistles, including faster disc load times, built-in Wi-Fi, and some passable 2D-to-3D up-conversion, too. You'll also get access to all the streaming media mainstays (Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora, Blockbuster, and Twitter) and something Samsung calls Smart Hub—basically the company's answer to Google TV. Hopefully, it'll work better.

Runners Up

LG BD690 The BD690 is a networked 3D Blu-ray player and comes loaded with a little something extra: a 250-GB internal hard drive for media storage and playback. You'll also get an enviable list of streaming services, including Netflix, Vudu, and Hulu Plus.

Panasonic DMP-BDT310This Blu-ray player lets you make Skype video calls, comes with built-in Wi-Fi and even gives you control over certain 3D effects, like adjusting the picture's depth and "leaping effect." Use your iPhone to control it all.

Honorable Mention
Sony BDP-S780
Samsung BD-D7000
LG BP650

Send an email to Bryan Gardiner, the author of this post, at bgardiner@gizmodo.com.

Via Gizmodo