New York (NY) - Confirming suspicions that Panasonic would not have Blu-ray players available prior to summer, the company announced today that it plans to ship its DMP-BD10 player in September, promising to keep its shelf price at "less than $1,500."

Panasonic is timing its release in sync with that of its 58" plasma screen HDTV, whose price is not yet revealed, and whose output is described as "full HD 1366 x 768 resolution." This, of course, depends on how you define "full ;" later in the fall, Panasonic plans to announce a 65" plasma model capable of displaying the full 1080p resolution which the DMP-BD10 is expected to produce. The company released few other details about the player (especially compared to the wealth of detail it’s providing about its plasma TVs), other than to say that it will feature the company’s trademark "EZ-Sync HDAVI" control functions, that should make the player and other Panasonic equipment completely controllable through a single device.

However, this morning’s statement does quote the company’s vice president for merchandising, Reid Sullivan, as saying, "With the BD10 we respect the legacy content that consumers have in their entertainment libraries, including virtually all DVD and CD formats, as well as video and image formats." This statement is apparently designed to dispel rumors that Panasonic’s and other companies’ first wave of Blu-ray players would not be capable of playing audio CDs.

Panasonic’s news today comes amid reports by journalists reporting in the AV Science Forum, that Samsung will be delaying the release of its Blu-ray players until June. The delay was expected, as mid-spring seems to be the earliest time when most manufacturers are planning to make their Blu-ray rollouts. Failure among CE manufacturers to come to agreement regarding such critical features as mandatory managed copy, for both Blu-ray and HD DVD players, has been cited as the cause for the delay of Blu-ray rollout plans, including Sony’s delay of its PlayStation 3 console until November.