RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ — With Samsung’s announcement earlier this week that it will be shipping its initial offering in Blu-ray DVD players, the BD-P1000, it appears that Blu-ray has cleared its first hurdle – namely, getting a product to market within the promised timeframe. But it still has another significant barrier to clear in the minds of consumers; the price barrier.Varying reports suggest that the BD-P1000 will hit store shelves anywhere from June 20th to June 25th, with the first eight Blu-ray titles coming available on the 20th.

The first eight movie titles released for Blu-ray will include 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element and the original Terminator, with July releases to include Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction and A Knight’s Tale.

HD-DVD titles began hitting shelves weeks ago and HD-DVD looks to be well ahead in the race to stock shelves with product. Since Hollywood studios are divided in terms of which format they support, few movies will be made available in both formats, at least initially.

Another advantage HD-DVD has is in the “sticker shock” department. Toshiba’s HD-A1 HD DVD player runs in the neighborhood of $500, while Samsung’s BD-P1000 has an initial list price of $1000 on Amazon.com.

Some analysts point to the November release of Sony’s PlayStation 3 as the true starting point in the nextgen DVD war. If the PS3 is priced at a range comparable to HD-DVD players, some analysts believe the popularity of the gaming console could give a serious boost to Blu-ray video sales and tip the scales in favor of Blu-ray on the production and development side, as well.