It seems like Blu-ray players are beginning to get cheaper, especially now that the move is being spearheaded by Sony itself. It was only this month when the company confirmed the US$ 100 price drop for its BDP-S300, officially bringing its price down to just US$ 499.

Anyway, online site DigiTimes was able to get a copy of Japanese-language newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun and found out that Funai Electric will be shipping its 42-inch full high-definition LCD TV and next-generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) player in North America this coming Fall.

While there are no official announcements regarding pricing, we are pretty sure that the BD player will be tagged lower than that of Sony's BDP-S300. Funai is known for making low costs electronic products and consumers in North America recognize its products under brand names Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox.

Regarding the HD LCD TV sets, it was reported that the panels will be adopted from Taiwan-based players while the TV itself will be assembled in China. The first batch of shipments will be around 100,000 to 200,000 units.