The BDP-83's hardware was finalized last fall, but they started beta testing before they even had all the features enabled in the firmware (it was the first product developed with that chipset) so we beta tested for months before we even had some of the major features (onboard decoding of TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, DVD-Audio support). The EAP started in March, and they started shipping to folks on the interest list in May.

Frankly, though, the EAP was an unusual case that likely wouldn't work as well in most cases. Would a similar approach work for Outlaw? I don't know. It would depend on several factors, one being production capacity. The BDP-83 will likely sell more units than the 997, so they are building them in a greater quantity. They also have a close relationship with the factory and there were no contractual limitations on when production would ramp up. That allowed them to build a significant quantity. Outlaw may not be able to get a large shipment until that 60-day mark arrives, and if they are close to having it ready for production then they may want to just wait a short time (days or weeks) and start shipping with final production firmware.