Archive for the Blu-ray Category
Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
You’ve been a High Definition person since long time however you still did not get a Blu-ray player? You are not alone. There’s been a lot of press about how Blu-ray players sales are disappointing right now, when everyone expected sales to go up after HD DVD threw in the towel. The problem is that HD DVD just recently died in the market and anyone who followed the format war knows that this could be the worst time since Blu-ray was released to buy a Blu-ray player. This is because the newest Blu-ray titles are finally taking using latest audio codecs and the latest interactive features, but the players that are currently available are not only unable to take advantage of the latest features, but also cost more than the next generation that is due relatively soon. They are about to extinct without any new codec updates. So while it’s fun to say the reason people aren’t buying is because DVD is good enough, or because the cost is too high; we prefer to think that consumers are smart enough to know that is’t better to wait a month or two for the full featured, less expensive players.
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Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
The release date of Samsung BD-P1500 was postponed from May to July due to change in the product. Samsung made a last moment decision to include BD-Live in Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-Ray player — which is a very smart business decision.Samsung announced its fourth generation Samsung BD-P1500 will be BD-Live Ready. The bad news is the May release date announced earlier has slipped to June, and the formerly comfortable $399 MSRP is now a less promising TBA. We’re not sure if that “ready” tag means it will be BD-Live enabled out of the gate, however DTS-HD “High resolution” is confirmed on the way in a future firmware update.
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Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
While Shuttle’s KPC most certainly wasn’t aimed at the enthusiast in the crowd, its newest XPC definitely is. The XPC G5 6801M gets going with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 320GB hard drive, LG’s GGC-H20L Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drive, ATI’s 256MB HD 3450 graphics card, a DVB-T tuner, 25-in-1 multicard reader and 7.1-channel audio output. Moreover, you’ll find gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, a slew of USB / eSATA ports, DVI / VGA out (DVI-HDMI adapter thrown in) and a bundled remote to make your life even easier. If you’re digging where this is going, you can latch on to one of these boxes for €1,091 ($1,727), and if you’ve turned a cold shoulder to HD DVD, a BD-only unit can be had for €167 ($264) less.
[Via Bios Magazine]
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Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
 Ending the awful (two) days of waiting, NetBlender’s officially presenting its latest innovation, BD Touch. Bringing together Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch and Blu-ray’s BD-Live internet connection to potentially allow combinations like sending copies of a movie to iPhone directly from the disc menu, viewing fan created content in sync with a movie or, yes, using the iPhone as a remote control. All that geolocation, 3D motion sensitive, multitouch and predictive keyboard could be a part of our favorite movie (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) — once some developer makes it happen. The disc authoring end of the tool is built into NetBlender’s DoStudio software, while there are two iPhone SDKs (the Connect SDK is free, while the Premiere Blend/In SDK adds functionality but requires certification and licensing) available. Video demos are after the jump, so take a look and see what you can come up with.
Continue reading BD Touch Blu-ray disc-to-iPhone app officially unveiled
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Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
Merely hours after The 6th Day hit retail floors, Gaming Bits was able to secure a copy, pop it in a PlayStation 3 and test out those BD-Live features. If you’ll recall, experiences with connected extras in Walk Hard were less than smooth, and while this look isn’t nearly as in-depth, reviewers did come across noticeable lag in parts. Still, if you’re interested in catching a few more glances at what kind of BD-Live fun awaits on this disc, the read link is calling your name.
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Posted by: admin in Blu-ray, HDTV
If you plan on playing back any HD DVDs with it in the future, we’d politely recommend you didn’t. Apparently CyberLink saw fit to remove HD DVD compatibility altogether from its latest version of PowerDVD, leaving v7.3 as the last remaining edition that played nice with red. Thankfully, the company has emailed out a statement to those questioning the move and assured us all that both v7.3 and v8.0 can be installed on a computer at the same time without issue, so at least all hope isn’t lost. A lot can change in 16 months, huh?
[Thanks, Ryan]
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 Many were quick to claim that HD DVD was dead when the NPD group’s numbers showed Blu-ray players had a 93 percent share the week after Warner’s announcement. While those numbers were staggering, those with a level head wanted to wait to see if the blue camp could keep it up, and now according to the same firm, it did not. In fact the very next week sales were back to where we’d grown to expect them, about 65 percent Blu. As interesting as these numbers are — as many have pointed out in the past — Amazon and other online retailers are not included, and we all know how popular HD DVD players are on Amazon. While at the same time Blu fans would argue that many buy the PS3 as a Blu-ray player, which is also not counted in the study. Regardless, the better metric for the success of a packaged media format is media sales and with two weeks at about 84 percent and almost no decent red titles in sight, we’d be surprised if Blu victory in that court didn’t continue.
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 According to new reports, Woolworths is following the wave and will be banishing HD DVD players from its stores starting in March. Reportedly, the move was substantiated by the fact that Blu-ray Discs outsold HD DVD titles “ten-to-one” in Woolies stores over the Christmas holidays, and in just a few weeks, consumers scouting a new HD DVD player from this particular retailer will have to place their order online. Interestingly, we’re not told whether or not the firm plans on phasing out actual HD DVD movies as well, but we suppose we don’t have long before finding out.
[Via GamesIndustry, image courtesy of Stives-Town]
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 And so it begins this week, as Warner’s first title to be affected by the t hree week delay for HD DVD is released for Blu-ray. Meanwhile HD DVD fans will have to wait until February 19th to check it out. But that isn’t the only thing that is in three weeks, as the first decent title for the red camp also comes out that day in the way of American Gangster. But the bad news for red doesn’t end there this week because there are only three titles and we can’t say we’ve ever heard of any of them. Of course this isn’t that surprising considering HD DVD’s ace in the hole Universal and Paramount are on the bench for the third week in a row. At the same time Blu-ray’s lineup isn’t anything to call home about either, but at least it includes a day and date in Invasion and Daddy Day Camp — yeah, we’re not excited either. Probably the most interesting title this week is the cult comedy classic Mony Python’s Life of Brian, which includes both a TrueHD and LPCM sound track, that the reviewers say doesn’t really sound any better — but at least the video quality delivers. Looking ahead to next week, there isn’t much to get excited about either, but at least Universal has a title for red.
HD DVD 381 vs Blu-ray 427*
Blu-ray
HD DVD
* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously available.
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 Gartner, the fat lady of research firms, is singing HD DVD’s swan song this morning. Hiroyuki Shimizu, Principal Research Analyst in Japan, says in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report that, “Gartner believes that Toshiba’s price-cutting may prolong HD DVD’s life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format.” He goes on to call the recent price cuts “useless resistance” in avoiding the inevitable. What’s that, you coyly ask? According to Shimizu, “Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over.” With 5 of the 7 major studios now backing Blu-ray exclusively, Gartner’s certainty on the subject doesn’t appear to be much of a stretch.
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