Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
It might not have said so on the flyer, but Blu-ray and HD DVD in 2006 have been largely a BYOL affair, since neither Sony nor Nichia were able to supply enough of the lasers that are at the basis of both formats to meet demand. Well Sharp -- which hasn't released its DV-BP1U Blu-ray player yet -- has now decided to jump into the blue laser game as well, producing 150,000 units per month; they expect to be up to 500,000 units per month by September of next year. A company spokeswoman said most of the diodes will go into Sharp products, but we're sure European PlayStation 3 fans wouldn't mind seeing a few truckloads headed in Sony's direction, while everyone else is just hoping to see price drops on high definition players across the board.

Read - Sharp starts blue laser diode production
Read - Sharp to Make Laser Diodes for Blu-Ray, HD Recorders 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A ...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

It's well past August but we're finally seeing the release of BenQ's Blu-ray Disc recorder for PCs. Well, in Japan anyway where this much heralded, dual-layer (50GB) SATA player/recorder built by Philips is set to hit before the month is up. Your ¥89,900 (about $760) -- reduced from the $1000 originally quoted -- buys you a trio or tricks: read/write BD, DVD, and CD media at speeds up to 2x BD-R/RE, 1x dual-layer BD-R/RE, 12x DVD+/-R, and 32x CD-R -- and that's just a smattering of media supported. Bundled PowerDVD 6 software allows you to play back studio Blu-ray Disc flicks at a full, 1920x1200 resolution under Vista, you know, just as long as your video card and monitor support HDCP. But then you know that by now, right? Expect to hear about these popping for the US and beyond any day now.

[Via Impress] 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series...

Filed under: Laptops
Although it's a re-brand of another 20.1-inch laptop design, and it certainly isn't the "first dual core, SLI capable notebook in the world" as its maker PC MicroWorks claims, the step up in specifications that the new Vega laptop brings to the -- hopefully fortified -- table is quite impressive. When it's maxed-out, the Vega packs a dual core AMD Turion X2 processor, 20.1-inch 1,680 x 1,050 display, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, 600GB of storage, a dual layer Blu-Ray burner, and dual nVIDIA GeForce GO 7950GTX graphics cards running in SLI mode. Tack on options like EV-DO, GPS, and a TV tuner and you're looking at a desktop replacement to rule all others: until the Vega Mk.2 comes out, that is. The only drag, as always, is the price. For the above configuration you'll have to pay $7,175, or commit yourself and your family to a life of crime. We have a feeling your spouse won't be OK with that, so you'd better mark this one down on your "to do: if I win the lottery" list....

Filed under: HDTV, Peripherals
Nothing like a little false hope to brighten your Saturday, right? Of course, we hope the current stalemate in the Blu-ray / HD DVD war actually yields a combo player, but after the on-again / off-again (and again) love affair with the idea, we're not holding our collective breath. Nevertheless, it seems that the current state actually doesn't have one format trouncing the other as many believed would happen after a few months unfolded. Essentially, consumers are "generally indifferent" to the two, and considering there's just seven more HD DVD titles currently available than BD titles, it doesn't look like one or the other will win on sheer studio popularity. While we've seen the Blu-ray-equipped PS3 outsell Microsoft's HD DVD drive 5 to 1, there isn't much substance in such a statistic, but apparently Taiwan-based manufacturers are rethinking their previous denials of unleashing a player that handles both discs. DigiTimes has it that Samsun...

Whenever someone tells you that the only time you'll notice the difference between HD DVD/Blu-ray and standard DVDs is if you have two TVs side by side hasn't seen these comparisons.
As you mouse over the screencaps, you can see that colors are brighter, details are increased, and a lot of the fuzziness is gone. And that's with the HD images downsampled. Feel free to use this as a guide to convince your significant other to let you go HD. – Jason Chen
Fellowship of the Ring - HD vs DVD [Cornbread]

Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Laptops
Now that Dell's riding high on the Blu-ray bandwagon, what more could you ask for when picking up that now-BD-equipped M1710? How about a free flick from Mark Cuban? While we can hear the groaning in the back, ole Mark has decided to plug his very own HDNet by partnering with Dell and tossing in a free Blu-ray title -- "HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission" -- with each XPS M1710 notebook. Although further details on the deal weren't readily available, it was implied that future Blu-ray equipped machines would also grace buyers with free BD titles of Cuban's choosing, and while you might not agree with Mark's antics, you can't really complain with free. 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!...

The XBox HD-DVD drives are flying off the shelves. Obviously, watching your fav movies is what you really care about. But if you're looking for a disc that shows off the HD-DVD format's interactive capabilities, Tokyo Drift is the best example out there. It's that or Miami Vice. Seriously. Blu ray can't do a lot of this.
While we can't vouch for the film itself, we can verify the disc's extras are amazing, including full storyboarding, technical specs on all the cars, GPS mapping of all the chase scenes, and the ability to watch some parts of the movie with repainted cars:

The entire movie's story boards can be switched on over the video.




The movie's makers worked with Progressive Auto Insurance to estimate the cost of damage done to the cars.


Picture in Picture



A car's tech specs will flash on screen occasionally.
And the picture in picture is actually a ...

Filed under: Storage
Similar to the height / width race that's always going on in the land of HDTV, the write speed race is also one that never seems to cease. While you can toast a blank DVD at 20x, the dual-layer variety demands a bit more patience, but thanks to Pioneer's latest, the waiting game is getting ever shorter. The DVR-A12J lineup comes in piano black, silver, and white color schemes, claims Windows XP compatibility, and offers up 10x write speeds on dual-layer DVD+/-R media. Additionally, it touts Labelflash technology (similar to LightScribe), writes to single-layer DVD media at 18x, and takes care of DVD-RAM at 12x. Moreover, it boasts a 2MB cache and a rather stout Cyberlink software bundle, including PowerDVD6, PowerProducer, and Power2Go. So if you're still holding out on those pricey (and sluggish) Blu-ray burners, you can snap this sucka up for just ¥10,000 ($86) later this month.

[Via Impress] 
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If you read the Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray player review, you'd have a good idea of what the Pioneer BDP-HD1 player could do. Because, strangely enough, they are identical. HDGuru found that the back panel, disc drive, menus, format support, and capabilities were exactly the same between the two players, down to the time it takes they take to boot and load a movie.
When asked, Pioneer said they manufacture the player itself, so does that mean they make Sony's as well? Is that the reason for their massive delays? Does Sony not even make their own Blu-ray players, something they've been pushing like crazy?
Hard to say. But that's the way it looks now. Fortunately for Sony, their version of the player is $1000 compared to the Pioneer's $1500. But for the extra $500 you get an ethernet port, a longer warranty, a more conventional black finish, and BD-R/RE recordable playback.
If you're looking to author your own discs or enjoy updating firmware over the net, the Pioneer seems...

Prior to this morning, Sony's VAIO AR notebooks had the privilege of being the only Blu-ray-capable laptops out there. Now, Dell is strong-arming its way past Sony with its powerful, fire-engine red XPS M1710 notebook. Take a virtual tour of Dell's first high-def laptop in our gallery below. – Louis Ramirez