Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Check it Mini-ITX fans, we've got the FLeX 4.2 home theater PC for you straight from Italy's P.Guerra. On one side of the folding chassis, we've got 400W RMS ICEpower audio amplifiers from Bang & Olufsen which work just fine without turning the PC-side of this HTCP on. A special IR receiver and software developed by P.Guerra allows the Flex 4.2 to be integrated into other B&O A/V systems. On the other side of the chassis then, we've got an Intel Core 2 Duo Mini-ITX motherboard with choice of up to a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 processor; 3.5-inch vibration-damped SATA disk offering up to 750GB of storage at 7200rpm; up to 2GB DDR2 667 memory; Intel GMA950 graphics; choice of satellite, cable, or terrestrial DVB tuners; WiFi; 7.1ch analog audio or TosLink digital; dual-layer DVD±R±RW writer; Gigabit Ethernet; a slew of Firewire and USB; and DVI, VGA, Component, S-Video, and Composite video outputs. They ...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Oh, and speaking of Sharp recorders, we've got five more from the AQUOS series hitting today. The most interesting beast of the bunch is the ¥200,000 ($1,650) DV-ACW60 (pictured) packing a 1TB hard disk; dual digital and analog HD tuners; HDMI, Japanese D4, S-Video, composite video outputs; 2x analog, 1x optical, and 1x coaxial audio outputs. A couple of Firewire ports let the AQUOS recorders get friendly with your DV camera or say Sharp's new AQUOS BD-HP1 Blu-ray recorder for high-speed dubbing to Blu-ray Disc. It also brings a couple of USB jacks to play host to devices like cameras or audio players to extract media without the need of a PC -- presumably, you can sling more disk off USB as well. Hell, they've even thrown in some new IrSS high-speed infrared communications to move pictures off your like-equipped cellphone on the quick. The line-up of recorders also come in a ¥140,000 ($1,155) 500GB DV-ACW55 model (or ¥110,0...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The Blu-ray Disc camp just unrolled another: the BD-HP1 AQUOS hi-vision recorder from Sharp. Yes, it records, to single-layer (only) BD-R/RE in MPEG-2 format with AAC audio for about 2-hours and 10-minutes of 1080p video at 24Mbps. Of course, it will also playback DVD±R/RW and DVD-RAM discs as well. It comes packing 1x HDMI (presumably with Familink support), Japanese D4, S-Video, and composite video outputs; optical/coaxial digital audio; and support for 7.1ch sound. It also brings 2x Firewire allowing the BD-HP1 to augment your existing hard disk recorder set-up for BD dubbing. Hitting Japan like a mutated lizard for ¥150,000 (about $1,238) starting March 20th.

[Via Impress] 
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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 pow...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

That's it folks, let's pack it up and go home: the format war is over. Or at least so says Sony, which is bragging about some solid numbers from the month January. Reportedly two Blu-ray Discs were sold for every one HD DVD last month, and while HD DVD standalone players still edge out Blu-ray by a slight margin, PS3 sales have given the Blu-ray camp a solid win for the month. Numbers are still hard to read, due to disparate launch titles and quantities for Blu-ray and HD DVD, but the 25 Blu-ray movies and 11 HD DVD movies give a good impression of the current trend. Reportedly HD DVD sales are growing, just not as fast and Blu-ray, and Sony seems to think they have it in the bag: "We have a critical mass of content, we have the biggest mass of consumer electronics companies in the world supporting this format. That has moved Blu-ray into the forefront." And despite the fact that Universal Studios is still holding out on putting its mov...

Opening the "processing key" that protects high-def DVDs is surprisingly simple. Happy Valentine's Day, AACS. In Gadget Lab.

The guys at the Doom 9 forum are marking February 11, 2007 as the day when digital rights management was defeated on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. It turns out that cracking the high definition disc formats was much easier than was originally thought. The processing key that can unravel the DRM on all HD DVD and Blu-ray discs has been found by a clever encryption fighter named arnezami.
It gets better:

The first-reported cracks for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs were not completely effective, because each individual title had secret codes that were needed to unravel the rest of the encryption on that disc. But now this newly-found processing key is apparently the holy grail that unlocks the DRM on all HD DVD and Blu-ray discs released so far. The guy found it by simply watching his computer memory, where the secret code—which we won't publish here for fear of doing jail time—simply appeared. Incredible. Let the free downloads begin! – Charlie White
...

Filed under: HDTV
Those cooky kids over at the Doom9 forums hate themselves some DRM. Not more than two months after discovering a means to extract the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc "volume keys" to decrypt AACS DRM on individual films, we're now getting word that DRM hacker arnezami has found the "processing key" used to decrypt the DRM on all HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc films. Let's break this down for what it is: instead of needing individual keys for each and every high-definition film -- of which there are many -- the processing key can be used to unlock, decrypt, and backup every HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc film released so far. As arnezami points out, "nothing was actually hacked, cracked or even reverse engineered." All he had to do was keep an eye on his memory, watch what changed, and voila... the processing key appeared. So kick back and watch the trickle of HD titles hitting the torrents quickly turn into a flood (at ~20GB a pop, that's not an exaggeration)...

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Sea-Monkeygate. While at the Toy Fair here in New York, I stumbled upon two products that essentially do the same thing (let you grow small animals in a small water tank): Sea-Monkeys and Triops. You've probably heard of Sea-Monekys, those weird things that come in packets and grow in water. Triops are similar, but according to the guy who was promoting them, they're so much better. He ranted for several minutes (just ask Noah) on why Sea-Monkeys are really a scam because they don't grow instantly as promised, among other things. Then he went off on a tangent and Noah and I hurried away. Luckily, I ran into the Sea-Monkeys people a few minutes later. And boy were they hot under the collar when I told them about Triops stylin' on them.
The Sea-Monkey response? That Triops are "gross." The reps— two lovely young ladies, not that that affects my judgement, mind you—then lauded Sea-Monkeys and how they're the original, um, sea c...

Filed under: Displays, Laptops

All the same sexy, but this time we've got a bit more info on the upcoming U1F 11.1-incher from ASUS. Of course, that LED backlight inside the 5mm thick LCD is the highlight, but there's plenty more to love inside this 18mm thick laptop (0.7-inches, though it tapers up to 1.1-inches thick). Oddly enough, one of the neatest highlights is the optional external disc drive. This one ain't no stripped down combo drive number, but instead houses a Blu-ray / DVD super multi burner for the ultimate in optical goodness. We're not sure what you'd be doing with a Blu-ray movie on this WXGA LCD, and there don't seem to be any HD outputs for slapping video onto a big screen, but we like the chutzpah all the same. Under the hood there's a Core Duo U2400 processor with a Intel 945GM Express chipset and Intel a/b/g WiFi. Hard drive options range from 40 to 80GB, the webcam is of the VGA variety and connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth...

Wayde Robson may not know whether Blu-ray or HD DVD is better, but he does think that Blu-ray wasn't made with the consumer in mind. Wayde goes on a rant, claiming Sony lured in more support from the studios because they made their format more studio-friendly in terms of DRM and content protection.
Then he says Sony really doesn't have the consumer in mind, being that they're both a media and a content company. He makes no claims that HD DVD is better, just that if Sony wins the format war, things may get ugly for the rest of us not wearing thousand dollar suits. – Jason Chen
Blu-ray and Sony - Does the Consumer Win? [Gizmo Cafe via Crunchgear]