Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

It was only a matter of time until Blu-ray hit the home theater in a box systems. Sony is taking their HT-SF2000 HTIB, adding the BDP-S300, and throwing in the BD Spider-Man trilogy for kicks. The system is built for HDMI, as the receiver has three inputs and one out, so besides speaker wire, users aren't going to have many cables to deal with. Plus, all that HDMI allows for auto-setup, in Sony's parlance: Digital Cinema Auto Calibration. HTIB systems have never been known for their sound quality and something tells us this 1000W system is going to be exactly top-notch, but that said, if priced right, it could be a great option for some with limited budget and a need for Blu-ray. The HTP-BD2RSF is currently announce for the European market only at an unknown sum, but something tells us that Sony is going to drop sometime very similar at CEDIA next week.

 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Offic...

Filed under: Storage
Inventing the dual layer DVD-RW standard may seem like an extreme example of too little too late in the days of 15GB+ HD DVD and 25GB+ Blu-ray, but JVC has gone ahead and done it anyway. Hitting up the same 8.5GB capacity as regular double layer DVD-RWs and dual layer DVD-RWs, the JVC discs come with a specially hardened coating which is apparently "150 times" more effective than the coating on plain old DVDs. Unfortunately, the new format requires entirely new burners, is only available at 2x write speeds, and no shipping dates or details are available. Sounds like JVC's got a winner on its hands ... yeah. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

After yesterday's Blu-ray press conference, Toshiba fired back...over the course of two very, very long hours. And by "fired back," we really mean gave a bunch of presentations that were too long. So we're giving you a fast forward version of the conference...that still feels a bit like slow-mo.
The show opens with Yoshihide Fujii introducing a video. It's a CGI wonderfest, best transcribed from my notes:
"A rotating metal globe shoots a laser. Stuff lights up. It's a submarine! It's a, wait, pirate ship! WITH JETS ON THE BACK. Now it's flying. Best video ever. Weird galaxy thingies now. Lots of floating metal balls. Pink elephants fly past the screen. Pigs. The word you were looking for was "pigs."
That was the video. "It's true, it cost very much," Fujii said.
Running through Toshiba's game plan, Fujii went through the 3-pronged strategy of HDD, HD DVD and SD in Toshiba's multimedia approach. He also mentioned, "I'm sure withing three years the price of ...

Filed under: Laptops

We can't ever guarantee launch dates on an unannounced product, but it looks like Dell's internal shipment date for the new XPS M1730 just slipped, and has been pushed back to September 21st for the US, Europe, and Asia. Here's the latest specs list (sorry, not much there has changed since before):
Intel Core 2 Dup up to 2.6GHz (X7800, 4MB cache) Up to 4GB DDR2 667 RAM, Intel PM965 chipset 17-inch WUXGA TrueLife (1920x1200) Single or SLI 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT Regular and SSD drive options Blu-ray drive (6) USB 2.0, 1394, DVI out, S-Video, gigabit Ethernet, IR 54mm ExpressCard (with travel remote) 802.11a/b/g/n, 3G WWAN, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR 10.6 pound starting weight, 2-inch thick chassis  
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

At yesterday's Blu-ray keynote, the BDA promised the press that Hitachi would be making a major Blu-ray announcement today. It got a few of us excited. After all, this is the company who is releasing the world's first Blu-ray camcorder—whatever this device could be, it would be a potential milestone.
The announcement? It WAS the Blu-ray camcorder. The same one we've talked about for months, is on posters around Berlin and isn't new. Blu-ray, I didn't have a dog in this fight. But now I hope HD DVD rises from lousy sales ratios and destroys you, Blu-ray. I hope they burn out your eyes with inferior laser technology until you cry and then realize you can't cry without them. (This, of course, won't stop a hands-on with the camcorder we have planned for later today).

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Not to be left out of this year's HD device love-fest at IFA, German firm Loewe has a sexy yet silly named Blu-ray player surely only slightly more likely to gather respect than the American actor Rob of the same name. The BluTech Vision Blu-ray player features HDMI, 24p, TrueHD, DTS HD, 7.1 surround, although not much else is known -- like where the hell you put the discs, or where the front display is. Guess Loewe's home audience of Germany will find out when it's released in October. One more shot after the break.

[Thanks, AG23]Continue reading Loewe's BluTech Vision Blu-ray player also lands
 
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Amidst the slew of new Blu-ray players showcased at IFA comes word that two new forces are pledging their alligiance to the BD camp. Reportedly, both Acer and China Huala Group have joined on as hardware partners, and the latter is supposedly looking to establish a "Blu-ray Disc authoring center in China." The announcements were purportedly made by the Blu-ray Disc Association while in Berlin, and while we're not exactly sure how long Acer will make us wait for more Blu-ray-equipped lappies, the more intriguing question -- you know, the one regarding concerns over piracy from a newfound authoring center in China -- has yet to be tackled by the BDA.

[Thanks, AG23] 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Not a ton of new specs to behold on this new Blu-ray player, but Philips's BDP7100 does everything it should (1080p output, HDMI CEC, 24p, True HD, and DTS HD support). No word if it's got HDMI v1.3 or Blu-ray 1.1, and Philips also neglected to mention the price and availability of this new Blu-ray player of theirs, but we still dutifully thank them for their morsels of information and sheepishly ask for a second helping of porridge, kind sirs. One more image after the break.Continue reading Philips BDP7100 Blu-ray player lands at IFA
 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Most of this season's Blu-ray players, including the BDP7100, have the same general upgrades:
•1080/24 frame support for movies
•HDMI 1.3
•Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD audio.
So, I wouldn't call this segment of the industry "competive". What extras should these guys include to make us choose their player over another? I'd say LG and Samsung are on track with their dual format players. And Toshiba has made good news out of the fact that they have quality upscalers in their HD DVD boxes.
What else?
[yahoo!]

Today at IFA, Daewoo tried to make its unexpected foray in the Blu-ray market count for something by launching the first Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player, the DBP-1000. Basically Profile 2.0 means it supports all of 1.1's specs (like picture-in-picture) and adds web functionality (aka BD-Live). More mundanely, it supports 1080p via HDMI and upscales DVD and JPEGs to full HD resolution. No price or street date yet, but we know we like the shiny blue shell. [The Register]