Recent Comments:
Samsung BD-P1500 review {Engadget HD}
Jun 4th 2008 12:30PM Great review Ben !
Like Foxb said, I think I'd go with the 5000 since it will play my HD DVDs, has analog outs and, apparently, has most of the bugs ironed out.
Engadget HD Podcast 086 - 05.28.2008 {Engadget HD}
Jun 2nd 2008 3:08PM That was, by far, the worst sounding podcast you've ever recorded. Hey Trent: have you heard about COMPRESSION !
Since Ben and Steve go from whisper quiet to thundering laugh in less than a second, maybe you should think about using a compressor/limiter.
Listening to this in my car has me constantly playing with the volume.
Get some tips from the experts:
http://podcastacademy.com
Hard to believe a technology oriented blog doesn't seem to master technology...
Panasonic's DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets US release {Engadget HD}
May 6th 2008 8:04PM I don't care about the high price: I can afford it (yuk-yuk-yuk !) and I think that, in term of quality, it's going to beat the hell out of the PS3 !
DTS-HD MA decoding with analog outs ! At long last !
Yippee !
I'll buy one the minute it comes out !
Who in their right mind would buy a Blu-ray player right now? {Engadget HD}
May 2nd 2008 5:51PM I work for one of the biggest broadcaster in Canada. Needless to say that a lot of my co-workers are really into DVD, console gaming and HD. We're tv nuts.
But only a handful use a pvr and even less have HDTV. The one guy I know who has Blu-ray owns a PS3. He just bought "Planet Earth" and thinks it looks amazing but was VERY expensive !
We gave away a Sharp LCD and a (crappy) Sharp Blu-ray player a few months ago and no one in our sales department knew what Blu-ray was.
So Joe SixPack is probaly even less interested in Blu-ray. Joe needs his cheapo player. My local Wal-Mart has a 450$ Sony Blu-ray on display (playing the same demo over and over) but no one seems to look at it. If they two, the price turns them off. I heard a guy saying "it'll sell for 100$ in a year or so". Customers are more interested in the discount DVD bin.
As for us true HD fans, we belong to two camps: I'm in the high-end side and I want my player to be the most up-to-date (without paying Denon prices...) possible.
So, no: no one in their right mind would buy a player now. Until cheapo low-price "stable" players and "decode everything profile 2" players are here, we'll keep our money in our pocket.
Poll: What will your next display be? {Engadget HD}
Apr 27th 2008 8:40AM A Pioneer Kuro projector with 30000:1 contrast is supposed to come out.
Close to 12000$, apparently. Expensive, but I think this could be the one.
Hauppauge HD-PVR shows itself, pre-order said to be coming soon {Engadget HD}
Apr 7th 2008 4:51PM I just pre-ordered mine (April 7th) ! Let's hope the advertised May 1st release date is respected !
Apparently, there might be a way to hack it to raise the bitrate over the 13.5 mbits/s limit, possibly up to 25 !
We'll have to wait and see... so far, it's only speculation. But even the 13.5 advertised maximum is pretty close to the theoretical 19.4 of broadcast HDTV.
Plextor's Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drives still on the way {Engadget HD}
Mar 25th 2008 2:44PM Well, I have a Panasonic Blu-ray burner that I paid 400$ on eBay and an XBOX 360 HD DVD drive that I got for 50$ at Best Buy. I can rip both formats and burn to Blu-ray for 450$. So 599$ seems a bit on the high side.
Pioneer BDP-95FD review {Engadget HD}
Mar 20th 2008 2:33PM I'm actually waiting for the Panasonic. Can't wait until you guys annonce a release date and price. ;)
Pioneer BDP-95FD review {Engadget HD}
Mar 20th 2008 11:19AM Who cares about profile 1.1 (PIP) ? Ben: Tell me you did a survey and that the results show that people care more about RS-232 than "flashy features".
Of course "not everyone" want all the features. As a reviewer, you should be more objective and look at the facts, not you personal likings. Sure, I like reading about your opinion, but after reading your review, I don't feel this is a "Top player".
But... In a player costing 1000$, RS-232 should probably be included. After all, it's "Elite". It should also be more up-to-date than the PS3.
My point is, "Best of the best" should be "close to perfect", if not perfect. When you look at any given format, I would think that "Top" would describe a player that has all the latest features of the format. This one doesn't.
Sure, you like this player a lot. Just say so. Oh, I think you did.
It's just that the first line of your review made me think that this player was "it".
But is ain't.
Pioneer BDP-95FD review {Engadget HD}
Mar 20th 2008 8:18AM Ben, you say "Best of the best" and then your review shows lots of "bad and ugly". Is that really the best Blu-ray has to offer ? This thing is outdated (no profile 1.1), does not output DTS-HD MA through analog outs, fails HQV tests... and costs 1K $
"Best of the best" ? Really ?
