While suits from Psystar and Apple are currently attempting to work things out via alternative dispute resolution, the former company is doing something the latter company won't: offer OS X-capable machines with built-in Blu-ray and NVIDIA's GeForce 9800GT. Showing no mercy whatsoever in a recent release, Psystar calls Steve Jobs out for his controversial "bag of hurt" comment and proceeds to inform the general public that it's "now shipping" OS X-compatible PCs (better known as Open Computers) with Blu-ray optical drives and the GeForce 9800GT GPU. Based on pricing figures gathered from the company's website, a 6x Blu-ray writer is a $310 upgrade over a dual-layer DVD burner, while the 512MB GeForce 9800GT will set you back $200 more than the 8600GT. Whatcha got to say now, Steve? Huh? Huh?

[Via MacUser]

Neither Mitsubishi, NVIDIA nor Aspen Media are members of the recently formed 3D@Home Consortium, but that's not stopping the trio from teaming up in order to bring the third-dimension into the home. In a rather vague release issued today, the three companies are seemingly coming together in order deliver "high-value 3D content to the consumer at home in one convenient package." What exactly is in that package remains to be seen. From what we can glean, Aspen will be providing the Aspen Media Server, which will in turn possess one of NVIDIA's 3D-capable GeForce FX Go GPUs. From there, we'd bet Mitsubishi throws in an HDTV to seal the deal. C'mon you guys, throw us a bone here, will ya?

A slim PC destined to handle both of the major high-definition movie formats? Say it ain't so! Turns out, HP is indeed doling out such a machine, and it's so eloquently dubbed the Pavilion Slimline s3330f PC. Here's a look at what this mighty mini-tower will be packin':

• 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor
• 2GB of DDR2 RAM
• 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA drive
• HP Pocket Media Drive Bay
• Single LightScribe-enabled optical drive that reads Blu-ray / HD DVD and writes to dual-layer DVDs
  
• NVIDIA's 256MB GeForce 8500 GT
• 802.11b/g WiFi
• Built-in NTSC / ATSC TV tuners
• Front-mounted 15-in-1 multicard reader

Furthermore, you'll find 6 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, audio in / out, DVI / HDMI ports and a wireless keyboard / mouse bundled in along with a whole suite of software. Intrigued? Be on the lookout for this one to land later this month starting at $949.

Hard to believe (well, maybe not so much) that you've had to twiddle your thumbs nearly half a year to see VidaBox actually ship those well-spec'd all-in-one media centers, but thankfully for those who've waited, deployment starts now. The firm's highly customizable LUX and MAGNUM rigs sport both Blu-ray and HD DVD support (via dual drives or in a single drive like another offering), CableCARD, 7.1 Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD surround sound, up to four OTA tuners, 4GB of RAM, and up to 9TB of onboard storage on select models. Unfortunately for those already whipping out the credit cards, placing your order won't be as easy as you'd expect, as we imagine that "call for price" bit really means "too enormous to list."

Asus is no stranger to kicking out curious motherboards and other peripherals that we geeks just can't help but love, and following up on its undertaking of auxiliary displays and the AquaTank PCI card is a couple of swank new video cards that tout an HDCP-friendly HDMI port. The half-height ATI Radeon X1600 EAX1600PRO was apparently crafted with the common HTPC builder in mind, as its diminutive size lends itself to becoming a perfect fit for those tight spaces within AV-like media center PC cases. But before you gamers get too excited, you should probably know that in-game performance is likely to be less than stellar, but HotHardware did note that its model wasn't shy when overclocked. Interestingly, this HTPC-centric card comes bundled sans a true HDMI-to-HDMI cable, which leaves us all a bit miffed considering the niche it's trying to appease. The EN7600GT ups the ante by delivering the frame rate luxuries as only an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 can, but its full-height design will definitely cause problems in slimmer enclosures. Other extras found on this device are its SLI-capabilities, DVI / S-video outputs, and optical audio jack, but considering it packs just 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, the hardcore gamers in the crowd are still not likely to find themselves impressed. Still, with the EAX1600PRO ringing up at just around a cool hundred, and the more powerful EN7600GT asking just about twice that, these here cards look to be solid options if you're just getting around to creating your own HTPC.

[Via Slashdot]

NVIDIA, like Intervideo, wants to help you build that next Blu-ray or HD DVD drive-equipped media PC, and has released new ForceWare drivers for GeForce 7-series graphics cards to enable PureVideo HD acceleration. It'll take plenty of processing power to move that HD video, with a recommended minimum of a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. FiringSquad got an early look at a PureVideo HD-powered setup, and confirmed that on PCs, unless ICT is enabled, you will be able to play back AACS-protected discs at full resolution over VGA. DVI connections without HDCP support on the graphics card and monitor get nothing, but HDCP support on both ends enables full resolution playback in any situation. NVIDIA has also launched an nZone store with links to all the graphics cards, monitors and software one could ever need -- how nice of them. Since FiringSquad's tests showed even on a Core 2 Duo system high bitrate h.264-encoded files were chugging without assistance, we see a system upgrade in your future.

[Via DV Guru]

Read - NVIDIA PureVideo HD with HD-DVD Quick Shot
Read - NVIDIA Enables an Outstanding HD DVD and Blu-Ray Movie Experience with Newly Released NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology

Toshiba may still actually make both HD DVD standalone players available, but they no longer have the laptop market to themselves and "firm Blu-ray supporters" LG (thanks for the reminder Zach). (. Acer's Aspire 9800 laptop started shipping today, coming with a 20.1-inch screen, Core Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go-powered graphics and of course the HD DVD drive (no recording here yet). If the 1680x1050 resolution laptop screen isn't enough there is an HDMI output, future-proofing against ICT-enabled discs of the future. All this starts at $2799 and isn't bad, but our most pressing question is if print screen still works.

[Via laptoping]

Because HD just wasn't HD enough, now it's extreme. As I was sitting back eating my HD cereal, listening to my HD radio, preparing for an HD videoconference with a doctor looking at my HD MRI  and I was thinking man, how can I get more HD in my life? Luckily NVIDIA has answered my unspoken call for more.

Their GeForce Go 7900 series enables gaming at not-quite exactly-1080p resolutions of 1920x1200, along with their PureVideo hardware acceleration. I began to question how worthwhile all that is given the size of a typical laptop screen, although the fact you're generally sitting so close may cause the need for higher resolutions.

That's well and great, however (I can't believe I'm saying this) can we get a little less HD? At least according to Ben's definition, NVIDIA is using the term appropriately, but still, everything that is newer and better does not need to be HD (except for HD Beat and HDTVs of course). Find your own term marketers.

The new NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS might be geared for Microsoft Vista and it's Glass user interface, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little 1080i high-def fun with it, right? Besides, there aren't too many good HD-capable graphics cards for under a Ben Franklin. Hey, since Franklin's birthday was last week, do you think NVIDIA set the price at a C-Note in honor of Ben? While we're trying to figure that out, let's see $99 gits ya. How about Shader Model 3.0 support (we hear it's better than 5:00 shadow support), high dynamic-ranging (HDR) lighting and NVIDIA's own Turbo-Cache technology. Couple all of that with memory bandwidth of 6.5 GBps and a 2.2 billion pixel fillrate per second and you've got a nice GPU for $99. Watch for this to hit the States next month.