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DRA audio coding technology gains BDA approval

by Darren Murph posted Mar 19th 2009 at 3:49PM


Remember that funky DRA audio format we mentioned way back in July of last year? Yeah, somehow that just got approved by the BDA. While we're sure the likes of DTS and Dolby won't be up all night fearing for tomorrow, there actually is another audio format in the Blu-ray town. Over in Beijing, the Blu-ray Disc Association, China Hualu Group and Digital Rise Technology have gathered together to announce that the DRA digital audio coding technology has been approved for inclusion in the BD-ROM 2.3 specification as an "optional audio codec." The folks involved seem pretty stoked, but seriously, what are the chances any mainstream Blu-ray Disc ships this year (or ever, really) with a DRA soundtrack? Anyone placing bets?

Cheaper Blu-ray? Sony, Panasonic, and Philips say it's coming, honestly

by Ross Miller posted Feb 25th 2009 at 3:37PM

Look, we don't really "get" people who aren't willing to buy the latest and greatest thing regardless of the price and / or current economic state, but evidently there's a rather large sector still clinging to their antiquated DVD format. Blu-ray proponents Panasonic, Philips, and Sony are looking to change all that by knocking down the tab a few notches. The trio has revealed plans to form a single licensing firm for Blu-ray, which they anticipate will lower the cost of the license -- and therefore the retail price -- by "at least" 40 percent. They expect it'll amount to $9.50 for read-only BD player, $14 for a burner, 11 cents for read-only discs, 12 cents for BD-Rs, and 15 cents for BD-RE rewritable discs. In its current form, hopeful BD makers have to seek out each company individually. The group also hopes a single licensing entity will help them spot unauthorized BD devices, so watch out, suspicious mom and pop Blu-ray stores.

BenQ hacks 33% from its BR1000 Blu-ray optical drive in Taiwan

by Darren Murph posted Jul 21st 2008 at 3:12PM


We'd give you two guesses on how we feel about this trend, but you only need one. BenQ has just followed Pioneer's lead and dropped the price of its BR1000 Blu-ray optical drive a full 33% in Taiwan. Post-discount, the BD-ROM unit now sits at around NT$3,650 (or $120 to you Americans). SonyNEC Optiarc projected that we'd see these internal drives selling for under $100 before 2009, and it looks like its prophecy will indeed come true. Now, as soon as the standalone players start heading in the same direction, we'll be all smiles.

Pioneer's BDC-202 "combo" 5x Blu-ray drive

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 9th 2007 at 6:30AM

At Pioneer's CES press conference it announced both its new plasma display technology and a new half height Blu-ray drive for PCs. Titled the BDC-202 combination Blu-ray disc drive it unfortunately isn't quite the "combo" drive we might have expected. No HD DVD compatibility is in store from Pioneer but this drive is still special, able to read BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE discs at 5x, dual layer recordable Blu-ray discs at 2x while also service as a DVD/CD read/write drive. As long as Blu-ray is your format of choice this is the type of drive that is most likely to end up in the PC of someone who wants to watch Blu-ray movies on their PC, but doesn't need to be able to author them or back up large files. Also, by forgoing Blu-ray burning capability it should (hopefully) be significantly cheaper than current Blu-ray burners (pictured) on the market. No price yet, but the drive should be available in the second quarter of this year.

Blu-ray camp pumps up release list in Japan

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 30th 2006 at 12:33PM


In advance of their press conference tomorrow at the IFA in Berlin, the Blu-ray Disc Association was showing off their wares in Japan. They're promising 75 Blu-ray titles by year end, a few dual layer 50GB discs, the debut of h.264, you know the drill. Interestingly, the Japanese will be getting Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl this year while Disney's Buena Vista leaves the US with Paul Walker. They had a real Playstation 3 in attendance playing back high bit-rate encoded Blu-ray discs, although all we've seen is pics of the very PS2-reminiscent menu. Also on hand were other companies releasing Blu-ray products soon, mostly showing the same preview units we've seen since CES. Basically the theme was all is well, Blu-ray is on track, PS3, dual-layer and BD-J are coming, stay the course.

Read - PS3 BD-ROM Playback Demonstration - Impress
Read - Blu-ray camp to offer 75 software titles in Japan - Reuters
Read - Blu-ray disc simultaneous announcement - Impress

Continue reading Blu-ray camp pumps up release list in Japan





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