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Posts with tag blu-ray

87% of PlayStation 3 owners watching Blu-ray movies? Survey says yes

by Richard Lawler, posted Jul 4th 2008 at 9:09PM


Buried under predictions that 2012 will bring dominance for Blu-ray over DVD and breaking news that the PS3 just may have had a hand in winning the format war the Entertainment Merchant's Association 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry holds survey results showing 87% of PS3 owners reported they watch Blu-ray movies on their console. That's a stark contrast to last year's NPD survey indicating 60% of owners didn't even know it played them. We don't know what's behind the jump, be it better marketing/consumer education, or something wrong with how one the surveys were conducted. You can mull that one over during the fast money round while also peeping results that say 22% of HDTV owners think they're watching HD programming, but in fact are not -- not like we haven't heard that before.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray player goes under the knife

by Steven Kim, posted Jul 4th 2008 at 12:42PM

FormatWarCentral dissects Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray player
Our good friends at FormatWarCentral has kicked off a new Blu-ray player undressing series with the recently-updated Panasonic DMP-BD30K. Not a lot of big surprises behind the sheet metal kimono -- there's a lot of air inside the chassis. Click on through for photos of the sparsely populated circuit boards, which are a pretty good indication that the engineering and design of these Profile 1.1 players are pretty mature. All that empty space also bodes well for some price-cutting possibilities, we hope. Of course, the real excitement will come as more players go through the FormatWarCentral lab -- rebadgers/rebranders, beware!

[Image courtesy FormatWarCentral]

ILY Enterprise unveils "world's first" 6x SATA Blu-ray duplicator

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2008 at 3:34PM


ILY Enterprise is totally playing word games here with its "world's first" 6x SATA Blu-ray duplicator, but we suspect it actually is a tad quicker than Vinpower Digital's comparable unit. As the company states, this unit boasts a controller that is "specifically designed and built for a SATA connection to reduce the cost and work more reliably than IDE-converted-SATA units," though we can't say if you'll actually notice the difference in speed without a stopwatch. Whatever the case, those interested in firing up their own piracy farm movie production company can acquire one now (from 1 to 11 targets) for a presumably lofty price. Oh, and judging by those logos, we reckon these drives could be used to play back some of your old HD DVDs during off-hours -- talk about a nice perk.

MCE offers 6x Blu-ray burner for Mac Pro and Power Mac G5

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 10:06AM


MCE is at it again providing the wares that Apple simply won't. After offering up a 2x Blu-ray burner for the Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 last year, the company is keeping up with the industry by introducing a 6x variant for the very same machines. You'll also find compatibility with BD-RE (2x), DVD±R (16x), DVD±RW (6x - 8x), DVD±RW DL (4x), CD-R (40x) and CD-RW (24x). The drive itself is available as we speak for $499, while a bundle with Roxio Toast 9 Titanium goes for $599 and an external version runs $749.

[Via The Mac Observer]

Blue Ray Technologies opening America's largest Blu-ray Disc mastering facility

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 7:07AM

Blue Ray Technologies was expecting business to boom shortly after the format war concluded, and apparently the shock is in full effect. According to founder and chairman Erick Hansen, America's "first indie Blu-ray disc manufacturing plant is now becoming the largest indie [and Profile 2.0-friendly] Blue-ray Disc mastering facility in the US." When all is said done, the facility will be "the only indie that can handle rewritable disc mastering and will provide pre-mastering as well," not to mention being the only one that can make a rewriting stamper. Granted, most of this stuff amounts to a huge pat on the back, but the expansion of independent films on BD is certainly healthy for the industry at large. Now, if only the hardware to watch these films on were more affordable, we'd really have a match made in heaven.

Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray players start to see the light of day

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 4:46PM


One of the most highly anticipated new Blu-ray players is the Panasonic DMP-BD50 and after months and months of waiting it is starting to show up as in stock on various obscure online retailers. A quick search online shows that the big box stores have yet to receive their initial shipments, but it is safe to assume that when the likes of 6th Ave and Rainbow Electronics has them, widespread availability can't be too far behind. The first full featured Blu-ray that includes everything from BD Live, to internal DTS-HD MA decoders won't come cheap though, the initial prices are right at the retail of $699.

[Via Blu-ray Stats]

Sony's $400 BDP-S350 Blu-ray player shows July 15th ship date

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 3:30PM


When Sony introduced its classically-styled BDP-S350 Blu-ray player in late February, all we knew was that the $400 machine would land sometime this summer. Now, we're seeing a pre-order page (on Toys R Us, admittedly) that pegs the ship date at July 15th. Yeah, a fortnight from now. The price remains unchanged at $399.99, but at least you'll find Profile 2.0 compatibility as well as bitstream support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, right? Okay, now that it's a date, who's buying (and more importantly, who's not?)

[Thanks, Rahul]

Blockbuster CEO to Studios: Make more copies of Blu-ray films

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 1:26PM

Blockbuster
Now that Blu-ray is almost running full steam ahead with all the studios on board and full profile stand-alone players right around the corner, this holiday season is going to prove to be an important one for the adoption of Blu-ray. Blockbuster's CEO Jim Keyes wants to help out and says "We think the rental model can help Blu-ray." He believes that Blu-ray can help extend the packaged media model another five to ten years, but to make it work the studios need to get serious and make more copies of Blu-ray films. He goes on to explain that if the studios don't speed up the mass-market product, that the entire industry could lose out to digital downloads. While we love the idea of digital downloads, we are not willing to sacrifice any quality just to save us from handling a shinny round disc, but at the same time we don't have any problems renting or buying just about any Blu-ray movie we want.

Onkyo to ship first Blu-ray player in late 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 12:59PM


In case you needed something stamped from Onkyo itself in order to believe that a Blu-ray player was on the way, here's your sign. Said outfit has just announced that a currently unnamed BD player (its first, in fact) will hit the "international" market in late 2008. Unfortunately, details beyond that are scant, as all we're told is that it'll play nice with Onkyo's AV receivers, pack an HDMI port and decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats. Additionally, we aren't notified of whether Onkyo has any plans of bringing the elusive deck stateside, and we haven't a clue about pricing. But hey, you can go ahead and circle all of Q4 to be on the lookout.

[Via Electronic House]

Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy on Blu-ray September 16th

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 3:01AM


It's quite possible that you're not really taking a long, hard look at what's coming up in September, but for those acutely aware of what's taking place, you can easily see that said month will be a total drain on the wallet. Shortly after hearing that masterpieces such as The Godfather trilogy, Kill Bill 1 & 2 and Transformers (okay, so maybe the latter hasn't reached masterpiece status just yet) would be hitting in September, now we've got the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy arriving as well. On September 16th, fans of Mr. Depp and Mr. Sparrow alike will have the opportunity to acquire the six-disc set for $82.99, which will include a 1080p presentation of the features and the same supplements found on each of the individually released discs. Just to clarify, what you're seeing here is a repackaging of the titles already out there, so folks who have already snagged all three individually won't find anything new in this.

Samsung's BD-P1500 gets firmware update, Profile 2.0 not included

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 9:34AM


Not that we had a whole heap of complaints about Samsung's BD-P1500 when we reviewed it earlier this month, but Samsung has already pushed out a minor firmware update that reportedly addresses "playback compatibility." Chances are you won't find it posted online just yet, but for those who connect directly to the 'net with their Blu-ray player, the v080621.02 update can be sucked down and installed. Sadly, Profile 2.0 is not included, but it's nice to be treated to free updates nonetheless. Chime in below if you notice any drastic changes.

[Thanks, Jacob]

Update: It's now available via Samsung's website.

Weinstein to finally go Blu in August with The Mist

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 6:02PM

The MistThe Weinstein Company is the big studio that everyone seems to forget. Back when HD DVD vs Blu-ray was really cranking, it was common to create tables listing which studios were on what side, and somehow despite a pretty good selection of movies, everyone always forgot about Weinstein. Weinstein started out all Red all the time, but later its titles went MIA from the HD media world completely, which has left many wondering how long it would take before every major studio was releasing titles on Blu-ray. Now with less than thirty days to go until Universal goes Blu, we've learned that on August 5th, when The Mist is released, HD fans everywhere should finally have access to movies from every major studio in Hollywood for the first time ever.

Poll: What's the best HTPC Blu-ray software?

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 1:03PM


With Blu-ray drives for PCs selling for less than $150 -- and only getting cheaper -- many HTPC fans are left wondering, what is the best HTPC Blu-ray software? While the old favorites were the first on the scene with PowerDVD and WinDVD, ArcSoft has recently been bragging how popular its TotalMedia Theater is with high end HTPC vendors like NiveusMedia and Vidabox. We assume the reason is because these companies are keen on Vista Media Center and ArcSoft works harder on integrating with Media Center than the rest. But Media Center integration isn't the end all be all for Blu-ray playback, and it isn't that difficult to integrate the other players yourself. So this left us wondering, which is the best Blu-ray player software for Windows?

What's the best HTPC Blu-ray software?

Pioneer reveals new Blu-ray players in Europe

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 3:03PM Breaking News


Remember how your curiosity level shot through the roof when Pioneer abruptly discontinued the BDP-LX70A Blu-ray player in the UK? We're willing to bet this is why. Announced over on Pioneer's European website, we're being treated to three fresh faces -- the Profile 2.0-compliant BDP-LX91, Designer BDP-LX08 and BDP-LX71 -- along with one familiar face (the BDP-51FD). All of the new units will feature 1080p24 support, HDMI 12-Bit Deep Color support, KURO LINK, DTS-HD Master Audio / Dolby True HD compatibility and professional-quality Wolfson Digital Audio Converters (DACs). As for pricing and availability other than Europe, your guess is as good as ours, but we are told to expect the BDP-LX71 in September, the BDP-51FD / BDP-LX08 in October and the BDP-LX91 "later on in the winter."

Sony unloads two new VGX-TP1 media center PCs

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 8:54AM


The tried-and-true circle PC is back, this time with even more potent hardware under the hood to keep your media churnin'. First up is the VGX-TP1D, which features a white motif, 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, GeForce 8400M GT graphics card, integrated WiFi, a dual-layer DVD writer and HDMI / VGA outs. The black VGX-TP1DQ / B steps it up by including a 500GB hard drive and a Blu-ray burner to boot. Both units also boast four USB 2.0 ports, 4-pin FireWire, a multicard reader, TV tuner and a wireless keyboard. Look for each to land in just over a fortnight (in Japan) for ¥150,000 ($1,392) / ¥200,000 ($1,856), respectively.

[Via AkihabaraNews]




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