May 08

Harman Kardon intros its first Blu-ray player, the BDP 10

Posted in: blu-ray, Today's Chili

Harmon Kardon has decided to jump into the Blu-ray pushing business with its first player, the BDP 10. This slick number’s got all the features you’ve come to know and love in Blu-ray — BD-Live and Bonus View capabilities for online content, advanced audio codec support, 1080 / 24p playback, plus USB ports for DiVX and JPEG display. It’ll also boast HDMI 1.3a, Ethernet, coaxial and optical audio outputs plus good old two-channel analog audio outputs. The BDP 10 has only been formally announced for Europe so far, though it’s expected elsewhere (including the US) in the coming months. The player has a price tag of about €700 (around $940). Hit the read link for full spec sheet — but fair warning: it’s a PDF.

[Via Electronista]

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Harman Kardon intros its first Blu-ray player, the BDP 10 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 08

Blu-Ray Sales Gain Momentum

Posted in: blu-ray, sony, Today's Chili

Research Group NPD this week released a study tracking the sale of Blu-Ray sales in the US. According to the numbers, players have risen some 72-percent over the same period in 2008. The report also found that consumer awareness of the format is at an all time high of 92-percent.

While the drop in Blu-Ray players has been a factor in their increase in sales (the average price of a player dropped from $393 to $261), the study found that many of the consumers surveyed still find them too expensive. Other consumers said that they are satisfied with their standard definition DVD players.

For more info on the latest Blu-Ray players, we’ve got a buying guide up at PCMag.com.

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May 08

Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray player casually arrives at Best Buy

Posted in: BestBuy, blu-ray, sony, Today's Chili

One of our tipsters spotted Sony’s latest Blu-ray player on a local Best Buy shelf sporting a $299 price tag. The BDP-S360 adds the DTS-HD MA decoding you were missing from the previous model, plus improved DVD scaling and out of the box BD-Live support. Of course one has to ask themselves if, in 2009, a player lacking the Netflix streaming or Amazon VOD features of competing hardware, or the DLNA streaming and integrated WiFi of the upcoming BDP-S560 is really worth braving these H1N1-infested streets, but we’ll leave that choice up to you.

[Thanks, RyanD]

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Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray player casually arrives at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 01:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Blu-ray making greenbacks, sales up 72% to start ’09

Posted in: blu-ray, sales, Today's Chili

Congratulations Blu-ray, you might be ready to step into the zone of mass market acceptance, as NPD’s retail tracking service found Q1 sales of standalone players up 72 percent over last year, moving over 400,000 units with a 14% increase in dollar sales. Last year sure the format survived mad fights but high prices were a setback; fast forward to March when an online survey of 6,994 people found awareness has reached 90 percent in the last six months, with customers fascinated by its updates. Although BD-Live is looking more and more like an unneeded gimmick, the real facts are people care about cost and average player prices dropped from $393 last year to $261 in 2009. The “Blu-ray report” suggests the magic number is $214 for folks like Shawn Marion, so more room might be needed to breeze, and could come as soon as this fall around the time Vizio’s player finally appears. It might be tragic for Vudu, CBHD and others trying to get a foothold, but Blu-ray’s magic wand is word of mouth – so while much talked about, but much lower selling tech like Kindle is happy as hell to get a record deal, right now Blu-ray’s unique skills can’t be compared.

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Blu-ray making greenbacks, sales up 72% to start ’09 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 May 2009 20:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Philips announces US availability for 2009 home entertainment line (with hands-on!)

Posted in: blu-ray, eco, Features, green, hands-on, HandsOn, hdtv, now shipping, NowShipping, on sale, OnSale, philips, pics, pictures, ship, shipping, ships, Today's Chili

Philips may be dodging the North American sector with its flashiest of products, but it’s still showing the Yanks in attendance a little love on the home entertainment front. Today in a meeting in NYC, the outfit revealed US pricing and availability for its entire 2009 family, most of which was quietly introduced in January. Starting things off are the 6000 and 7000 Series of HDTVs, which just so happen to pick right up where the previous models left off in 2008. The 6000 Series will arrive in 32-, 42- and 47-inch flavors for $799, $1,399 and $1,699, respectively, while the 7000 Series goes 42-, 47- and 52-inch for $1,499, $1,799 and $2,299, also respectively.

While checking these very sets out, we noticed that the factory settings left the colors a bit blown out and overly sharp — though, this practice is far too common in HDTV companies anyway. Nothing like wowing those Best Buy shoppers at first, only to sear their retinas at home, right? All kidding aside, the panels looked superb, and the A-B comparison mode made tweaking the settings a breeze. Hop on past the break for the rest of the details, and give our gallery a glance for a closer look at the whole lot.

Gallery: Philips 2009 HDTV line

Continue reading Philips announces US availability for 2009 home entertainment line (with hands-on!)

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Philips announces US availability for 2009 home entertainment line (with hands-on!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 May 2009 19:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 06

Netflix Dumping HD DVD, too

Posted in: blu-ray, Today's Chili


This article was written on February 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

Netflix Blu Ray Netflix just announced today that they will be acquiring no more HD DVD titles as they begin their transition to Blu-ray as their sole high-def DVD format. This might be the nail in the coffin for those of you who were still skeptical about a clear winner already emerging in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war.

Netflix currently has over 400 titles available in Blu-ray, and they will continue to receive more as they are produced. HD DVD titles, on the other hand, will be phased out by the end of the year. Here’s what their press release cited as the reason for choosing Blu-ray:

Citing the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format, Netflix said that as of now it will purchase only Blu-ray discs and will phase out by roughly year’s end the alternative high-def format, HD DVD, developed by Toshiba.

Since the first high-definition DVDs came on the market in early 2006, Netflix has stocked both formats. But the company said that in recent months the industry has stated its clear preference for Blu-ray and that it now makes sense for the company to initiate the transition to a single format.

As it stands Blockbuster is still renting the HD DVD videos online, but how long will it take before the snowball effect really starts? At some point HD DVD is gonna have to drop out of the race since four out of the six major Hollywood studios have already chosen Blu-ray, and it probably won’t be long before the last stragglers follow along.

Netflix Press Release [via Engadget]

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May 05

Samsung’s slim BD-P4600 Blu-ray player gets reviewed

Posted in: blu-ray, samsung, Today's Chili

Samsung’s new BD-P4600 Blu-ray player certainly impresses on first glance and, according to the folks at CNET, it has quite a bit more going for it than just good looks, even if it’s not entirely without its share of faults. On the upside, the player and its HQV image processing can apparently hold its own when it comes to the all-important question of image quality, and it packs no shortage of non-Blu-ray features as well, including Netflix and Pandora support, a bundled WiFi USB dongle, 1GB of on-board memory, and support for media streaming off a connected PC. Unfortunately, that protruding USB dongle does cramp the style of the player somewhat and, while the PC streaming is certainly welcome, it can apparently be a bit of a chore to get set up properly. Of course, there’s also the small matter of the $500 price tag, although CNET says Samsung’s cheaper BD-P3600 model should provide an adequate, if slightly less slim substitute for those looking for some more bang for the buck.

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Samsung’s slim BD-P4600 Blu-ray player gets reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 May 2009 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 05

Tweetlog: Sony BDP-S360

Posted in: blu-ray, sony, Today's Chili

sony bds360.jpgLooking for an energy-efficient Blu-ray player that makes even standard DVDs look great? Sony’s latest (http://tinyurl.com/cyatrx) just might be the ticket.

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Apr 27

GE Holographic Breakthrough Squeezes 100 DVDs Into a Single Disc

Posted in: blu-ray, Movies, Today's Chili

GE Holographic

Picture a single disc large enough to store your entire DVD collection. GE Global Research has done just that with its latest breakthrough that can put 500 Gigabytes of storage capacity in a standard DVD-size disc.

GE researchers said Monday that by using a micro-holographic storage material they can create capacity of 20 single-layer Blu-ray discs or 100 DVDs in a standard disc. GE’s micro-holographic discs will also be able to read and record on systems similar to a typical Blu-ray or DVD player.

“Our technology will pave the way for cost-effective, robust and reliable holographic drives that could be in every home,” said Brian Lawrence who leads GE’s holographic storage program in a statement. “The day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3-D television is closer than you think.”

Holographic storage differ from current optical storage technologies in that it uses the entire volume of the disc material. DVDs and Blu-ray discs store information only on the surface of the disc.

In case of holographic storage, three-dimensional patterns are written into the disc and can be read out. Micro-holographic players using GE’s technology can play back CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disc.

GE has been working on the technology for about six years, said the company. For now it is still in the labs but the GE has plans to commercialize it.  It will initially focus on the commercial archival industry for the technology and then offer it to consumers.

See also:
GE Press Release

[via The New York Times]

Photo: Overlapping blue lasers record holograms in a GE disc/GE

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Apr 27

GE microholographic storage promises cheap 500GB discs, Blu-ray and DVD compatibility

Posted in: blu-ray, research, Today's Chili

Ah, holographic storage — you’ve held so much promise for cheap optical media since you were first imagined in research papers published in the early 60s. Later today, GE will be trying to keep the dream alive when it announces a new technique that promises to take holographic storage mainstream. GE’s breakthrough in microholographics — which, as the name implies, uses smaller, less complex holograms to achieve three-dimensional digital storage — paves the way for players that can store about 500GB of data on standard-sized optical discs while still being able to read DVD and Blu-ray media. Better yet, researchers claim a price of about 10 cents per gigabyte compared to the nearly $1 per gigabyte paid when Blu-ray was introduced. The bad news? We’re talking 2011 or 2012 by the time microholographics devices and media are introduced and even then it’ll only be commercialized for use by film studios and medical institutions. In other words, you’ll likely be streaming high-def films to your OLED TV long before you have a microholographic player in the living room.

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GE microholographic storage promises cheap 500GB discs, Blu-ray and DVD compatibility originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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