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Continue reading Must See HDTV (October 17th – 23rd)

Must See HDTV (October 17th – 23rd) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on October 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Take a look at the photo below. Notice anything? It’s a little blurry, but what you’re looking at is an end-cap at a Wal-Mart store which has 18 Toshiba A2 HD DVD players selling for $198! Yes, that’s the same player which was selling for $399 back in April, and currently retailing for $299.

This photo originally came from the AVS Forum where the person who took the picture says that these players are scheduled to start selling all over the nation on November 3rd. Some Wal-Marts are already selling them as people have confirmed, and it’s reported that each store will get 18 units to start with.

So what does this mean for HD DVD? I’ve read some comments saying that this is “rock bottom” and that everybody should get one while it lasts. Others are happy that a name-brand player is so affordable. Will this ultimately help HD DVD in their battle with Sony’s BluRay? If the recent release of Transformers on HD DVD is any indication, the answer is no.  Despite the fact that sales of Transformers on HD DVD have been outstanding, BluRay is still selling more discs.

Sources: Engadget and BetaNews

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Baseball playoffs are in full effect and altering TV schedules, so if you’re digging Fox’s lineup then too bad — it’s going to be mostly on ice for the next couple of weeks. We’ve still got a few major fall premieres trickling in, but the most significant addition are the first Blu-ray titles with Ultraviolet (Horrible Bosses, Green Lantern). Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Forza Motorsport 4
It’s no big secret that around these parts, our love of things that plug in and log on only narrowly beats out the need to go fast, and since we can’t drive every car in real life, we’ll leave that up to Forza. The fourth iteration of Turn 10’s driving game arrives this week and has racked up a list of glowing reviews. New this time around are Kinect-enhanced car walkarounds and driving, enhanced community features and a revamped career mode. The only knock seems to be that some things are a little too familiar from its predecessors, but we can’t wait to get behind the wheel and find out ourselves.
($59.99 on Amazon, October 11th)

Psych
The Adventures of Shawn & Gus’ Psychic Detective Agency continue on this week, and while that title may make one USA’s best show’s appear somewhat childish, we assure you — it’s even more childish than you think. Of course, one of the appeals of Psych is its retro flair (so far we’ve seen Ralph Macchio as a guest star and an entire episode spoofing Twin Peaks) so if you’re in the target age range and haven’t quite grown up, this is one to watch.
(October 12th, USA, 10PM)

The Walking Dead
One of last season’s most-talked about shows, this tale of survival in a zombie infested wasteland came in with a bang and went out with a whimper. We’ll be watching to see if it cab retain the crunchy action flavor of the first few episodes and avoid the boring melodrama that came in later on. If you’re willing to risk a few spoilers (surprise, the RV breaks down at the worst possible time) then check out the season two trailer after the break.
(October 16th, AMC, 10PM)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (October 10th – 16th)

Must See HDTV (October 10th – 16th) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no question that Japan gets all the cool gadgets — many of which never make it stateside. Well, we have yet another tease for you, in the form of an eight-tuner Toshiba DVR with five terabytes of storage. The DBR-M190 reserves six of those tuners (and four TBs of storage) for its Time Shift recording, which as its name implies, transports you to an alternate dimension — in realtime, mind you — allowing you to watch past HD episodes of those favorite Japanese programs that you otherwise neglected to record. OK, fine, it can’t actually shift physical time, but the home DVR does allow you to record 15 full days of HD content from six channels. Or 30 days from three channels, or 90 days from one — you get the idea. It also offers 3D Blu-ray playback. Huzzah!

There’s some pretty heavy compression in place in order to squeeze all that HD content with the allotted storage, but Toshiba reps insisted that the content looks acceptable. Clever as they are, reps also neglected to have that heavily compressed HD video available for demo at CEATEC, but were happy to let us peek at a show recorded using a much more liberal amount of compression, which nets you just one-fifth of the advertised amount (think three days, not 15). Still, three days of 24 hour content from six channels ain’t too shabby, but that 200,000 yen price tag (about $2,600) is a bit of a deal breaker, no? As is the fact that you can’t plug this puppy into cable networks overseas (Time Shift is only compatible with basic cable channels in Japan). Jump past the break to see it in action, and expect to see it hit Japanese shores sometime in mid-December.

Continue reading Toshiba Regza DBR-M190 stores 15 days of HDTV from six channels, we go hands-on (video)

Toshiba Regza DBR-M190 stores 15 days of HDTV from six channels, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on January 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

This is not good news for the HD DVD camp if it turns out to be true.  According to The Digital Bits, Paramount and Universal will be following the footsteps of Warner Brothers and making the big switch to Blu-ray.  That means that HD DVD is seriously wounded in this battle and they’re about to lose big-time to Blu-ray. Whose behind HD DVD you’re wondering? Well, it’s mainly Toshiba and Microsoft and I’m sure they’re not too happy at the moment.

While none of this has been confirmed,  “second to none sources” are saying that this is true and both Universal and Paramount have made the decision to make the switch. Paramount is expected to make their announcement soon while Universal will be waiting until sometime in February after their contract with HD DVD is up to make the announcement. One Engadget commenter summed up what many of you may be thinking, “Looks like Sony is finally going to win sweet revenge after losing out to VHS back in the day.”

To make matters worse,  the L.A. Times is reporting that Paramount’s decision was in fact triggered by Warner’s move. Here’s part of what they say: “Warner Bros.’ decision last week to start making movies exclusively for Blu-ray players, rather than HD DVD, triggered an “out” clause in Paramount Pictures’ contract with the HD DVD camp. An industry source said there was a significant possibility that Paramount would exercise that clause. It plans to decide within a month.”

Over at Digg, there were a few interesting comments as well:

• SupaDawg says: “I’m no fan of Sony whatsoever, but this is a very good thing.  One of the formats needed to die.  The format war has been a mess for consumers, hardware companies and the studios alike.  Lets get this over with so we can finally progress into the era of HD.”
• Floejoe says: “At last.  I couldn’t care less who wins the ‘war.’ I just want to buy my favorite shows in high definition.  I’m a bit tired of being an early adopter with a house full of crap that will never be used.”

Thanks for the tip Google!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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