Hasta La Gadget!

The Esprimo Q1500, which might remind you of a Mac Mini, is back with the mischievous intent to show off the wares that Apple won’t let you have. Though we suspected the Intel CPU inside would be a CULV variant, it turns out to be no less than a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo T9600 — and it got a good workout by the awesome Engadget Spanish crew, who ran a 720p video in Windows Media Player alongside a Blu-ray movie without any hiccups. The good news extends to the machine itself, which remained quiet in operation and cool to the touch a full 10 minutes into its mini torture test. If we said prices for the top config might be a little cheaper than expected, would you finally be excited? Video after the break.

Continue reading Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 flexes Blu-ray muscle on video

Filed under: Desktops

Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 flexes Blu-ray muscle on video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aside from the new JournE touch, the other main thrust at IFA’s booth is Blu-ray — at least, one would think. In reality, when we finally found the lone BDX2000, the LCD it was plugged into was off, while numerous DVD players and upscaling tech demos littered the surrounding booth area. Once we got a rep to turn it on for us, the Blu-ray player seemed to work just fine, as should be expected. The new Blu-ray equipped P500, however, wasn’t so successful: our colleagues at Engadget Spanish watched an attempted Blu-ray showing on the laptop go awry, and by the time we’d dropped by the booth, any Blu-ray models of the P500 had been pulled from the show floor due to crashiness. In talking with a Toshiba rep, it’s clear that the company hasn’t abandoned its ideas of internet distribution and other alternatives to the once rival format of Blu-ray. The company is looking into a solution that uses a Blu-ray disc and BD Live to stream internet media to the player, and has packed in decent codec support for playing back media off of the BDX2000’s SD card reader. We’re sure Toshiba will figure out its P500 woes before the laptop ships to consumers, but there’s no lack of interestingness in these first displays of Toshiba’s “commitment” to the Blu-ray format.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Toshiba makes timid Blu-ray showing at IFA, still believes in other forms of HD distribution originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Toshiba caved on Blu-ray for the home, and now they’re taking the sad show portable. The once-great defender of the HD-DVD crown has begun adopting the format for its laptops, bringing the discs to the P500 (a member of the Satellite family). The system — which was released originally in June sans Blu-ray — sports an 18.4 inch (1920 x 1080) display, HDMI REGZA link, a Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a slew of the standard ports and wireless radios. The laptop will be available in October, irony comes standard on all models. [Warning: read link is a PDF]

[Via Pocket-lint]

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba adopts Blu-ray for laptops, completes shame circle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba will sell its first Blu-ray DVD player starting in November, the company announced Thursday. The BDX2000 will retail for $249.99. It includes BD-Live, which lets users take advantage of Web-based interactive features via an Ethernet connection. The device also includes an SD card slot, which may be required to access some of the BD-Live content, Toshiba said.

Other features include 1080p/24 frames per second full HD video output, AVCHD playback, and support for enhanced audio formats. Using Regza-Link, it is also formatted to link up to Toshiba Regza LCD TVs via HDMI for full HD content with a single remote control.

The announcement comes nearly a month after Toshiba applied for membership in the Blu-ray Disc Association. Toshiba was initially a vocal supporter of the HD-DVD format, which died in February 2008 after Warner Bros. and Walmart withdrew their support for the format.

If you haven’t noticed, 3D is going to be big in 2010. Not at Philips though, at least not yet. Instead of charging in to the market like Sony, Philips is willing to hedge its bets and wait on consumer demand. Consumers, of course, are waiting for content. And hey, maybe everybody’s wrong and quad-HD will be the next big thing to drive TV sales. Regardless, Philips wants everyone to know that its technology is ready when you are so its got a 3D prototype Blu-ray player and stunning 3D version of its 56-inch Cinema 21:9 TV here at IFA in Berlin. While the idea of watching movies in 3D sounds like a novelty, the idea of gaming in 3D is downright compelling — awkward passive polarized glasses be damned!

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Philips 56-inch 21:9 3D TV’s future is so bright we had to wear shades originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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