Hasta La Gadget!

For those who haven’t upgraded to a Blu-ray player yet, your patience has been rewarded. Onkyo has introduced the DV-BD507, a Blu-ray player that goes beyond just showing movies.

This player support BD-Live (Profile 2.0) which provides enhanced interactivity when connected to the Internet. You’ll get additional and updated content instantly when viewing supported discs. Use it with an optional 1GB (or greater) SD/SDHC card and you’ll get picture-in-picture capabilities when viewing the main feature.

The DV-BD507 includes several other high-end features, including 1080p video playback, multichannel audio over HDMI 1.3a, and scaling of lower-definition sources to 1080p. It can also play standard DVDs and CDs, as well as AVCHD clips from an SD/SDHC card or DVD-R/RW.

You can pick up the DV-BD507 now for the list price of $449.

Just because Toshiba has given up on HD DVD and moved on, doesn’t mean the format war is totally over for red. According to a report by a Japanese TV station, its successor, China Blue HD is actually leading Blu-ray in marketshare in that country. Of course, based on the article found by our friends at FormatWarCentral, all we have to go on is a machine translated description of a video in a language we don’t speak describing the apparent initial success of the government backed format in a socialist republic. If you need more evidence than that to declare the format war officially restarted, you’re probably a communist, but before we drag you in front of the Un-American activities committee check out the video for a peek at the slick new CBHD cases that The Onion will surely be shipping its videos in very soon.

[Via FormatWarCentral]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Blu-ray reportedly trailing CBHD in China, the second theater of the format war begins originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

When we first got our hands-on the 400 disc MegaChanger pictured above we’d hoped it would be out a little earlier; but never the less the wait is almost over as Sony officially announced plans to release the BDP-CX7000ES in August, for the hard to swallow price of $1,900 — about $400 less than rumored. The good news is that it does just about everything we can think of, like handle any Blu-ray Disc, DVD or CD with ease, and of course works with the latest codecs delivered via bitstream or LPCM. Now if you just have to have a Blu-ray changer, but wish it was half the price, you can wait a few more months for the BDP-CX960 for $800. You will however have to be willing to forgo things like RS-232 and IR-in, as well as the ES badge. Also shipping in August with the ES MegaChanger is the BDP-S1000ES. This standalone Blu-ray player is at the top of line and for $700 you get just about every feature and spec Blu-ray has to offer, as well as built-in WiFi and a DLNA client. The full details of all three are in the release after the jump.

Continue reading Sony’s Blu-ray MegaChanger hits the streets next month with new ES standalone

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Sony’s Blu-ray MegaChanger hits the streets next month with new ES standalone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Samsung’s latest Blu-ray HTIB features just about anything an all-in-one customer could want; in fact we’re not sure how you can even build a 5.1 system with rear wireless speakers and a Blu-ray player for $799. The HT-BD3252 of course supports the latest HD audio codecs like TrueHD and DTS-HD, and a mic for automatic calibration. Not wanting to leave anything out from its stand-alone players, Samsung has also included the same internet services like Pandora, Netflix and Blockbuster via the included WiFi dongle. Oh, and don’t forget the very important iPod dock, we mean, who would buy a HTIB in this day and age without one? Not us, that’s for sure.

Continue reading Samsung has a new Blu-ray HTIB with the HT-BD3252

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Samsung has a new Blu-ray HTIB with the HT-BD3252 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Need a little something to get you over the Saturday lull? Gnaw on this. Japan’s own Yomiuri is reporting today that Toshiba is expected to finally admit defeat and enter the dark, devious world of Blu-ray later this year. For those keeping tabs, we’ve heard both confirmations and denials about the outfit finally caving and supporting the format it once battled so valiantly, but this seems to solidify it. If machine translation is to be believed, the company’s first DVD / Blu-ray deck is slated for release somewhere in the world by the year’s end. The article also mentions that Tosh is strongly considering a Blu-ray recorder for the Japanese market, though no further details on that are available. C’mon Toshiba — get this bad boy to the States before Christmas. We’re anxious for a BD price war.

[Thanks, Rata]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Toshiba launching Blu-ray player by year’s end originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments