Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Blu-ray players are generally fatties but Samsung has thrown its latest 5th-gen player, the BD-P2500 on a treadmill while cramming in everything but the kitchen sink. The new player was unveiled today at the IFA 2008 show in Berlin and the minimalist styling looks tasty indeed. It’s compatible ‘out-of-the-box’ with the latest Blu-ray interactive features like BD Live (Profile 2.0), Bonus View (Profile 1.1) and uses the award-winning Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) chip for processing video, while supporting 7.1-channel sound systems. It comes with a built-in, wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal Flash memory and a USB port for memory expansion. On the audio front, the BD-P2500 can output Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS as an uncompressed PCM signal, as a bitstream, or via the 7.1 analog outputs. Also, support for DTS-HD HR (High Resolution) decoding will arrive with a firmware update. When you think that Yamaha had the audacity to launch its first Blu-ray player this week with no Ethernet and inferior features for a whopping $1,200 (£600), it’s amazing that Samsung will be shipping the BD-P2500 for $500 - around £250. Obviously that price will rise a bit here but we are finally starting to see highly specified players with less galling price tags. I still won’t be happy though until they start costing under £200 here.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies samsung

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

A spec sheet is well and good (and trust us, these spec sheets are that), but when we’re talking Blu-ray players it’s really becoming a question of price: when will they drop? Well, if these Europe prices for the DMB-BD35 and DMB-BD55 from Panasonic are any indication, Panasonic’s answer is “not yet.” The BD35 is being priced at 399 Euro, while the BD55 will go for 499 Euro. Our guess is the conversion rates ($588 and $735, respectively) won’t apply here when these get shipped over to the States, but even at $399 and $499 these well-specced players aren’t doing themselves any favors in a Blu-ray market dominated by the PS3. There’s really nothing to say about actual “hands-on” impressions of these two, though we would like to say that we scoured Panny’s booth for the DMR-BR360V Blu-ray / VHS combo and were sad to come away empty handed, our tattered copy of “Titanic” unwatched.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Paul Miller

The battle for the skinniest LCD TV continues this week with Sony unveiling the Bravia ZX1 at the IFA 2008 show, which is just 9.9mm at its thinnest. The ZX1 sure is anorexic and compares favourably to the other super-skinnys like the Hitachi UT models or the Sharp X Series AQUOS LCD TVs but the real innovation is Sony’s ability to make all those unsightly cables disappear. The TV comes with a separate receiver device called the Media Receiver, a box that you plug all your cables into and which transmits the signal wirelessly to the TV in ‘real time’, using something Sony calls ‘Bravia 1080 Wireless’. Attach your PS3, set-top box or DVD/Blu-ray player to Media Receiver, stash it anywhere in the room and watch as BRAVIA 1080 Wireless, which Sony calls a ‘ground-breaking high definition, high-speed wireless connection capable of real time transmission of HD signals’ does its party trick. The Media Receiver has 3 HDMI slots [with one more on the TV] and also contains an MPEG4 AVC-HD2 tuner as well as DVB-T and DVB-C3 digital broadcast and cable tuners. The ZX1’s display is lit from the sides by LED arrays instead of the usual CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlighting and, the good news is that, it’s almost here, not a ‘concept’. It goes on sale in Japan first in November with a price tag of around £2,250.-Martin Lynch TV HDTV LCD

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Still not satisfied by any of the Blu-ray home theater in a box systems out there? Then perhaps Sony’s just announced Bravia BDV-IT1000 unit will be more to your liking. This one boasts 700W of total power, and includes some wireless rear speakers for added convenience, and slim speakers all around that Sony says are made possible thanks to its brand new finger-sized full-range speaker drive units. The Blu-ray player / receiver at the heart of the unit also looks to be capable enough, with it sporting BD-Live readiness, a pair of HDMI inputs, optical digital and analog stereo audio inputs, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD support, and Sony’s trademark Digital Media Port to accommodate a range of add-on devices. No word on a price or release just yet, but we’re guessing there’s at least a decent chance that’ll slip out before Sony packs up and leaves the IFA stage.

[Via Sony Insider]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Thin is in at IFA 2008, and Sharp’s LCD lineup leads off with the super-skinny XS1 Aquos series LCD. A 23mm thick 1080p 52- or 65-inch panel packing 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 100Hz motion processing and detachable speaker system, halves it’s previous 5cm best from May of this year. Old school fat LCD fans can look forward to the D65E line, pulling 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and claiming an “environmentally conscious design” for Sharp’s premium range, in sizes from 32- to 52-inch models, with prices to match from €899 to €2299. Of course, none of this would be right without a matching Blu-ray player, and Sharp has announced the BD-HP21H, a Bonus View Profile 1.1 model with a quick-start mode, but like the XS1 lacks pricing info that would make it so much juicier. All are due in the UK in October, we should hope for more details before then.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Richard Lawler

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The appearance of Blu-ray HTIB systems under a number of brands is an encouraging sign that the format is at least trying to move into the mainstream living room, and now JVC’s thrown its hat into the ring with the 2.1-channel NX-BD3. Of course, simply pulling bits off of Blu-ray discs isn’t enough entertainment value these days, so the system also sports DLNA support, a 200-Watt powered sub and a 4×55-Watt amplifier (leaving you two channels to grow into). At £799 ($1,465) for a 2.1-channel setup, you might expect to get the latest and greatest in Blu-ray tech, but Profile 2.0, DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD didn’t make the cut — let’s hope some sort of “market adjustment” happens between the time this appears next month and when it crosses the pond.

[Via Electronista]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Steven Kim

A Blu-ray disc recorder and a VHS video tape machine may seem unlikely bedfellows, but that hasn’t stopped Panasonic from wrapping them up together in the same box for the DMR-BR630V.

The 630V can write at six times speed, has digital and analog tuners, new second-gen MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoder chips as well as all the standard HDMI and analog connections and Panasonic’s Viera link for device interconnectivity. It also records to DVD.

And there’s even a 320GB hard drive inside, capable of recording video and later letting you dub it.  

Gizmodo has a bit more and so does Electronic House.  

Tags: blu-ray, electronic house, gizmodo, panasonic, vhs

Related Entries
• Teaching an Old Blockbuster a New Trick -
  Aug 05, 2008
• Looks Like 1080p is Coming -
  Jul 31, 2008
• Can We Do Anything about iPod Audio Quality? -
  Jul 23, 2008
• Inside, Really Inside the Lego Factory -
  Jul 21, 2008
• “Why Blu?” Sweepstakes could land you a Sony PS3 -
  Jul 16, 2008
• Blu-ray Buy 2 DVDs, Get 1 Free Promotion -
  Jul 15, 2008
• Look Ma, No HDTV Wires! -
  Jul 10, 2008
• Let’s Not Forget About Samsung’s New Mobile Phone -
  Jun 09, 2008
• When One Less Gadget Is Better — Set-Top Boxes Going Bye-Bye? -
  May 27, 2008
• Blu-ray Going Under $300 — Will Market Take Off? -
  May 19, 2008

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: How about a Blu-ray/VHS Combi?

Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Original post by nafiz

The price of a dedicated Blu-ray player has remained high - too high - even after winning the HD war against HD DVD but, Tesco has teamed up with German PB big-shot Medion to sell a performance PC with Blu-ray drive for just £600. The PC in question is the shiny, black Medion Akoya P36888 and, despite the attractive pricing, it’s no slouch. The P36888 is powered by the Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, has a 1TB 7200rpm hard disk drive, 3GB of RAM, a hybrid TV tuner and the all-important Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter. Here’s the full line up:* 3GB DDR2-SDRAM * 1000 GB Hard Disk - 7200rpm, interface Serial ATA * Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter o Max: 4x DVD+R9 (DL), 4x DVD-R9 (DL), 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM * NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300GS o PCI-Express Graphics card with 256MB, DVI-I, 1 x D-Sub VGA and 1 x TV Out * Integrated Memory Card Reader o reads from and writes to all standard memory cards** * DVB-T/Analogue TV tuner card*** * Network controller Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbit/s * IEEE 1394 FireWire * 8 Channel Audio * PS/2 keyboard and mouse * Remote control The PC will be available in Tesco Extra and Tesco Homestore outlets around the country, as well as online.-Martin Lynch PC blu-ray news

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Rumors of Samsung’s BD-Live-ready BD-P2500 Blu-ray player first started cropping up a few months ago, and the strikingly similar BD-P2550 just slipped out at Best Buy a few days ago, but if you like your Blu-ray news all official like, you’ll be glad to know that Samsung has now finally actually talking about the player, and it’s set to show it off at the big IFA show later this week. In addition to BD-Live support (which will apparently come in a future update), Samsung also confirms that the player packs the always-desirable Silicon Optix HQV video processing chip, and support for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD in addition to the usual non-HD formats. No firm word on a price just yet, but you can look for the official launch to happen in September. If that Best Buy slip is any indication, however, it seems likely that they could start showing up even sooner than that.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

There was (and still is) plenty of buzz surrounding StreetskaterFU’s recent hack that enabled Blu-ray games to be played back from the PlayStation 3’s internal hard drive, and now it seems like details are beginning to seep out. Fellow hacker ATOC has released an admittedly sketchy step-by-step guide for getting a number of backups to boot from the PS3, though it has only been thoroughly tested on Warhawk and Call of Duty 3. Hit up the links below for instructions, but think long and hard before you make any irreversible decisions and come dangerously close to destroying the universe.

[Thanks, Bob]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

When we’re thinking NAS, we’re thinking Terabytes of network attached storage. Fortunately, while LG’s N4B1 might be the world’s first NAS with integrated Blu-ray recorder, it also supports up to 4TB of disk… with room to grow thanks to 3x USB and 1x e-SATA jacks. LG then puts that 50GB of dual-layer, Blu-ray storage to good use by automatically archiving your old data for off-site storage. You do store your data off-site, right?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We’ve heard for some time that Samsung planned to have two Blu-ray players in its lineup, but it’s been well over a year since there’s even been a peep about the BD-P2400, now out of nowhere the BD-P2550 shows up at Best Buy stores all over the country for the premium price of $499. According to Best Buy’s website, the new model has many of the missing features from Sammy’s latest BD-P1500, like 7.1 analog outputs and the sought after Silicon Optix HQV video processing. What does appear to be missing though, is the elusive BD-Live, but with the included network connection and USB port, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine that either Best Buy failed to mention it, or it’s coming in a firmware update. Although $500 Blu-ray players aren’t for everyone, it’s good to see Blu-ray manufacturers offering multiple models for those in need of premium features.

[Via Format War Central]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Ben Drawbaugh

Toshiba haven’t given up trying to needle Sony and the rest of the Blu-ray companies.
Their latest idea is XDE.

Original post by Simon Perry

Having been sent packing with its tail between its legs in the high-def format war by Blu-ray, Toshiba has stubbornly maintained that it will not build a Blu-ray player. Instead, it announced that the best way to beat Blu-ray would be to build an uber-DVD player that upscales really well. It might sound bizarre but since a huge number of regular Joe consumers don’t know what Blu-ray is, or think it’s something to do with the porn industry, it might make some sense. And, it doesn’t hurt that the new XD-E500 only costs £75 [in the US for now]. The XD-E500 uses XDE, “eXtended Detail Enhancement,” technology, which Toshiba says offers more than just normal upscaling. Alongside upscaling images to near-1080p, XDE throws in 3 picture processing mode settings. They are: Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it’s needed. Colour Mode makes the colours of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Colour Mode combines the improvement in colour with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes. Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical “washing out” that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience. Other features include HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, JPEG capability, MP3 and WMA playback. Considering just how many DVDs people already have, and if the cheap XD-E500 is any good, Toshiba could be onto a winner. It’s still a shame it won’t swallow its pride though and make a Blu-ray player that doesn’t cost the earth.-Martin Lynch dvd blu-ray HD DVD movies

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Gaming

This one isn’t quite as dodgy as they come, but the very notable limitations really keep this from being the whiz-bang hack that it appears to be on the surface. Hacker StreetskaterFU had no trouble getting confirmation from others that his method of running Blu-ray games from the PlayStation 3’s hard drive was indeed legitimate, but it is only confirmed to work with select “older titles” including Warhawk, MotorStorm and Call of Duty 3. To make matters worse, instructions are sketchy at best, but at least there’s a video of the process working after the break. Let us know how things go should you give this a whirl.

Continue reading Hacked PlayStation 3 reportedly runs Blu-ray games from HDD

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph