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Last week we looked at a new service from Blockbuster that′ll be starting up in the US to allow you to stream movies from its catalogue to a dedicated set top box. Well, the service might turn out to be bigger than you think, following a further announcement that it′ll be looking to build the technology needed to use it into some Blu-ray players next year. It’s unclear whether it′ll be teaming up with a Blu-ray manufacturer to build it into new players or offer a retro-fit solution for existing ones, but in doing so customers will be able to rent HD-quality movies as well as choosing from the standard definition selection. CEO Jim Keyes confirmed that by the first quarter of next year it will put “the same capability into a Blu-ray player” and though he did acknowledge that bandwidth may be an issue, said that it would be possible if customers are “willing to wait the extra download time”. This will put it in direction competition with services like Netflix, which has already been woven into Blu-ray players like the LG BD300, but sadly there’s still no word on a UK release. - Paul Lester [ElectricPig] Blockbuster on-demand Blu-ray

Original post by nafiz

We’ve heard a lot about Blu-ray in the past couple of years but is the technology any closer to making it into your home this Christmas? This time last year the high-defintion (HD) war was in full swing between Blu-ray and HD DVD but dedicated players [excluding the Ṕ] were not cheap. Now, a year on, Blu-ray stands alone and the path to HD immortality and becoming the ‘next DVD’ stands clear but are players cheap enough to tempt you to stick one in your stocking this Silly Season?Last year, dedicated Blu-ray players - apart from being few and far between in the UK - boasted wallet-crushing price tags ranging from £400-800. This time out, prices are a more reasonable £200 and [much] higher, but you can also get older Blu-ray spinners for around £150. So, will you be taking the Blu-ray plunge or holding out? Let us know.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies christmas

Original post by nafiz

Last Christmas, Blu-ray players costs an obscene amount of money and, while they aren’t exactly cheap now, they are heading in the right direction and becoming affordable for most consumers. Sharp’s BD-HP21H has just hit the UK and despite the sticker price of £250, you can find this player online for a shade under £200. This is a Profile 1.1 player with 1080p support and 24 frames per second (fps) playback, meaning the movies run at the same speed they were filmed at and make motion-scenes much smoother and clearer. The machine also promises to upscale your DVDs to near-HD quality and the HDMI 1.3 jack offers support for Deep Color as well as advanced sound formats like Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Advanced.Blu-ray players can take an age to start up but the BD-HP21H has a Quick Start feature which means you’ll be up and running in 10 seconds. There’s no memory card slot but you can read JPEG photos from blank CDS. And for those worried about bills, the player promises low power consumption: 26W in operation and 0.5W in stand-by.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies

Original post by nafiz

Last Christmas, Blu-ray players costs an obscene amount of money and, while they aren’t exactly cheap now, they are heading in the right direction and becoming affordable for most consumers. Sharp’s BD-HP21H has just hit the UK and despite the sticker price of £250, you can find this player online for a shade under £200. This is a Profile 1.1 player with 1080p support and 24 frames per second (fps) playback, meaning the movies run at the same speed they were filmed at and make motion-scenes much smoother and clearer. The machine also promises to upscale your DVDs to near-HD quality and the HDMI 1.3 jack offers support for Deep Color as well as advanced sound formats like Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Advanced.Blu-ray players can take an age to start up but the BD-HP21H has a Quick Start feature which means you’ll be up and running in 10 seconds. There’s no memory card slot but you can read JPEG photos from blank CDS. And for those worried about bills, the player promises low power consumption: 26W in operation and 0.5W in stand-by.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies

Original post by nafiz

If you′re lucky enough not to have been affected by the economic crisis (ie: you′re filthy rich) then why not laugh in the face of the rest of the planet by picking up a ridiculously big TV? Runco has recently announced a 100″ VideoWall TV (the VX-100HD) to compete with Panasonic’s similarly extravagant 103″ plasma. It’s actually a rear-projection design but is different to most being completely self-contained, which means the rear assembly is about a third of the size of a traditional screen of this type. It’s capable of 1080p resolutions, a contrast ratio in excess of 5000:1 and features ‘positive pressure cooling’ that allows for quiet operation and ‘high altitude operation’ so it can work up to 3km above sea level, so you′ll be fine in your penthouse suite. It’s a little more expensive than Pannie’s screen though, £26,300 to be exact, but look at it this way, you′ll be saving a cool £657.50 thanks to Mr. Darling’s generosity. - Paul Lester [CNet] Runco TV rear-projection

Original post by nafiz

If you’re lucky enough not to have been affected by the economic crisis (ie: you’re filthy rich) then why not laugh in the face of the rest of the planet by picking up a ridiculously big TV? Runco has recently announced a 100″ VideoWall TV (the VX-100HD) to compete with Panasonic’s similarly extravagant 103″ plasma. It’s actually a rear-projection design but is different to most being completely self-contained, which means the rear assembly is about a third of the size of a traditional screen of this type. It’s capable of 1080p resolutions, a contrast ratio in excess of 5000:1 and features ‘positive pressure cooling’ that allows for quiet operation and ‘high altitude operation’ so it can work up to 3km above sea level, so you’ll be fine in your penthouse suite. It’s a little more expensive than Pannie’s screen though, £26,300 to be exact, but look at it this way, you’ll be saving a cool £657.50 thanks to Mr. Darling’s generosity. - Paul Lester [CNet] Runco TV rear-projection

Original post by nafiz

Rumours that Blockbuster will be making a big move in the digital media market have been circulating for a while now and it has just been confirmed that it will be releasing a set-top player capable of streaming movies from its catalogue direct to your TV. It’s only being offered to the US for the time being, but it’s a move that is designed to address flagging rental sales and make it easier and more attractive for consumers to rent films directly from their home.Called the MediaPoint, the device works on a pay-per-view basis and Blockbuster intends to sign people up to 25-film rental packages which will cost $99 and on this basis you get the player for free. Unfortunately there are no HD titles confirmed yet, possibly due to bandwidth and server overheads, but streamed files will be able to be paused and time shifted like a regular PVR. $4 per month sounds like quite a good price to us and when the initial subscription runs out movies start at $1.99 per rental. This far undercuts Sky’s increasingly extortionate Box Office prices, not to mentioned Blockbuster’s own rentals, particularly when you consider you get a free box. Of course whether the service makes it over here and whether it manages to keep a similar price point is anyone’s guess (actually no it isn’t, it clearly won’t) but it’s certainly an interesting take on the future of home entertainment. - Paul Lester [MarketWatch] Blockbuster streaming rental

Original post by nafiz

German audio specialist, Teufel, are newcomers to the UK market but with almost 30-years experience and lots of awards, the company is hoping to make a splash this Christmas with UK shoppers. The company has announced its award-winning Concept E Magnum Power Edition 5.1 Speaker Set for console, PC and Mac users. With 450W pumping from the dedicated subwoofer (W30 x H42 x ᪸.5cm), a centre speaker (W23.5 x H10 x ᪛.5cm) and four satellite speakers (W9.5 x H13 x ᪛.5cm), we are talking a bit more punch than your typical PC surround kit. The Concept E Magnum PE comes in two colour options: midnight black or matt silver. Because Teufel sell direct, the system weighs in at a reasonable £162 and if that’s not enough to sway you, they also offer an 8-week ‘try before you buy’ service. You can find it here.-Martin Lynch PC audio surround sound

Original post by nafiz

Last month Sky HD subscribers saw seven new channels emerge to help consolidate the company’s position as the most comprehensive HD selection in Europe, and it looks like one more will be squeezed in before this end of the month. Disney will be launching an HD version of its Cinemagic channel in time for Christmas, which takes the new total to an impressive 29. It seems like good timing for us as we’ve noticed that Christmas TV certainly isn’t what it used to be over the last few years, with very little (if anything) in the way of classics like James Bond, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. A bit of Pixar would do nicely while you’re getting over your Christmas lunch then, and it lines up movies like The Incredibles and Ratatouille along with classics such as Tinkerbell and Sleeping Beauty for the kids. Like the last seven channels added to the HD range, there’s no specific date set at which it′ll be available, but we can confirm that it will be in December. With prices for Sky HD boxes falling all the time, can you think of many more reasons not to upgrade? - Paul Lester [EnGadget] Pixar Sky HD

Original post by nafiz

Onkyo does a fine line in home cinema receivers and has just now launched its first Blu-ray players in time for the Christmas rush. This is not the company’s first foray into HD as Onkyo backed the defeated HD DVD format in the HD battle but, thankfully, profits-over-pride gives us another quality Blu-ray spinner in the DV-B𐯾. It costs a shade under £400 which means it’s in the mid-to-high end of the fledgling Blu-ray player market but it does pack a lot in. It has a HDMI v1.3 port for Deep Color compatibility, 1080p support with 24fps playback. It supports Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound which is about as good as it gets, and there’s an upscaler for making your DVDs look better than they already do. A useful add-on is the ability to play DivX files from disc or SD Cards. Be aware though that this is a Profile 1.1 player, not a 2.0 one, which means there’s no support for the BD Live interactive features on some newer discs. That said, a lot of people couldn’t care less about interactive content, there’s not a lot of BD Live content out there and much of that leaves a lot to be desired.-Martin Lynch [Onkyo]

Original post by nafiz

Emtec will be the latest company to try its hand at digital media storage and streaming following the launch of its S800 HDD Movie Cube. This Apple TV rival has a 500GB hard drive built-in along with an analogue/DVB tuner which allows it to act as a PVR by recording and saving your favourite programmes to the internal drive. Of course you can copy your own music, video and photos over and there’s wired and wireless network access available which presumably allows you to stream content stored on a home computer. The usual connections and format support are here, including HDMI and DivX, but aside from being able to convert DVD and video there doesn’t appear to be anything radically different here that you won’t find among rivals. Still, it may well be worth a look when it’s released in December, word on the street is Dixon’s will be selling it for £229.99. - Paul Lester [PocketLint] Emtec media streamer jukebox

Original post by nafiz

Most modern HDTVs come with two or three HDMI ports but these won’t last long if you start piling up the games consoles, media streamers and set top boxes. To get around this you can buy an HDMI switcher, which is usually a fairly meaty device with a remote control that you need to use to tell it which port to activate. Not so with the IXOS Studio XHE228 though, which is a dual-port switcher that changes automatically. It supports HDMI version 1.3a, full 1080p resolutions and the connectors are gold plated to help prevent loss of quality. There’s also signal enhancer built in that helps prevent loss of quality at up to 15 meters. The XHE228 is pretty compact so we can imagine this being tucked neatly behind your A/V equipment quietly going about its business. It’s available now for £49.99, more details from the official site below. - Paul Lester [IXOS] IXOS HDMI home cinema

Original post by nafiz

If you like your movies and games with that extra bit of shake, rattle and roll, then may we introduce you to the latest chair-pounding ButtKicker. The Guitammer Company already does a line in pricey ButtKicker subwoofers designed to make your chair shake and rumble in time with the action on screen. The new wireless ButtKicker Kit is a cheaper solution to let you implement your own at home on a couch or chair. Obviosuly, don′t tell Gran, sit back and then watch her face as something blows up on the telly. ButtKicker’s low frequency audio transducers provide low frequency audio and realistic special effects, without loud volume. That’s their way of saying it’s silent but shakes your butt just as all that on-screen action is kicking off from your movies or games. They call it a ‘4-D experience’ and if you′ve ever been to a Disney or Universal Studios show where the seats react to what’s onscreen then you get the idea as it’s the same company that supplies them. Oh, and it’s wireless, to keep your living room partner-friendly. It starts shipping at the end of the week from Amazon, priced [US first] at around £200. If you have kids, then you already have something that kicks and shakes your chair while you′re watching TV.-Martin Lynch [ButtKicker] gadgets geek movies

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

This day has been a long time coming, but Activision’s next iteration of the Guitar Hero cash cow franchise is officially available. Truth be told, the game (and requisite instruments) was sitting on a-many of store shelves yesterday, but there’s nothing like a formal announcement to really push you to take a few hours from work and rock out this evening. There’s a variety of bundles out there ranging from the game alone ($49.99 to $59.99), the game and a guitar ($89.99 to $99.99) and the full-on band kit ($179.99 to $189.99), so make sure you choose wisely when heading out to drop some dough.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming

Hackers, like life, will find a way. Sony knows that all too well thanks to the PSP, but so far the PlayStation 3 has stood strong in the face of legions of nerds trying to find a way to exploit it. A potentially major breakthrough may have been made, though, as well-known PS3 hacker StreetskaterFU (we’ve no idea what he’s going for with that name — really) has managed to decrypt the beta client for Sony’s PlayStation Home service. Curious devs can now poke around in the files looking for a way to exploit the newish in-game XMB functionality, potentially allowing homebrew apps and game backups without hard drive swapping. There’s no guarantee it will lead anywhere in the end, but you don’t care either way, right? Our upstanding readership would never participate in such heinously illegal activities.

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Original post by Samuel Axon