Category: Blu-ray
High definition discs outsell VHS tapes: is it really a milestone?
According to research from Video Business, the combined sales of Blu-ray and HD DVD high definition discs was greater than that of VHS cassettes sold in the first half of 2007.
Although standard definition DVD sales also slumped by around 5% in the same period, due mainly to a weak bunch of new releases, the dominant disc format is hardly challenged by these findings.
Sales of pre-recorded video tapes are all but non-existent now, with most consumers preferring the greater convenience, features, quality, and smaller form factor of DVDs.
Thieves can't be bothered with HD-DVD
That’s the spin the Blu-ray consortium would put on The DVD Dossier’s story about a theft at a Seattle branch of Blockbuster.
Apparently the thieves “knew what they wanted” – which involved clearing out the Blu-ray section and leaving all the HD-DVDs where they were…
Hitachi to launch unnamed 1080p Blu-Ray camcorder
Hitachi is to launch a 1080p Blu-Ray camcorder – but it’s still some time off and without a product name so far.
Lite-On announce lower 'strategic' price for internal Blu-ray drive in Europe
Lite-On has announced that, since Blu-ray lasers are no longer in short supply and the company has accumulated enough stock of the product, they are lowering the price of their internal Blu-ray PC drive – titled as the particularly uninspiring LH-2B1S.
The drive launched back in November last year, when there was a distinct shortage of components. Now, says Katrin Ackermann, European Sales Manager for Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions, “we can see already a growing demand of Blu-ray. It looks like the format is getting more popular now that there are more playback devices and movie titles available in the market. Now we have the possibility to lower our prices, to make our product available for a bigger group of customers and increase our sales quantity.”
The Ten Tech Trends that will define 2007
By definition, technology is always evolving faster than any expert can keep up with it, no matter how much of a boffin they are. But right now, in 2007, the pace of change feels more rapid than ever.
Around us, consumer technology products are evolving, converging and spawning new gadgets like mad. Simply keeping up with the main developments is an exhausting (not to mention expensive) process. Still, that doesn’t stop us trying. In recent weeks, I’ve been analysing the ten consumer technology trends that I think are going to be most interesting in the second half of 2007.
Blu-ray film studios launch "Hollywood in Hi-Def" web site
High definition disc formats may not be the most exciting news around, but that’s not stopped companies who support either HD DVD or Blu-ray doing what they can to push their format as the best choice for consumers.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (I think it’s all about home entertainment) have backed a new web site that aims to push Blu-ray as the best choice for watching movies.
It’s called Hollywood in Hi-Def.
Samsung launches BD-P2400 and BD-P1400 Blu-ray players
If you listen to anyone except Toshiba, you get the idea that Blu-ray is pulling away in the HD sales war. So a good time for Samsung to be launching two new players – the BD-P2400 and BD-P1400.
Opinion: Can Blu movies make HD exciting?
Jonathan Weinberg writes… IS anyone else bored to tears with the whole Blu-ray v HD-DVD debate. I know I am. Rival film studios and techno firms are falling over themselves to tell us how great their particular new format is,…
University team squeezes 500GB onto a single DVD
Personally, I’m still mildly impressed with the storage of 25GB for a single layer high-def disc, let alone 50GB on a dual-layer disc. But that’s not pushing limits anywhere near as far as they can go – one university team has packed in 500GB onto a single disc.
Samsung BDP-UP5000 Blu-ray and HD DVD player gets new release date
We mentioned Samsung’s proposed dual HD player back in April, with a shipping date of ‘late 2007 initially mentioned. That still looks to be the case, according to new reports.
