Category: Blu-ray
Philips get stylish with the BDP7300 Blu-ray player
I don’t often think “sexy” when I look at a Blu-ray player but there’s something about the Philips BDP7300 that’s got that kind of Naim/NAD utility chic about it. It’s the minimal black design. Shame they didn’t go the whole hog with the angle cut corners and matte finish but you can’t have it all, I suppose.
Still, what counts with these things is the insides and there the BDP7300 doesn’t disappoint. Again, there’s a minimal feel to what Philips has on offer but what there is, is solid.
Naturally, it does all your bog standard Blu-ray playback at 1080p/24fps but, as we’ve come to expect with most of these machines these days, it’ll upgrade your DVDs to an approximation of HD quality too.
As well as your discs, it also supports DivX Ultra, WMV, MP3, WMA and JPG files formats via the USB port on the back. There’s also a 1GB internal memory for downloading and saving any BD Live extras you might want to bore yourself to death with before you get up off the sofa and go and buy another film.
Audio-wise it decodes both Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio Essential 7.1 to make sure you’re getting the sound as the director intended. You will, of course, need a proper amp and enough speakers to appreciate that, though.
It’s out this month for £249 but you will be saving a few pence and the planet as you go too. It only uses 0.2W in standby. Of course, you could always just switch the thing off when you’re not using it and do everyone a favour.
GE creates 500GB holographic storage disc
It seems that every other month someone’s coming out with the prototype of a disc that can store X times more than a DVD/Blu-ray. I was actually thinking of making one myself with a stack of blank BDs and some blu-tac but then GE put together a method of storing 500GB using holographic disc storage which is much more interesting.
Instead of etching 2D patterns into the surface, holographic technology uses a three dimensional process with the disc acting like a maze of microscopic mirrors giving a depth to the optical layer where all the data is stored. GE expects them to be introduced by 2012 but the real key is, of course, how expense they will be.
Blu-rays began as $1 per GB when they first came out dropping to something closer to half that today. GE hopes these holographic discs will be 10 cents per GB, so a much more affordable $5 for the whole thing.
The thing I can’t help wondering, though, is whether there’s really a viable future in optical storage? Between SSDs and cloud computing, I was hoping to rid myself of discs by 2012.
(via NYT)
Warner offering to swap your HD-DVDs for Blu-rays
Aware that the Blu-ray market still hasn’t really taken off, Warner Bros are getting a little desperate, and they’re waving an olive branch of peace at people who bought HD-DVDs. They’re going to let people mail the original box art for any HD-DVDs that they bought and swap them for the same title on Blu-ray.
It’s not quite free, they’re charging $4.95 per disc for the service, plus $6.95 shipping, but it’s still much cheaper than buying all the new discs yourself. It might even be worth scanning the local bargain bins for the old HD-DVDs to send off, then flog the replacements you get sent. You won’t be able to make a mint, though. It’s limited to 25 swaps per household.
(via Den of Geek and @stuart_coles)
Sony announces high-spec, low-end BDS360 player
When Sony announces a low end Blu-ray player without offering a price it does make me wonder exactly how low end they’re talking. This is, after all, the nearest company to Apple the AV market has.
That aside, the BDS360 does sound like an excellent piece of kit and just the ticket if you’re searching for some HD content for your newly bought LCD. It’s both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD compatible and will upgrade all your DVDs to some kind of simulated 1080p.
You can connect the player up via Ethernet to get all your BD Live downloadable nonsense and there’s even a USB port to store it through as well. And, if you’re into unmeasurable proprietary technology, then Sony’s Precision Drive and Deep Colour systems promise to make sure even scratched and wobbly discs get played and played in good colour too.
Sony’s also announced some 2.1 home cinema speaker systems to go with the set up in the shape of the HT-SS360 and HT-SF360. Both are wireless and support Sony’s DCAC (Digital Cinema Auto Calibration) to make sure you put them in the right place and at the right volume for a decent experience.
More details of dates and prices as soon as I find out.
Sony
Panasonic brings HD Blu-ray recording to UK with the DMR-BS850 & BS750
Panasonic launched not one but two dual-tuner Freesat HD Blu-ray PVRs yesterday at their shindig over in Amsterdam, making the DMR-BS850 and BS750 the first of their kind in the UK.
No prices as yet – something pretty hefty, I’d imagine – but in May you can expect a pair of machines that’ll allow you to watch and record satellite content, HD channels and record onto Blu-ray discs
Sony boss surrenders pay bonus, as company braces for job cuts amid sales slump
Sir Howard Stringer, the Sony boss whose company reforms were doing a great job until the global financial crisis stopped everyone buying second BRAVIAS for the bedroom on their credit cards, will be turning down his bonus this year as Sony reveals its first annual loss in 14 years.
“The massive economic upheaval being experienced across the globe is sparing no one in the consumer electronics world,” Stringer said, as he revealed a forecast loss of $1.7bn for the year – and said Sony would look to making more job cuts on top of the already-announced 16,000 staff its planning…
Pioneer introduces BDP-LX91 Blu-ray player
Pioneer is launching another Blu-Ray player, called the BDP-LX91. The company is referring to it as its ‘flagship’ player, and for good reason – it’s got a freshly-developed 16-bit video engine which will perform decoding, conversion, scaling and other adjustments at a rapid pace, as well as upscaling DVD content to 1080p.
As well as lovely video, the player delivers crisp audio with 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and bit stream output. There’s dual HDMI outputs, too, and it’s been certified as sounding really rather good by none other than legendary Beatles producer George Martin’s AIR studios.
This player’s available now, but it’ll set you back £1,700. Ouch. Still, it’s a damn fine machine, and if you’re even considering it, then you won’t bat an eyelid at that price.
Pioneer BDP-LX91
Related posts: Panasonic launches three new Blu-ray players including one with VHS! | Pioneer unveils new Blu-ray and upconverting DVD players, new AV receivers
The UK has gone GAMING MAD – 22 million consoles in use, PS3 dead last
Gfk-ChartTrack, the Europe-wide sales-counting conglomerate that tracks how many games and how much hardware we’ve all been buying, has sad there are now a staggering 22 million games consoles in the UK.
That’s an increase from January 2008’s 13.5 million, a figure which presumably doesn’t include all our childhood Mega Drives and SNESs that are sitting in mum & dad’s loft. Nintendo sold 2.9 million Wiis between Jan 2008 and Jan 2009, Microsoft shifted 1.4m Xbox 360 consoles and Sony moved a rather poor 1m PS3s, making it…
Glacier Media Systems promising "3D porn" to revolt you in more ways than previously imaginable
Now, personally speaking, I’m quite a fan and active user of a wide and varied range of pornography – but I’m not so sure there’s a need to watch it in 3D.
I don’t like the idea of a man’s belly and scrotum protruding into my lounge as he services the needs of a dishevelled-looking East European lady. That crosses a boundary. I want to feel emotionally detached. I don’t want a starring role. I’d never be able to perform under that sort of pressure.
But that’s precisely the sort of in-your-face and in-your-living-room approach to movie-watching being taken by Glacier Media Systems, with its Glacier Iceberg 3D entertainment system promising to bring your existing movie collection into 3D somehow, should you have…
CES 2009: Panasonic launches three new Blu-ray players including one with VHS!
Panasonic announced its latest line of Blu-ray players. The DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80 offer all the latest features you’d expect from a decent player, including full high definition audio format decoding, upconversion of standard definition DVDs, VIERA Link and 24p processing, as well as VIERA Cast which allows access to Amazon’s video-on-demand service.
There’s also P4HD (Pixel Precision Progressive Processing for HD) which gives a superior picture by processing over 15 billion pixels per second, PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus, and 96kHz surround re-mastering of audio…
