-
Tech NewsLive from the Sony Press Conference at IFA
Hookai. I’m lining up to get into Sony’s press conference. They have some things under wraps, including a mega-TV with super-smooth video action and what could be some Walkmen. Hmmm, I love the smell of new plastic in the morning. More info and photos following up shortly. Keep watching this space. We are in, first … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9Movies
This Week’s Blu-ray Releases
Giz Pick of the Week: The Nightmare Before Christmas Disney DVDs have a history of top-notch A/V transfer, and Tim Burton’s masterpiece of stop-motion animation should take full advantage of Blu-ray’s higher resolution. On top of that, you get a slew of bonus features-everything from the original DVD set along with a few more, including … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech News
Universal Pees On Our Rug With The Big Lebowski 10th Anniversary Edition
On Sept. 9, Universal will release an amazing 10th Anniversary Limited Edition of The Big Lebowski that’s packed inside of a mini-bowling ball. A goddamn bowling ball. And it’ll have all-new bonus features, which I hope/suspect is filled with John Goodman screaming various permutations of “fuck” a lot. For only $24. Why so cheap? Because … Continued
-
Tech News
Yamaha BD-S2900 Blu-ray Player Should Not Be Your First, Second or Third Choice Purchase
We were pretty easy on those early gen Blu-ray players, but now that the format has had some time to blossom, there’s no excuse for a unit like the Yamaha BD-S2900 or its $1,200 asking price. Lacking BD-Live or an Ethernet port to upgrade the firmware should be enough to keep you away from this … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech NewsGadgets
LG’s N4B1 Network NAS Auto-Backs-Up Your Files to Blu-ray Disc
Though it sounds more like a droid-designation than a useful product, the N4B1 from LG is a combined network HDD bay and Blu-ray disc recorder: Much better than pairing a BDR-recorder with a VHS drive. It’s got space for up to four HDDs inside (supporting up to 4TB total capacity) and three USB ports and … Continued
By Kit Eaton -
Tech NewsGadgets
Panasonic’s DMR-BR630V Blu-ray Disc Recorder Does VHS Tapes Too
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 BDRs at six times speed, has digital and analog tuners, new second-gen MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoder chips as well as all … Continued
By Kit Eaton -
Tech News
Sony To Drop Blu-ray Player Price $100, Others to Follow
HD Guru is reporting that Sony will drop the price of their BDP-S350 Blu-ray player $100 and sell it for $300 beginning in September. As a result, manufacturer Funai plans to drop the price of its players (under the Philips/Magnavox, Insignia and Sylvania brands) down $50 to $250 in order to stay competitive in the … Continued
-
Tech News
Pioneer Sneaks Out $2200 Elite BDP-09FD; First Blu-ray Player That Crushes the PS3
Last May Pioneer told us that autumn would bring a “super duper” Blu-ray player—the most powerful Blu-ray player ever built. It makes up for the current crop, which are lower in price but are missing key features like BD-Live for internet-based content. Well, not a leaf has fallen off a tree, yet here it is … Continued
-
io9Movies
Firefly Series Comes to Blu-ray November 11
Firefly might have been the best thing Joss Whedon has ever done in our opinion, but it’s also one of the shortest things he’s ever done. In just 14 episodes, the space western was able to surpass both Buffy and Angel (and all of his smaller creations) in our minds as his work, which is … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
Toshiba XD-E500 Upscaling DVD Player: Their Plan to Not Fight Blu-ray
Don’t get me wrong, Toshiba’s XD-E500 is a decent 1080p/24fps upscaling DVD player-it toasted one of their own upconverting players in the demo, and they’ve gotten pretty good at doing it. It’s got three different intelligent processing modes, two of which are really solid-sharp (which only sharpens where it’s needed, not the whole picture), color … Continued
-
Tech News
Windows Storage 1.0 Feature Pack Adds Blu-ray Burning, Smart Card Drivers
Microsoft’s prepping a “Storage 1.0” feature pack for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 that adds a few useful storage options for people who really love storing things. None of these are groundbreaking, but they are fundamental to those of you who would like to master Blu-ray discs natively, or read/write ICCD/CCID smart … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
Casino Royale Special Edition Is The First Second Blu-ray Double Dip
Casino Royale, a film from Sony Pictures, is going to be the title to hold the dubious honor of being first to double-dip on “Sony’s” Blu-ray format. We’re honestly surprised that it took this long. The $39 October 21 release will have seven hours of extras that weren’t in the original Blu-ray or DVD release, … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
The Criterion Collection’s Reference Blu-ray Player: The PlayStation 3
The folks at the Criterion Collection know a thing or two about movies. They restore classic films for release on DVD and, starting later this year, Blu-ray. So when they set up their screening rooms, you’d expect them to have some crazy $1,000 Blu-ray player, right? Nope. The Criterion Collection people rock a PlayStation 3 … Continued
By Adam Frucci -
Tech News
Funai (Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson) Will Sell HDTVs With Blu-rays In ‘Em
Funai, whose subsidiaries are more familiar to us as Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson, is planning on selling LCD HDTVs with Blu-rays on-board starting summer 2009. The company’s previous successes in recent years with combo units (TVs with VCRs and TVs with DVDs) totaled up 40% and 20% of their sales in the US respectively. So … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
Indiana Jones 4 Blu-Ray Details Released With Cool Extras, Movie Still Poop
The Blu-ray edition of the biggest letdown in movie history, also known as Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Whatever Crystal Something will be released on October 14, just in time not to buy it for this holiday season. The two-disc Blu-ray comes in the obligatory 1080p and comes loaded with extras that don’t … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Triple Format Hitachi DZ-BD10HA Blu-ray Camcorder Also Writes to HD and SDHC
For folks who smartly don’t want to be locked into any particular format, the DZ-BD10HA adds the option to record 1080p videos and stills to its built-in 30GB hard drive or an SDHC card, on top of mini-Blu-ray discs. A dubbing feature also promises to dump footage from the SD card or HD directly to … Continued
By John Mahoney -
Tech News
Iron Man Blu-ray Packs a Stark-Worthy Arsenal of Bonus Features
The Blu-ray version of Iron Man has been available for preorder on Amazon for quite a while now, but no one knew exactly what they were buying (other than, you know, the movie itself). Now we know that the Ultimate Edition will be released September 30 and contain two discs packed with all sorts of … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
io9Movies
Ultimate Blu-ray Database for Movie Geeks
If you’re a total movie geek who wants quick access to every sliver of minutae about every Blu-ray disc out there—release date, studio, IMDB rating, disc size, codec, audio encoding and price comparisons—Blu-ray Statistics has them all in a neat table that you can sort by any of those criteria. It’s not a pretty site, … Continued
-
Tech News
Rumor: The Dark Knight Could Coax Warner into BD-Live Release
Warner Bros, along with plenty others, has been skeptical about BD-Live. WTF is BD-Live, you ask? It’s that feature in the Blu-ray spec allowing, among other internet-based functionality, people seated on couches across the US to watch movies simultaneously and chat about them. Now rumor has it that the company is considering The Dark Knight … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech News
NEC Packs All Blu-ray Functions on Single Chip, Smaller Players to Come
The EMMA 3PF is the first large-scale integration (LSI) chip to pack all of the necessary Blu-ray controllers onto a single piece of silicon. The new chip performs all audio and video decoding, analog to digital conversions, and HDMI output. It supports the Blu-ray 2.0 profile and will start shipping in September 2008, allowing player … Continued
By John Mahoney