Cheapest Blu-ray Player comes from Samsung

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Finding a cheap Blu-ray player is still rather hard. One would expect that they would be selling under the magic $200 price point by now, but they do not. Of course you can always use the PS3 to play Blu-ray movies, but if you do not own one and do not want to pay $399 for it, you do not have that many options.
Low cost electronics brands like Daewoo and Magnavox have Blu-ray players in the pipeline or already on the market. Searching for the best deal on a Blu-ray player I actually landed on a Samsung Blu-ray player. Read more

Posted on Thu, 2 Oct 2008 11:04:37 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray Player is I4U Top 100 Holiday Gift Guide Tip #32

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You want the latest in Blu-ray technology, but do not want to deal with a Sony PS3 console in your living room? The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is the answer. The BD50 features the latest Blu-ray profile 2.0 (BD Live) support and as another added value has an integrated decoder for lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats.
This means you can keep your existing Audio Receiver and still enjoy the new audio quality the new formats available on Blu-ray discs offer. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Imation Offers First 6x Blu-ray Discs in US

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Imation has launched the first 6x Blu-ray writable media available in the US. The 6x media will be available in BD-R and BD-R DL formats. Imation is also launching a full line of Blu-ray cleaning and storage products.

The Imation TDK Life on Record 6x Blu-ray Discs will be able to store 25GB on a single layer and 50GB on dual layers. The recording speed for the media is 216 Mbps, which is about the same as a 20x DVD-R. Recording 25GB of data to one of the discs will take 17 minutes. The media will retail for $13.99 per disc for BD-R and $32.99 for BD-R DL discs. Read more

Posted on Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:02:09 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sony Launches Two New Blu-ray Notebooks

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Sony has announced two new VAIO notebooks today that both have optional Blu-ray drives. The notebooks are called the VAIO NS and the VAIO CS models. The NS optional Blu-ray drive can also write DVDs and CDs. The system has a 15.4-inch LCD and uses Sony XBRITE-ECO LCD technology. The system uses an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and has 3GB of RAM. The Blu-ray version will sell for about $1000 and it can be had in blue, white, and silver.

The VAIO CS comes in four colors including sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, and black. The Blu-ray version will retail for about $1070. The screen is 14.1-inch and uses the XBRITE-ECO LCD. The computer uses an optional Intel Centrino 2 CPU and up to 3GB of RAM. Read more

Posted on Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:26:44 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

LG Electronics Announces BD300 Network Blu-ray Player

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LG has a new network Blu-ray player called the BD300 that will be on store shelves this fall across the country. The player claims to be the world's first Blu-ray player that can stream movies and TV programs from Netflix instantly.

The BD300 will be available next month at Best Buy, Circuit City and other retailers for $399.95. The player will upscale standard DVDs to 1080p and supports BD Live and more. USB media plus is supported along with LG SimpLink. Read more

Posted on Thu, 4 Sep 2008 09:42:40 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sony BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray Player unveiled

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Sony introduced at the IFA 2008 the new high-end Blu-ray player BDP-S5000ES. Sony says that the BDP-S5000ES is the best Blu-ray player yet.
HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping are supposed to generate the best images for full HD TVs.
The BDP-S5000ES features 14-bit, 297MHz Video D/A conversion circuitry. Read more

Posted on Wed, 3 Sep 2008 02:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony BDZ-X100, BDZ-X95, BDZ-L95, BDZ-L55, BDZ-T75, and BDZ-T55 Blu-ray HDD Recor

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Sony announces 6 new Blu-ray hard-drive digital recorders with the Sony BDZ-X100, BDZ-X95, BDZ-L95, BDZ-L55, BDZ-T75, and BDZ-T55 in Japan.
All new Sony Blu-ray recorders feature new 14bit image processing, HD Reality Enhancer, Super Bit Mapping and BD-Live support.
The top of the line Sony BDZ-X100 features a 1TB hard-drive and two tuners. Read more

Posted on Wed, 3 Sep 2008 00:51:52 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung BD-P2500 Blu-ray Player Announced

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Samsung has announced its 5th generation Blu-ray player called the BD-P2500. Samsung says that the Blu-ray player is compatible with the latest Blu-ray features like BD Live. The player also supports 7.1-channel analog audio outputs.

The player offers full 1080p resolution and it uses a HQV video processing. Also supported is 7.1 audio and HDMI 1.3 output with xvTCC deep Color support and 24 fps film mode. The player has a wired Ethernet connection, 1GB of internal memory and a USB port for memory expansion. The player will be available in October for $499.99. Read more

Posted on Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

JVC Blu-ray Home Theater Gets DivX Certification

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DivX announced that JVC's first Blu-ray home theater system has received DivX certification. The JVC system is called the NX-BD3 and is the first entry into Blu-ray for JVC. The system allows for playback over wired and wireless home networks.

The certification will allow users to view DivX content on CDs or DVDs on the JVC system. DivX says that the products bearing its certified logo have been rigorously tested to ensure high-quality. Read more

Posted on Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:32:45 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

LG N4B1 Blu-ray NAS premiers at IFA 2008

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LG will unveil the N4B1 Blu-ray NAS (Network Attached Storage) at the IFA 2008 later this week.
LG claims that the LG N4B1 is the world's first NAS with integrated Blu-ray drive. Owners of a N4B1 can automatically archive old and unused data to Blu-ray disc. The LG N4B1 has a web interface and is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. Read more

Posted on Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:05:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Hitachi Whips out Hybrid Blu-Ray Camcorder

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Hitachi announced its latest Blu-Ray camcorder recently called the GZ-BD10HA. The Blu-Ray disc hybrid camcorder can record onto the next generation format HD Blu-Ray disc. The camera uses a newly developed seven megapixel CMOS image sensor to capture rich and vibrant video in full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. The camcorder can record up to four hours and 20 minutes full HD video or eight hours and 40 minutes of video at 1440 x 1080 resolution on a built-in 30 GB HDD.

In addition to the 30 GB HDD, the camera also features an SDHC card slot for added memory capacity for storing video and still shots. The camcorder has a dubbing function that allows the HD video to be transferred -- with the push of a button -- from either the HDD or the SDHC card to the camcorders internal Blu-Ray drive without the need of a computer. Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:42:31 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Ultimate Matrix Collection Coming in Blu-ray

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One of the titles that were HD DVD exclusive before the format went defunct was the Ultimate Matrix Collection. The Matrix franchise was a multi-billion dollar franchise and according to Warner Brothers, it was the top trilogy in the last 25 years.

Warner has announced that The Ultimate Matrix Collection will debut on Blu-ray on October 14th. The entire collection spans seven Blu-ray discs with HD video and Dolby TrueHD sound. The nine-part anime film that went along with the trilogy called Animatrix will also be included in HD for the first time. Read more

Posted on Mon, 4 Aug 2008 11:16:58 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

New LG BD300 Blu-ray Player streams Netflix

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Netflix gets another hardware device that supports their on demand video service. The Roku Netflix player was launched in May. Now LG announced the LG BD300 Blu-ray player with Netflix movie streaming capability.

Available this fall, the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will play high definition Blu-ray discs, up-convert standard DVDs to 1080p and allow Netflix subscribers to instantly stream more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the TV for no additional charge. Read more

Posted on Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony BDP-S350 BD-Live Ready Blu-Ray Player on Sale

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Sony announced the BDP-S350 Blu-ray Player back in February. The BDP-S350 has now started to ship on Amazon.com and other retailers.

The Sony BDP-S350 supports BonusView (Profile 1.1) (picture-in-picture), which is featured on select new Blu-ray Disc home video releases, and is also BD-Live ready, with an Ethernet port for easy firmware updates and access to Internet-based interactive content features. A firmware update enabling BD-Live is planned later this year. Read more

Posted on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Pioneer says to launch Blu-ray Recorders this Year

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese consumer electronics maker Pioneer Corp said on Tuesday it plans to launch Blu-ray DVD recorders by the end of the year, taking aim at a rapidly growing market after the end of a bitter format battle.
Read more

Posted on Tue, 8 Jul 2008 00:24:52 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Hands On With Blu-ray's BD Live

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Tweaktown takes a closer look BD Live.

Quote: "Thanks to Sony Pictures, I recently had a chance to play with Blu-ray’s fancy new BD Live (formerly known as ‘Profile 2.0’) system. The first Blu-ray disc on the Australian market to come with such a feature - Men In Black, streets on Wednesday 25th June (look for my in-depth review within the next few days). Read more

Posted on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Disney banking on custom Blu-ray Features

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By Thomas K. Arnold

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Live, onscreen chat functions for future installments of such titles as "Lost" and "High School Musical" are among the next-generation extras Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has up its sleeve.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:01:22 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Singulus says Blu-ray take-up faster than DVD

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Singulus received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines in the first quarter and said on Monday the figure showed the new technology was being adopted faster than its predecessor, DVD, 11 years ago.
Read more

Posted on Mon, 9 Jun 2008 02:45:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Microsoft to ''upstage'' 3G iPhone Announcement with Blu-ray Xbox 360

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A rumor sprung up yesterday that suggests that Microsoft is announcing a new Blu-ray Xbox 360 console today, just in time for the WWDC 08 keynote of Steve Jobs.

Even if this would be true, that Microsoft announcement is worth a short story and 1 minute of attention then the world stares back at what Steve Jobs utters on stage of the WWDC 08. Read more

Posted on Mon, 9 Jun 2008 01:20:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr