Category: Blu-ray
First Blu-ray players for under $300 alert!
The cheapest Blu-ray players in the world have just clocked in at the American supermarket chain, Wal-mart, at under $300 – roughly £150.
Available for $298, the Magnavox NB500MG9 and Sylvania NB500SL9 have some nice features surprisingly, including Blu-ray Final Profile 1.1, HDMI 1.3, and DVD ‘upscaling’ to 1080p. Still, they’re not quite as cheap as those $99 Toshiba HD DVD players…
Marantz BD8002: chunky feature-laden Blu-ray player coming to Japan
High-end manufacturer Marantz has announced it’s bringing the BD8002 Blu-ray player to the Japanese market next month.
It features a Silicon Optix 10-bit chipset, compatibility with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, 7.1 analogue audio output, full 1080p video output including 24fps mode for accurate playback of movies, and of course HDMI output…
Exposé! eBay UK not as Blu-ray friendly as other eBay sites
It’s come to my attention, through a recent attempt at flogging my copy of Casino Royale (every Blu-ray player owner has at least six copies), that eBay UK is not anywhere near as Blu-ray friendly as the US, or even Australia, Canada, or France. I’d test more sites, but that’s about the limit to my bilingualism.
Ever tried selling a Blu-ray on eBay UK? Ever other country’s site seems to have Blu-ray listed in the categories field, however not us in Blighty, who’re forced to lump it into the ‘DVD, Film & TV > DVDs’ or ‘DVD, Film & TV > Other Film Formats’ fields.
The winning HD format is not mentioned anywhere, and neither is HD DVD, which is also mentioned on all the aforementioned sites. Although dead formats such as MiniDisc have their very own boxes for you to tick, along with SACD, DAT, audio cassettes, floppy discs and VHS.
So can we cut to the chase already and label eBay UK as being a non-embracing technological Luddite?..
Four months on, Panasonic announces core details of DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player
Trade press first saw the DMP-BD50 in January at CES, however it’s taken Panasonic this long to confirm the pricing and availability, which were just announced in the US this week.
The all-singing, all-dancing Blu-ray player sports Blu-ray Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), and decodes and outputs via bit stream both aurally delicious Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats, making it a key player in the market. In addition, it…
Pioneer launching premium Blu-ray players with full BonusView features
Pioneer has announced two new Blu-ray players — the Elite BDP-05FD and Pioneer BDP-51FD — both offering “premium” features and with full BonusView functionality.
Both players feature HDMI 1.3a with 12-bit Deep Colour, 1080p output, 24fps film mode, Wolfson Digital Audio Converters, handling of all audio bitstream formats, decoding of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, and DTS HD Master (with a future firmware upgrade), 7.1-channel analogue output, and new graphical interface…
After an initial delay, Samsung announces the BD-P1500 Blu-ray player will launch in June
Originally scheduled for a May release, the BD-P1500 has just been handed a June birthdate from Samsung, after being announced at CES earlier in the year.
Priced at around $399 in the US by the looks of things, the player will be Blu-ray Profile 1.1 and Dolby TrueHD audio compatible, and output at 1080p resolution. Potential firmware upgrades via the Ethernet and USB ports will allow for BD-Live 2.0 and DTS-HD HR support, according to reports, but sadly not DTS-HD Master…
In need of a killer Blu-ray disc to demonstrate 1080p? Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence announced
You’ve just bought a Blu-ray player, and want to know what’s the best film for showing off the high resolution when your mates are around?
The film I always use whenever I have friends around, and need to demonstrate the difference between HD and standard-def (I am a terrible bore), is ‘Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence’, a Japanese anime which until now has only been available in that fine country. Bandai Visual Entertainment, the company that owns the distribution rights, has announced it’s releasing the film on Blu-ray later this year, with an English dub…
I take back those insults aimed at Universal yesterday, Heroes season 1 & 2 Blu-ray announced
Need another reason to justify that expensive Blu-ray player? Universal, who I reported yesterday had announced this year’s Blu-ray releases, will be launching both the first and second series of Heroes on August 26th.
Last year the first season was on HD DVD which obsessives such as myself had to import from the US in order to watch, but up until now, there hadn’t been any announcement regarding the second series, or the move to Blu-ray for both of them. The August launch date will be global supposedly,…
Universal makes HD DVD fanboys' blood boil with upcoming Blu-ray releases
Those traitors over at Universal have finally picked their dignity up off the floor and announced their first releases for the Blu-ray format, after deciding mid-February to change exclusivity from the defunct HD DVD to Blu-ray.
The first film to receive the Blu-ray treatment in July is ‘Doomsday’, followed by ‘The Incredible Hulk’, ‘Wanted’, ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’,…
Pioneer announces third Blu-ray player, the BDP-LX71
Backing the Blu-ray format to the nth degree, Pioneer has announced the BDP-LX71 player that should wash up on European shores this summer. Shame the weather forecast for summer isn’t looking that good, there might not be many people down there to pick them up off the sand.
Main improvements to their third BDP model include BonusView Profile 1.1 for interactivity (doesn’t quite match the PS3’s 2.0 however), a 12-bit deep colour support,…
