Category: Blu-ray
Blu-ray support for Wii 2?
French rumour mill Logic Sunrise have reportedly got their hands on a leaked Wii 2 specifications sheet.
UPDATE – Microsoft: "We have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360"
The comment by the HD-DVD backing company had 360 owners laughing in the faces of smug PS3 owners, who already have built in Blu-Ray support.
Blu-Ray headed to Xbox 360?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has let slip that a Blu-Ray drive could soon be heading to the console's growing list of accessories.
The gadgets we'll be buying this Christmas – LCD TVs, Camcorders and Netbooks
The UK is apparently the biggest market for flats screen TVs in Europe and Futuresource thinks it will stay that way with demand for the sets fuelled by the World cup next year, the Olympics in 2012 and the digital switch off.
Now Blu-ray is going 3D
There has been awful lot written about 3DTV over the last year or so. You may remember that Sky has been hyping the new format promising that it will have the same kind of imp0acta as HDTV and that the BBC has been experimenting with the format.
Well the 3D format received a major shot in the arm today with the news that the Blu-Ray Disc Association is backing the format.
Toshiba to make Blu-ray players
Toshiba finally confirmed this morning that it is joining the Blu-ray Disc Association.
The LG HR400 – Blu-ray, Freeview HDD and YouTube all-in-one
LG has announced that the HR400 will be available at the end of this month. The HR400 is a Blu-ray DVD player, a Freeview receiver with recording onto a built-in HDD and it also streams YouTube videos without the need for a PC.
The Blu-ray is 1080p full HD and will also upscale your old DVDs. The Freeview element includes a 160GB HDD.
This really does do the job of two separate boxes and the YouTube feature is just a nice little bonus.
It will cost around £350 – which is fairly cheap considering the functionality. Find out more from LG.
(via T3)
Related posts: LG to launch 15-inch OLED in 2010 | REVIEW: LG 42LH5000 – 200Hz 42-inch LCD TV
Marantz announce the UD9004 – for a mammoth £5,500
If you’ve got a spare £5,500 lying about then you can think about buying the Marantz’s UD9004 Blu-ray and SACD player. If you haven’t, well, join the club.
So what exactly can you expect from your £5,500? Well, the UD9004 is a fusion of the flagship SA-7S1 Super Audio CD player and the very best of the company’s Blu-ray technology.
In other words, this is an absolute beast of a Blu-ray / SACD player. It has a Silicon Optix Realta chip that offers the very finest broadcast quality video processing, including pixel-by-pixel conversion, 1080p upscaling by a 10bit process for standard definition images, detail enhancement, digital noise reduction and high-end analogue video output. You can even run the audio and video via separate HDMI connections just for that extra bit of quality.
For audiophiles there is 32-bit floating point type Analog Devices DSP for the purist audio imaginable with four separate circuit boards and a pure direct mode that shuts down the video playing elements to deliver exceptional, focused audio output.
The machine is built like a tank which will reduce mechanical distortion. The
extensively braced, chassis has a thick bottom plate with machine milled copper feet, sustaining mechanical stability and therefore sound quality. It weighs an incredible 19.2kg.
So, if you’ve read this post to its conclusion you’re obviously still interested. Go get yourself one from Marantz. If you’re feeling particularly flush – and let’s face it, you should be if you’re about to shell out over five grand for a Blu-ray player – order me one too.
Denon announces the DBP-2010 Blu-ray player
Denon has announced the latest addition to their Blu-ray line-up: The DBP-2010.
I want to call it a high-end Blu-ray player but it isn’t really. Not compared to some of Denon’s other Blu-ray machines. Mind you, this one costs £599 and not £3,300 like the VD-A1UD.
That’s not to say that the DBP-2010 isn’t a good bit of kit because, a quick look at the spec, will show you that it is.
It has Profile 2.0 capability with built in BD-Live and Bonus View via the ethernet port. It can play multiple formats – pretty much any shiny circular disc you can imagine – and it has 10-bit video processing for both HD and SD viewing. It also offers upconversion and IP scaling up to 1080p.
Sound wise it features 7.1 analogue outputs with full decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. For music via CD it has a dedicated two-channel analogue audio output. The DBP-2010 also supports DivxHD and AVCHD playback from HD camcorders.
It’s out this month and, as mentioned, it’s going to set you back £599. You can get it in either black or silver. Interested? If so, check availability via Denon.
Prices on the Panasonic HD BD Freesat recorders
We took a look at the Panasonic Everything range of three HD Freesat recorders when they were launched a while back and only feared how much such high spec, high end recorders can cost. Well, the wait is over today and the answer is that they’re reassuringly expense.
The DMR-BS850 and DMR-BS750 are the same beast only the former has a 500GB HDD and the latter 250GB. They record and play Blu-ray and Freesat, support and encode the H.264 file format and work with both DTS and Dolby HD surround sound standards. They’ll cleverly cost you £1,000 and £900 respectively. Who isn’t going to spend the extra £100?
The third choice is the £750 DMR-XS350 which only writes to DVDs and not Blu-rays but will, of course, still supply and store all the HD content you need.
Nice little items, the three of these. Good quality looking products if you’ve got the cash for them. Stick to HD internet downloads played via USB on your TV if you can’t.
