blu-raydisc
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TDK's heavily stacked 320GB disc shows its nearly-clear face at CEATEC
As with pretty much every other optical disc out there that claims to hold a near-infinite amount of data, we're still skeptical about TDK's ability to actually bring to market the 320GB spinner you see above. But hey -- it's got ten 32GB layers and it's practically see-through. Did you really expect us to walk on by without clicking the shutter even once? Exactly.%Gallery-74888%
Philips gets stylish with BDP9500 and BDP7500 Blu-ray players
Philips has definitely shifted most of its consumer electronics efforts into continents not named North America, but given that IFA's taking place in Berlin, it makes sense to see so much new kit flowing from the company. The latest wares to make their debut on the show floor is the BDP9500 and BDP7500 Blu-ray players, both of which handle 7.1 audio with poise and offer up 1080p video playback for those with BD libraries. The flagship 9500 also includes a Qdeo video processor and a sleek aluminum shell, not to mention Burr-Brown analog-to-digital converters and DVD upscaling for those other movies. There's no mention of pricing and availability just yet, but with the holiday shopping season just around the bend, we'd guess the folks at Philips are working hard to get these out on the double [Warning: PDF read link]
Sony's 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer reviewed, huge
You know, we never thought that it was that big of a deal to change CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs by hand. Seriously, if you're too lazy to walk two feet to your entertainment center you probably didn't want to see Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch that badly in the first place. On the other hand, we are gadget fiends and part of us can see the logic in something like Sony's 400-disc Mega Charger. Hell, if a Blu-ray player is good, one that holds 400 discs must be 400 times as good, right? Well, maybe. As far as players go, this guy does pretty well, according to the reviewer at Electronic House. In fact, video quality was deemed "excellent" and on-screen navigation was a snap. And you can't find fault with any player that supports Gracenote (especially if you're going to store hundreds of discs in the thing). On the other hand, the lack of Netflix and DLNA integration, WiFi, or even memory for BD-Live functionality (you'll have to supply your own USB thumb drive, it seems) just might cramp your style. So what do you think? Do you have 400 Blu-ray discs? Think you ever will have 400 Blu-ray discs? Then hit the read link and check out the sordid tale for yourself.
Harman Kardon brings Blu-ray to America with BDP 1 deck
See that player right there? It looks really familiar, doesn't it? Aside from a power adapter that's suited for use in the United States of America, it's essentially the BDP 10 sans a zero. Shortly after announcing its first Blu-ray deck overseas, Harman Kardon has seen fit to offer up a model here in the States, with BD-Live functionality, a USB socket, HDMI 1.3a, Ethernet, IR-remote in / out jacks, optical / coaxial digital audio outputs and support for all the major audio formats. The pain? $499, and it should start filtering into retailers as early as this month.
Sony's 400-disc BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray Mega Changer reportedly coming soon
There's no doubt that Sony has a 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer on the cooker -- heck, we saw the thing last year at CEDIA -- but up until now, there's been no indication of its nearness to market. According to a vague Swiss product page and a report from Sony Insider, however, the launch date is indeed drawing near. If hunches prove legitimate, the BDP-CX7000ES will allow 400 of your favorite BD flicks to sit within a single console, and we've every reason to believe that this one will support BD-Live and actually load films with some amount of haste. You know, very much unlike the 200-disc HES-V1000 that's already out there. As of now, it's looking like the unit will run right around $2,300, placing it squarely in rarefied air and ostensibly out of reach for the vast majority of home theater junkies.[Via Sony Insider]
Spears & Munsil ships Blu-ray High Definition Benchmark calibration disc
Until now, Digital Video Essentials was pretty much the only legitimate option when it came to calibrating via Blu-ray player. At long last, a little competition has stepped into the field. Stacey Spears and Don Munsil -- creators of the DVD Player Benchmark and Progressive Scan Shootout at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity -- has just released the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark: Blu-ray Edition. The disc is chock full of test material and calibration patterns to help HD junkies adjust their home theater systems for optimal playback, and according to co-creator Stacey Spears, all of the material was created from scratch. Coincidentally enough, this very disc was bundled with our OPPO BDP-83 test deck, but given that it's on sale now at Amazon and direct from OPPO, we suppose that's not too terribly shocking. MSRP is pegged at $24.99, and you'll find lots more details waiting in the read link.
Futuresource predicts 100 million Blu-ray Discs sales in 2009
Futuresource Consulting has produced some rather controversial predictions before, so it's not at all surprising to find that it was this firm that forecast a whopping 100 million Blu-ray Disc would be sold in 2009. As we wait for BD sales to exceed DVDs in 2012, we're told that consumers are on pace to purchase in excess of 100 million Blu-ray Discs across the US, Western Europe and Japan this year. Mai Hoang, Senior Market Analyst, even concluded that in America, BD has moved from "early adopter phase through to early majority," noting that in the US last year, BD video retail sales increased some 320 percent to 24 million units. Couple that with rampant growth in the UK, and that 100m figure seems just a wee bit more believable. Of course, it's not like these guys really have any accountability in any of this, but at least these conjectures will lead to some pretty fiery discussions, right? [Warning: PDF read link][Via Joystiq]
MediaTek and Sunplus to offer Blu-ray Disc chipsets next year
While the average consumer won't care an awful lot about what goes into a Blu-ray Disc chipset, here's something anyone working hard for every dollar they earn can appreciate: more competition. Word on the street has it that both MediaTek and Sunplus Technology, two Taiwan-based consumer IC design houses, are fixing to certify their own Blu-ray Disc chipsets and to ship 'em as early as Q2 2009. The two outfits are expected to compete with Samsung and Broadcom, though there's no word yet on potential customers for their wares.
OEM Blu-ray deck manufacturers in China / Taiwan slammed from price drops
Whoa, shocker of the century here. DigiTimes has it that OEM Blu-ray Disc player manufacturers in China and Taiwan are seriously feeling the burn after a number of companies decided to deeply discount their decks in order to get them moving from store shelves. Imagine that, right? What's interesting is that the source also mentions that these very OEM companies "have received almost no orders from the US so far in December," signaling that current inventory channels are likely clogged up. Eh, they can gripe and moan all they want about their dwindling profit margins, but we the consumer are quite thrilled with all this price slashing. Can we get an amen from the congregation?[Image courtesy of HDTVUK]
South Park making long-awaited Blu-ray debut in March
South Park was already a winner in HD, and now it's finally making the expected leap to BD. For the first time ever, the calloused crew will be seen on Blu-ray format when the Complete Twelfth Season BD launches day-and-date with the DVD set in March 2009. All 14 uncensored episodes will be presented on a three-disc set, with each in 1080p and boasting Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound. Sadly, we're still waiting to hear an MSRP and whether any of the prior seasons will follow suit on BD, but there's a good chance that studio execs are waiting on sales numbers from this one to determine the latter.
Bizarre survey finds digital copy preferable to downloading
Maybe we're just off our rocker, but we can't figure out what NPD Group hoped to actually discover from this here survey to save our lives. Apparently these folks asked around 1,500 movie buyers (read: clearly not movie thieves) if they preferred purchasing a video that included digital copy or simply downloading it from the internet. Shocker: 79% said they favored the digital copy, while only 21% confessed that they'd rather get a low quality rip from a shady website that could potentially infect their computer with some rare strain of virus. Seriously, what's the point? If you're buying a film in the first place, why wouldn't you want the studio to do the hard work for you and include a portable copy? At any rate, this groundbreaking poll also revealed that 38% of those interested in digital copy "appreciated having a physical disc as a backup," while 27% admitted that they would be "more inclined to buy a portable device in order to take advantage of the digital copy feature." Moral of the story? Let us know, will you?
Criterion Collection Blu-ray Disc review roundup
Sometime between the third crescent moon and a witch's equinox (or early last week, to be specific), Criterion began shipping out its long-awaited Blu-ray Disc collection. The question remains, though: are these much ballyhooed discs worth their weight in gold, or what? We've rounded up a number of reviews from around the web covering a wide range of the first wave titles, and generally speaking, critics were floored. Almost every single reviewer had a difficult time hitting the "stop" button on their praises of the visual / auditory qualities, and while the plots of each film are completely subjective, it's safe to say that these are quite the must-haves for strict audio- / videophiles. The only title that didn't receive an inordinate amount of laud was Chungking Express, with the reviewer noting that it had "a somewhat erratic look on Blu-ray, alternately semi-soft and sharp." Outside of that, however, it's all glowing.Read - The Third Man reviewRead - Bottle Rocket reviewRead - The Man Who Feel To Earth reviewRead - Chungking Express reviewRead - Overview of Blu-ray transfer process
Popular Mechanics picks 20 best Blu-ray Discs for showing off
So we've already had a discussion over which ten films that aren't on Blu-ray, um, should be, but this one's about choosing the most beautiful of the titles already available. Popular Mechanics has listed its top twenty Blu-ray Discs in terms of pure visual incredibleness, noting that these winners "reward repeat viewing with great stories, evocative soundtracks and dazzling visuals." Understandably, a few from the Criterion Collection made the cut, with notable others including Wall-E, No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum and A Passage to India. We didn't find too many avenues for disagreement on the films that were chosen, but we were taken aback by the fact that Baraka was nowhere to be found. A simple oversight, or a purposeful omission?
The Dark Knight shatters sales record, moves 600,000 Blu-ray Discs on day one
The numbers are in, and they're big. Just as predicted, Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight was a huge day-one success, with consumers in the US, Canada and UK snapping up three million copies during the first 24 hours (give or take a few) that it was on sale. More germane to our conversation, however, is this 600,000 figure, which tells exactly how many Blu-ray Discs were sold. We already know that around one-sixth of those were moved in the UK, leaving us to determine that North America did some serious shopping. The studio has now projected it to sell one million BDs by Saturday, and curiously enough, current sales have been "especially strong at grocery stores, indicating that the format is broadening beyond early adopters to more mainstream buyers, notably women." Needless to say, this title took down Iron Man's record of moving 250,000 BDs on day one, which just ratchets up the bar for the next big one to take down.[Thanks, Geoff]
107,000 The Dark Knight Blu-ray Discs sold in UK on day one
We'll warn you -- these numbers are likely very preliminary and subject to change, but Pocket-lint is reporting (via Official Charts Company data as revealed by the British Video Association) that some 513,000 copies of The Dark Knight were sold on day one in the UK (but isn't the day still ongoing?), 21% of which were Blu-ray. If our abacus is to be trusted, that's just north of 107,000 Blu-ray Discs, and it falls right in line with the apparent BD boom going on across the pond. Just for comparison, it took the white hot Casino Royale a full week in the UK to move just 10,000 BD units. Looks like the flick is off to a solid start -- we'll be keenly watching for US numbers as soon as they become available.
Poll: Do you rent or buy your Blu-ray Discs?
Look, we're as tired of hearing about "the economy" as you are, but even disregarding that, Blu-ray Discs are expensive. Darn expensive if we should say so ourselves. We get the feeling that they'll start falling to line up more evenly with Blu-ray hardware, but given that most flicks are still quite a bit at retail, we're curious to see the ratio of renters to buyers. Also, we're pretty sure most everyone would gladly answer this with "Both!," but we're concerned with what you do most. The majority of the time, are you a renter or a buyer? Has that changed since your days with DVD?[Image courtesy of Parislemon] %Poll-23404%
Criterion Blu-ray Discs begin to ship out
For movie buffs who've been waiting on pins and needles to see their Criterion Blu-ray Disc order status switch from "wait longer, fool" to "shipped," we've got some excellent news. We're beginning to hear individual reports that BDs from Criterion (at least ones that were pre-ordered a few months back) are beginning to ship, and while the company has yet to replace the "Pre-order" badges with "Buy" labels on its website, we suspect that will take place in the near future. Have any of you readers received your discs yet? If not, keep a close eye on that mailbox.[Thanks, Christopher and Harold]
Pioneer shows off 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, affirms compatibility with current players
When Pioneer first introduced its unicorn-like 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, we weren't sure if the thing would make it beyond the drawing board, let alone be compatible with existing BD decks. Over at the IT Month Fair in Taipei, Pioneer showed up to showcase the capacious disc, and better still, a DigiTimes report asserts that these are indeed compatible with Blu-ray readers already on the market. Currently, the 400GB disc is slated to hit mass production sometime between now and 2010, while rewritable versions won't hit until 2010 to 2012. Not like it really matters though -- a 1TB disc is on track for 2013, and you know you'll be waiting for the latest and greatest.
Hey Hollywood, how about some Blu-ray Disc price cuts?
Remember when high-def discs had to be priced competitively, else the other format would gladly undercut it? Yeah, those were the days. Now that BD is parading around as the lone high-def physical format, the only real competitors are digital downloads, DVDs and internet piracy. All of which are very real threats, by the way. A recent writeup over at The Dallas Morning News brings up an excellent point -- now that Blu-ray player prices are at a reasonable level, when can we expect movies to follow suit? Oh sure, we understand that programming in all that interactivity that eight people care about costs a lot of dough, but seriously, you can't just let admission be next-to-free and then make the rides unattainable. Back in July, we heard that Warner was looking to lower the (pricing) bar this holiday season, but since then, everyone else has been mute. It's about time someone spoke up, no?[Image courtesy of GamerNode]
The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc review roundup
To (mis)quote the infamous Dennis Green: "It was what we thought it'd be." In other words, Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight truly is as mesmerizing and awesome on Blu-ray as it was in theaters. Some very early (and very thorough) reviews have already hit the 'net days before the film's sure-to-be-monumental release, and we've found nothing but praise across the board. Sure, varying critics had varying levels of appreciation for the plot, but when it comes to visual and auditory quality, the Blu-ray transfer delivers. Utterances of "wow," "stunning," and "spectacle" were peppered throughout each and every review, dashing any fears one may have had that the BD would fall short of the hype. For those who really want to dig deep, we've linked thousands of words below. But truthfully, they all come to the same conclusion: The Dark Knight is a must-own Blu-ray Disc.Read - Big Picture Big SoundRead - The HD RoomRead - Rope Of SiliconRead - Home Cinema ChoiceRead - HighDefDigest
