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Must See HDTV for the week of February 17th: Winter Olympics, Daytona 500 and Strider
This is the final week of the Winter Olympics, with the closing ceremonies scheduled for Sunday night. Bob Costas is back (with less creepy demon-possessed eye infection stare) plus plenty of action including bobsled, short-track speed skating, hockey finals and of course, curling. Game of Thrones season three will hit the shelves on Blu-ray, so whether you're looking for a recap or just getting your first look in 1080p, now is the time. Racing fans can also look forward to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, while gamers can enjoy a remake of the classic game Strider on current and next-gen systems this week -- although honestly, many of us are just trying to finish off House of Cards before the spoilers become impossible to avoid or filter out. Usually we don't point out the late-night weekly shows, but tonight Jimmy Fallon takes over the Tonight Show chair from Jay Leno. Check after the break for trailers plus our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
Friday Favorite: Handbrake bridges the gap between DVDs and my iPad
Fact: It is often ridiculously cheaper to buy physical DVDs off Amazon than to purchase the same material in an existing digital format from your vendor of choice, like iTunes. Case in point, a friend of mine and I recently started watching Conviction, a one-season series that broadcast a few years ago. Shipped via Amazon Prime (unfortunately not Amazon Prime Air), the three-disc set cost all of US$3-7 depending on which day you shopped for it. Amazon prices jump around a lot day by day. The same series would have cost $20 at iTunes. Ripping DVDs does take extra time -- both for shipping the product as well as performing the rips, but the results are satisfying. One of our TUAW staffers adds, "I always get a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. I rip the DVD and keep the Blu-ray for when I care about the quality of picture." Enter Handbrake, our Friday Favorite of the week. From disc, it takes just a few steps in Handbrake (donationware see this, thanks evcjackson) to transform episodes to iPad-ready formats. You start by scanning the contents of a DVD, a process which takes a few minutes, and can sometimes be the most frustrating part of the sequence. Once scanned, you select which episodes you wish to rip (typically the items that are 40-odd minutes long), and add them to a processing queue. Click Start and let Handbrake do its work. Handbrake's presets simplify the process of converting files, ensuring that the ripped files are perfect for iPad viewing, as an example. Built-in presets also include iPhone and Apple TV. Handbrake will never win awards for interface beauty or simple GUIs. If you're willing to work with the presets on offer, however, and have the patience to Google up some basic how-to instructions, Handbrake provides a terrific solution for quick, easy, effective DVD rips. It's a reliable, time-proved tool with great utility, which is why we made it today's Friday Favorite. Got a favorite app of your own? Suggest it in the comments. Maybe we'll cover it in an upcoming Friday Favorite column.
gdgt's best deals for September 11: Samsung Galaxy S 4, Belkin Surge Protector
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals are the highly-praised Samsung Galaxy S 4 at the lowest price we've seen, as well as a Belkin Surge Protector available for a song. Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for August 7: Best Buy gift cards with Xbox 360, Wii U purchases
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals both come from Best Buy, which is offering big-ticket gift cards to those who purchase the latest Xbox 360 iteration or a Wii U. There's also an appealing offer out there for those who crave DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Max app. Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for July 24: 47-inch LG LED 3D HDTV, HP Officejet Pro All-in-one
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include an eye-popping price on a sexy 47-inch LG LED 3D HDTV, an intriguing sale on HP's high-end all-in-one and a slew of cheap products for students and professionals. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for July 8: Brother InkJet all-in-one, Target iPad gift card offer
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include an unbelievably low price on a Brother InkJet all-in-one, as well as Target's spot-on gift card offer for iPad purchases. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
Editorial: High Fidelity Pure Audio starting a noble but losing battle
The announcement is wrapped in an aura of déjà vu: Universal Music Group is marketing an uncompressed, high-end digital audio format for Blu-ray called High Fidelity Pure Audio (HFPA). Where standard CD audio is 44.1KHz at 16 bits, HFPA's A2D sampling rate clocks in at a sky-high 96KHz at 24 bits. Analog elitists will maintain that even extremely refined sampling is inherently inferior to capturing unchopped waveforms, and while that argument is fun to test, it is academic in the context of wide consumer adoption. Can a new audiophile format gain traction in a technomusical world governed by convenience and mobility?
gdgt's best deals for July 1: Free LG Blu-ray player with LG 3D HDTV purchase
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include an Amazon promotion that hands out a free LG Blu-ray player with the purchase of an LG 3D HDTV. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
LightScribe software for optical disc labels finally updated
Optical discs... Apple hates them, but lots of people still use them. Blu-ray has been a relatively slow starter in the computer world and we will never see that technology in an Apple product. LightScribe software has been around since 2004 when HP brought it to market. If you had a LightScribe-compatible disc burner, you could use a LightScribe-branded CD or DVD and create a label using the laser in the CD burner. It could be plain text, or even etched photographs on the label. It was a great system, but when Apple updated to a new version of Mac OS X the LightScribe software tended to fail, and you were back to using an ink marker or a stick-on label. Finally, the LightScribe system software has a Mountain Lion-friendly update. The LightScribe free applications are running again, and so are some of the third-party apps I've tested. The LightScribe free apps give you pretty basic disc labels, but Roxio Toast and apps like Disc Cover 3 (now on sale for US$14.99 through the Mac app store) can output some very detailed and attractive discs. If you already have a LightScribe-enabled disc burner, rejoice. If you don't have one, it's dead easy to burn permanent labels on your optical discs. LightScribe-enabled DVD burners are available from Samsung, LG, LaCie and others. Other World Computing keeps a good stock of LightScribe hardware and blank discs. Hopefully, HP will do a better job of keeping its software up to date, because optical discs are not dead, and Apple's OS X Mavericks is just around the corner. We can't be sure HP will stay committed to LightScribe forever. Updates may remain spotty on both the Mac and Windows side, but the LightScribe software is working now, so grab it if you like LightScribe and its easy labeling features.
Tech mainstays finally come together on something: littering more HD content with more DRM
Who says the big boys can't be friends? While Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic would probably disagree with each other on just about everything, there are still three magical letters that can bring even the biggest rivals together: DRM. While the consortium is doing everything it can to avoid the term, there's no hiding the truth -- the temporarily-named 'Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative' is designed to protect HD content by using "unique ID (identification) technology for flash memory and robust copy protection based on public key infrastructure." Just when we thought Louis C.K. had proven that slapping DRM around something wasn't the best approach, here we go taking a few monumental steps in the wrong direction. In essence, it sounds as if they're crafting a way to distribute Blu-ray-quality material on SD cards and embedded memory (sound familiar?), and they're also hoping that this will "enable various HD content applications such as HD network download, broadcast content to-go and HD Digital Copy / Managed Copy from Blu-ray Disc." Notably, we're told that Android-based smartphones, tablets, TVs and Blu-ray products in particular can look forward to taking advantage -- in other words, Apple's going to keep doing what Apple does. If all goes well, they'll start licensing the new secure memory technology early next year, and if we had to guess, we'd say the adoption trajectory perfectly matches that of slotRadio. Good luck, folks -- you're going to need it.
Editorial: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse
I don't like it. Not one iota. But frankly, it doesn't much matter -- Apple's officially done with the optical drive, and there's no evidence more strikingly clear than the mid 2011 refresh of its Mac mini. Last year, that bantam box arrived with a $699 price tag, pep in its step and a personality that could charm even the most hardened desktop owner. This year, a $599 model showed up on my doorstep promising the same, but instead it delivered a noticeable drop in actual functionality. Pundits have argued that you could tether a USB SuperDrive to the new mini and save $20 in the process compared to last year's rig, but does relying on a cabled accessory go hand-in-hand with beauty and simplicity? No, and I've every reason to believe that Apple would agree. Despite the obvious -- that consumers would buy a mini to reduce the sheer burden of operating a convoluted desktop setup -- Apple's gone and yanked what has become a staple in both Macs and PCs alike. For years, ODDs have been standard fare, spinning CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs (however briefly) and Blu-ray Discs, not to mention a few other formats that didn't do much to deserve a mention. Compared to most everything else in the technology universe, the tried-and-true optical drive has managed to hang around well beyond what it's creator likely had in mind, but it's pretty obvious that 2011 is to the ODD what 1998 was to the floppy drive. At least in the mind of one Steven P. Jobs.
20th Century Fox to offer digital downloads for Android devices, Blu-ray purchase required
20th Century Fox is dipping its downloading toes into the 21st century's waters, releasing movies on Android in addition to good, old-fashioned Blu-ray. According to the Financial Times, retail discs of X-Men: First Class will direct owners to a website where they can sideload a digital version of the film onto their Android device of choice. Apparently some of the suits over at Fox caught wind of how popular Android tablets are getting, and now see them as complementary, not cannibalistic (remember that industry buzz kill?) Sure, right now you shouldn't expect any Netflix-sized library of titles, but perhaps we can all agree this is a step in the right download-to-own direction. Residents of the US, UK, Germany, and France will get the first crack at downloading the films. The rest of you can just stream and wait. [Image credit via 20th Century Fox]
Blu-ray titles announced the week of December 10th, 2010
This week's batch of Blu-ray announcements was fairly light compared to the pre-holiday push of titles shared in November. Saw: The Final Chapter was the only film announced in 3D. On the 2D front, two big re-releases of famous classics were announced: the single disc edition of Blade Runner will arrive on January 4th and forgo the oodles of bonus features found on previous versions in favor of just the movie and some commentary by Ridley Scott while the 30th anniversary edition of Raging Bull will come slightly later in January and include 50 minutes of new features. Noteworthy new titles coming to Blu-ray for the first time include Steven Spielberg's A.I., which was originally developed by Stanley Kubrick in the 70s, and Steven Soderbergh's cult classic Out of Site starring George Clooney and J. Lo. That said, we know Birddemic: Shock and Terror and The Dorm That Drips Blood are really the two titles you've been hankering to watch in glorious 1080p. To view our full roundup of announcements this week by release date, read on after the break.
Blockbuster partially reaches back to the 90s, announces 3-day in store rentals with tiered pricing
Right on the heels of announcing that its on demand service was available on over 100 devices, Blockbuster has officially reduced in-store rentals periods from five to three days and established new pricing tiers. "Just arrived" Blu-rays and DVDs now cost $4.99, making them competitive with Redbox on a cost per day basis, especially when you consider the red vending machines must wait for up to 28 days later in some cases to get newer titles. Recent releases in circulation longer than six weeks cost $2.99 along with frequently rented "Top Picks," while older, and less popular titles -- think Weekend at Bernies -- have bottomed out to $0.99. According to company rep Patty Sullivan, these changes should help Blockbuster "continue to be a competitive force in the media business" and "simplify the rental experience." That sounds a lot like the same stance it took with the now dead no late fee scheme -- but who's keeping track? It also still seems expensive for frequent movie watchers compared to Netflix's basic $10 a month plan, which includes one rotating mailed disc along with unlimited streaming. So call us crazy, but somehow we don't see this move solving the company's bankruptcy woes anytime soon.
Blu-ray titles announced the week of December 3rd, 2010
If you were hoping this week's announcements might contain exciting teases of new 3D titles to watch on that holiday gift you're expecting to soon be "surprised with", unfortunately it was a 2D sweep. Movies recently in theater including Red, Stone and Buried seem like decent titles though to start the Netflix cue off right in the new year, since all will be released by the end of January. Reading that Christopher Nolan's cult classic Memento is ten years old has also left us wondering where the time went. Finally, classic movie buffs should perk up over vague details about the ultimate collector's edition Blu-ray release of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane -- thought by many to be the greatest film of all time -- which will apparently arrive sometime next year, along with Charleston Heston's Ben-Hur. To view our full roundup of announcements this week by release date, read on after the break.
Blu-ray titles announced the week of November 19th, 2010
Plenty of upcoming Blu-rays were announced over the last week -- unfortunately most aren't terribly exciting. TV fans should keep an eye out however for the first season of FX's well-received Justified, in addition to season two of Nurse Jackie and season six of Weeds. On the movie side, both Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and the romcom Going the Distance are scheduled to be available on Blu-ray a mere three months after their theater debuts and conveniently just in time for Holiday stocking stuffing. Along those lines, if you were thinking Pamela Anderson's Barb Wire in HD would make a good thank you gift for your boss, sadly it's not releasing until February -- so go with plan B, bub. For a complete look at our roundup of announcements this week by release date, take a gander at the list after the break.
Sony Optiarc debuts 12x Blu-ray writers, makes 'em friendly with BD 3D
Not that we haven't seen a 12x Blu-ray burner before, but it'll be a cold day in the underworld before you hear us griping about a little friendly competition. Sony Optiarc has taken the cellophane off of its newest crop of half-height writers, the BD-5300S, BWU-500S and BWU-500S. These guys will soon be shipping in a variety of retail and OEM configurations, offering up Blu-ray 3D playback, 12x toasting of BD-R media (dual-layer steps down to 8x) and a copy of CyberLink's Media Suite 8 with the latter unit. The outfit's not talking dollars and cents, but you can judge the value for yourself when they start filtering out in the next few weeks.
Yamaha brings Netflix, Blockbuster and YouTube access to BD-A1000 'universal Blu-ray player'
Calling this thing a "universal Blu-ray player" seems a bit disingenuous (at least compared to models that have used that moniker in the past), but there's no question that Yamaha's latest does a good bit more than simply play back your newest Blu-ray Disc. The BD-A1000 offers 1080p playback via HDMI, component outputs, coaxial / Toslink digital audio ports, an RS-232C control socket and an Ethernet port, but unlike many BD decks, you'll also find a pair of USB ports (one on the front, one on the rear). Moreover, this guy can tune into Netflix, Blockbuster and YouTube without any fancy software hacks, and as expected, it'll handle BD-Live and BonusView content as well. Too bad that $699.95 MSRP is bound to scare just about everyone away. %Gallery-106371%
Cameron says the Avatar extended edition Blu-ray is the last 2D release left... for reals
Wondering when the Avatar Blu-ray release madness might end? Well James Cameron thankfully clarified at a recent press event that the Avatar extended edition Blu-ray on November 16th will be the last 2D, 1080p, iteration of his Blue Man Group epic before the 3D version arrives. He also slightly adjusted his previous November 3D Blu-ray release predictions made during a Wall Street Journal interview -- stating vaguely that the highly-anticipated format would instead arrive "maybe one, [or] two years out." That's much more in line with statements made by his Fox handlers (coincidence?) and now leaves Panasonic as the only party still claiming their anointed 3DTV owners will bring the Avatar 3D Blu-ray "experience" home sometime this year. Still, while we certainly don't know who at this point would fail the polygraph, we're not Na'vi enough to ignore how Panny's time line helps attract consumers to buy 3DTVs over the holiday season. As with most rumors though, only time will tell who in this debacle had the date right, so for now we'll content ourselves watching the Alien Anthology.
Sharp's ultraslim BD-AV70 Blu-ray / BDXL player hitting Japan soon for over a grand
Remember that slimmer-than-slim Blu-ray 3D / BDXL player that Sharp demonstrated at CEATEC? Looks like the world now has a ship date and price, though you aren't likely to be keen on either. The unit itself -- which measures but 35mm thick and looks eerily familiar to the slimmed-down PlayStation 2 -- will tout a Blu-ray recorder while supporting BD 3D and BDXL playback, and there's even compatibility with OTA broadcasts for those looking to toast television to blank Blu-ray media. Naturally, a contraption this awesome is going to be reserved for the Japanese market, with reports suggesting that it'll ship anywhere between mid-December to early January. The real kicker, however, is the price -- at ¥85,000 ($1,047 based on today's exchange rate), we're surmising that only a handful of individuals can afford to give this thing the time of day. And that, friends, is a modern day travesty.
