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Toshiba Dynabook TX/98MBL is first to play Blu-ray 3D content
Ah industry firsts, a chance to grab the spotlight before the world grabs hold of your coattails. Toshiba's Dynabook TX/98MBL claims to be the industry's first laptop to play back 3D content in Blu-ray format when it ships at the end of July in Japan. The 15.6-inch laptop with LED backlit 120Hz panel (60Hz to each eye when viewed through active shutter glasses) pushing 1,366 x 768 pixels utilizes WinDVD BD to playback the Blu-ray 3D format with some help from NVIDIA's 3D Vision software and GeForce GTS 350M hardware with 1GB of dedicate video RAM. Inside you'll find a Core i7-740QM processor, 640GB of hard disk, up to 4GB of memory, a Blu-ray disc drive of course, and harman/kardon stereo speakers with Dolby Advanced Audio to help make the most out of 3D gaming. Price is not listed but it's expected to list for about ¥250,000 (about $2,700). What, you do want 3D on your 15-inch laptops don't you? Update: Toshiba wants you to know that it'll be called the Toshiba Satellite A665 in Europe, presumably because "TX/98MBL" can only be pronounced by the Japanese.
Plextor announces PX-B900A Blu-ray PC drive, Blu-ray movie playback included
Plextor has officially announced their first Blu-ray drive, the PX-B900A, including 2x reading and recording speeds for BD-R and -RE discs, 8MB buffer, and compatibility with the assorted DVD and CD formats. The price is set at $999.99, which may seem a bit high compared to Sony's recently announced $750 Blu-ray PC drive, until you consider that unlike the BWU-100A Plextor plans to bundle this with Intervideo's WinDVD BD Blu-ray movie playback software. Other software included is Ulead's VideoStudio10 Plus for Blu-ray authoring, BD DiscRecorder for direct camcorder-to-Blu-ray recording and others for DVD playback and standard file management capabilities. No word on if HDCP support will be required to get Blu-ray playback at all, but we should know for sure in October when it is released. [Via Engadget]
