Toshiba's HD-A2 HD DVD player going for a mere $199
Now this is more like it. Sure, we've seen the prices of HD DVD players slowly but surely sinking over time, and while there's been more than a few inconvenient rebate offers of late, it looks like a new precedent has been set. Crutchfield is now offering up Toshiba's HD-A2 HD DVD player for a mere $199 after a $100 instant rebate, but we wouldn't count on this thing showing up anytime soon. According to the site, not only is inventory sitting at zero, but it also admits that the ship date is unfortunately “uncertain.” Still, $199 for a second-generation HD DVD player ain't too shabby (have yo…
Full content at: Engadget
Blu-Ray leaps ahead
Blu-Ray, the next-generation movie disc format that rivals High-Definition DVD, has another powerful new backer. But does the world need a DVD replacement?
The war over the format for next-generation DVDs has taken another interesting turn, with Warner Brothers defecting from the HD-DVD camp. Well, not quite defecting. More a case of hedging its bets by announcing it'll support both Sony's Blu-Ray format and its previous disc of choice, Toshiba's HD-DVD. Warner's decision follows a similar move by Paramount last month.You see, there's currently a big spat over the future of video discs. Why? Because you can't fit a full movie's worth of high-definition video onto a normal DVD – and the increasing popularity of high-def TVs means that a new disc…
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Sony won't downsample Blu-ray flicks on analog HD
If you're one of
those few people who rushed out and bought an analog HD display (like the 1993 model pictured above), you may actually
be able to find some use for it. Sony Pictures has announced that it won't downsample Blu-ray output for analog sets,
which don't support HDMI. That means you'll be able to watch full-res output if you hook up your Blu-ray player to your
old display, rather than the 960×540 that could be outputted using the Image Constraint Token. While we're a little
surprised that Sony would actually come out and do something so consumer-friendly, we're not that shocked.
Aft…
Full content at: Engadget
The first Blu-Ray player and recorder
Panasonic takes the next step and produces a Blu-Ray player that'll record hi-def footage, too – albeit in a slightly complicated way
Believe it or not, the first VHS machines had only play, fast forward, rewind and stop. The vital record button didn’t come till later.And so it’s been with Blu-Ray. The only way to burn one of Sony’s hi-def discs was to buy a BD-R burner for your PC; dedicated TV boxes have been play only. Now, finally, Panasonic has made the next natural step with its two new DIGA boxes.The DMR-BW200 and DMR-BR100 both offer playback of BD movies but they’ll also record hi-def video to their internal hard drives (500GB and 200GB respectively). 500GB equates to roughly 60 hours of comp…
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The $100 HD DVD player
US retailers are to shift $100 (£50) HD DVD players from tomorrow. We want them too!
Earlier this week, we brought you news of a sub $200 (£100) Toshiba HD DVD player, about to go on sale in the US. Well, now it seems it’s going on sale for $100. That’s just £50.The HD-A2 is a basic HD DVD player, churning out a maximum resolution of 1080i, missing out the highest setting 1080p. It also supports Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound, HDMI and has an Ethernet port. But for $100, its cheap at twice the price.The new price point, putting even Tesco’s penny-pinching DVD players to shame, is being backed by American retail super-giant Wal-Mart – the US o…
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Save another $100 on HD DVD this FATHER'S DAY
It seems that every week we hear about a price drop from either HD DVD or Blu-ray, and this week it's both. First Panasonic announced their DMP-BD10A for $600 and now Toshiba is announcing a $100 in-store instant rebate — our favorite kind — on any HD DVD player purchased between May 20th and June 16th. Assuming no other discounts, you can now get a stand-alone HD DVD player for that magic price of $299. This combined with the free movies promotion, removes any (price-related) excuses for not picking up an HD DVD player, and enjoying the Ultimate Matrix Collection on HD DVD….
Full content at: Engadget
Sony's first Blu-ray
It's made by Sony, plays Blu-ray discs, is out in the US and not available here yet. No, not the PS3, but the dedicated BDP-S1 movie spinner
Take one PS3, remove all the gaming abilities and what have you got? That’s right, a Blu-ray player. So is there anything to commend Sony's first stand alone machine?Well first impressions in the States are that the picture quality is superb. It's also one of the first players to support the enhanced Blu-ray Disc Java extras (BD-J to its friends) found on titles such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - but then so do our PS3s.So will it be worth shelling out for instead of the equally elusive gamer? We'll put them side by side as soon as we get our hands on one.EssentialsSony BDP-…
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Pioneer's Blu-ray burner reviewed, comes out looking good
We can complain all we
want about the price or the delays or the format war in general, but it all comes down performance for people who are
actually going to be picking up Blu-ray burners like Pioneer's BDR-101A, which
seems to come out a champ in PC Word's tests at least. Write speeds are at 45 minutes to fill a single 25GB BD-R disc
at the 2X max burring speed, and while you could get that much data onto multiple single-layer DVD R discs with an 18x
burner, it gives 10X double-layer DVD R burning a run for its money. The actual throughput for the burner clocks in at
67mbps, compared to the …
Full content at: Engadget
