blu-ray

"If you're sick—literally or figuratively—of 3D now, just wait until the end of the month. HD Guru has Best Buy's schedule for rolling out 3D capable HDTVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung and Panasonic, and they're coming soon.

The Guru claims that sales and demonstrations of 3D gear will commence at 200 Best Buy locations on March 10—as in, like, Wednesday. According to his sources, that initial blast will feature Panasonic's 50" TC-P50VT20 plasma 3D HDTV—we've heard it will retail for around $3500—in tandem with their DMP-BD350 3D Blu-ray player." source

"ASRock already published different NetTop systems since the previous CeBIT. Now approximately one year passed and their PCs were constantly extended by faster and more power saving NetTop PCs with various connections by ASRock made Mini-ITX motherboards. After many HTPC building guidances in the ocinside.de modding area and the recent DVR player review it is time to test one of ASRock's top NetTop systems, the ASRock ION330HT Blu-ray PC. This Review concerns first the hardware of this energy-saving Intel Atom 330 Dual Core system. The ASRock ION330HT-BD system is thanks to integrated Bluray player, remote control unit, HDMI output and Full HD 1080p support also an excellent HTPC media player, an extra HTPC software guidance will be published additionally. Meanwhile the system was tested several weeks and installed with several Linux and Windows operating systems. The work was worthwhile, because ASRock exceeded all expectations with this small allround talent!" View Full Review

"We've seen more exciting leaked roadmaps, but it's rather comical that LG's leak came about by accidentally sharing a Google Document. A 3D TV, 3D Blu-ray player and TV webcam for 720p Skype chat are all due to launch soon.

That 3D TV is actually just a different version of the LH9500 series, named the LX9500, and will be available mid-May. After learning that, it'll certainly make the TVs announced at CES that are due in March - April a lot less attractive. The BD580 3D Blu-ray player will be on sale in the middle of April, just a few weeks earlier in May the webcam peripheral allowing for 720p Skype chatting on your TV will become available too." source

"If Samsung's latest cadre of netbooks don't have the oomph for your professional mobile computing needs, perhaps you'll find the new R30 and R80 series models more to your liking. The R430 and R530 laptops are 14- and 15.6-inch laptops both relying on Intel's Core 2 Duo T6600 processor, 320GB hard drives, and 4GB of DDR3 memory, and good 'ol GMA 4500MHD graphics. The R480, R580 and R780 models are 14-, 15.6-, and 17-inch, 16:9, LED-backlit models rocking Core i5 430M processors. Storage gets bumped to 500GB on this series, while the larger of the two get GeForce GT graphics as well as Blu-ray drives. All entrants in both series offer 802.11b/g/n wireless and are available with Samsung's "Touch of Color" hues, which will surely earn you some jealous looks in the boardroom. Both R30 models will set you back $670, the R480 is $849, R580 is $949, and the range-topping R780 is, curiously, $20 cheaper: $929. That and the R30 models are available now. The other two R80s arrive in March." Source

"We're not sure why you'd want to spend $1,799 on a 5.1-channel receiver with an integrated Blu-ray deck when you can mix-and-match plenty of terrific 7.1 receivers and BD players separately for far less, but hey -- it's CES and Denon's introducing the S-5BD in case you do. Sure, it'll do BD-Live and do two-source, two-zone audio distribution with 3 HDMI inputs and an optional iPod control dock, but you know you're doing something wrong when you have to buy a separate amp to use the 7.1-channel analog outputs. Denon, you have made us shake our heads in confusion. Congratulations. In return we offer you this gift of PR after the break. " source

"The PS3 has thus far proven to be something a tough nut to crack for those wanting to play backups on non-modified consoles, but word on the web is that a technique has been found that will make it possible -- if the stars happen to align properly for your hardware configuration. What you need is a PS3 model capable of running Linux, Ubuntu, Windows XP on top of that, a suite of utilities, a copy of the original Motorstorm, and a Blu-ray burner. Get all that configured properly and you should be able to use the technique at the read link to play those copies of games that have thus far been expensive coasters. Given the complexity of this approach we can't be 100 percent sure it's legit, but for what it's worth there is video "proof" after the break, and should you attempt this feat of hackery yourself please do let us know how you get on." Source

"A year has passed, and Blu-ray's outlook has improved--although its long-term outlook remains murky. According to a new study by Home Media Research, revenue from Blu-ray disc sales for the week ending November 29, 2009--yes, the all-important Black Friday week--was $69.06 million, up a gaudy 224 percent from the same period a year earlier. DVD disc sales for that week, however, totaled $491.10 million, down 7.89 percent from '08. Shorthand: Blu-ray up, DVD down.

The numbers reveal a lot. The solid rise in Blu-ray disc sales shows that consumers are finally migrating to the slow-to-catch-on HD format. On the other hand, DVD, despite its slight sales decline, remains the dominant physical disc format for the home entertainment market." source

"In 1985, people thought Laserdiscs would be the future of cinema. After all, they had unmatched picture quality, they were virtually indestructible, and they had a lot of extras. Just like Blu-ray. See what I did there? See?" source