Posts tagged Blu ray at Switched

Posts with tag blu-ray

Pioneer To Launch Blu-ray Recorders By Year's End

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 8th 2008 at 4:01PM

Blu-ray recorders have been on the scene for a while now, but now that the format war's over, it looks like more companies are starting to commit to BD-R devices -- like Pioneer, which announced today that it'll have a Blu-ray recorder out in Japan by the end of the year.

The company didn't say what model it would be or what price point it was aiming for, but the tech is being jointly developed with Sharp, so hopefully it's have a family resemblance to units like the 1TB AQUOS BD-HDW20 in everything but the $2,611 pricetag.

Blu-ray Drives for Your Computer to Break Below $100 By Year's End

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 8th 2008 at 10:20AM

If you'll recall, SonyNEC Optiarc was the same company that suggested BD prices would be halved by 2008 from what they were in late 2006, and while stickers are still relatively high on standalone decks, the prediction actually wasn't too far off.

A new report from Tom's Hardware notes that the aforementioned outfit is expecting Blu-ray combo drives "to reach the $100 line before the holiday season." For around $50 more, it reckons you'll have access to slim-line notebook drives that handle the same duties.

Granted, there's no real confirmation surrounding the assertions, and we'll be the first to blindly hope such wishful thinking comes true, but we'd say BD prices in general have a whole lot of falling to do in six short months for this one to even stand a chance.

[Source: Tom's Hardware via TechDigest]

Majority of Americans Still Clueless About Blu-ray

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jun 5th 2008 at 9:55AM

You know what's crazy? Here's what's crazy: According to market research company The NPD Group, only 9 percent of HDTV owners said they planned on buying a Blu-ray player in the next six months. Which is only a tad higher than the general population, of which 6% said were considering a similar purchase. In fact, less than half of HDTV owners in the U.S. even know what Blu-ray disc is (if you're one of those folks, no worries -- a Blu-ray disc is simply a DVD that has high-definition content on it). 45 percent of HDTV owners surveyed said they were "familiar" with the format.

Essentially, the report suggests that Blu-ray is still facing the same problem it did a year ago: Compared with cheap upscaling DVD players that most consumers consider to be "good enough", Blu-ray players are just thought of as being too expensive. Plus, we're guessing that Joe Public is finding the thought of re-buying his or her whole DVD collection in Blu-ray less-than-appealing. [Source: CNET]

PlayStation 3 Draws More Power Than a Refrigerator

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 4th 2008 at 10:18AM

PS3 Power Draws More Power than a Refrigerator

We've known for awhile now that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) is hardly a green machine -- it sucks down 200-watts of electricity whether it's playing a movie or just idling at the home menu waiting for you to boot up a game. Sometimes, though, it's hard to put that into context. An Australian consumer group has taken the time to do a little figuring against various other household items, and has found that your PS3 draws more current than an average refrigerator -- five times as much.

Of course, the PS3 is making waves as being one of the cheapest Blu-ray players on the market, not to mention the huge added benefit of being able to play next-generation video games. But that 200-watts power draw is also four- to five-times that of a standalone Blu-ray player, which over the course of a year could add up if you watch a lot of movies. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is slightly better with a power consumption at about about three quarters of the PS3, but Nintendo's Wii comes in first by drawing only a tenth of the power of a PS3.

So, not only can the Wii get you in shape, it can also save you money on your utilities bill. [Source: Intology]

Blu-ray Slow to Catch On, May Not Dominate for Years

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 2nd 2008 at 2:20PM

Blu-ray may have won the format battle against competitor HD-DVD, but it seems that it may still be a number of years before it bests its remaining competition: the humble DVD. Because DVD players can be found for a tenth of the cost of Blu-ray players, often priced at $300 and up, would-be adopters are slow to upgrade to the format.

U.S. spending on disc-based movie purchase and rentals fell three percent last year, and is expected to drop another two percent this year. Hope had been that the quick adoption of high definition sets would spur a boost in spending on media, but others are doubting that now given the recent economic downturn.

And, with more and more viewers relying on downloadable and on-demand services for videos rather than traditional disc-based media, there's some wonder whether Blu-ray will ever be the powerhouse that DVD is now. That said, overall the format seems to be doing just fine, with Blu-ray sales so far matching those of DVDs when that format began to gain traction, meaning there's certainly plenty of potential for success with Sony's new discs. [Source: USA Today]

Blu-ray Releases on April 22nd, 2008

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Apr 22nd 2008 at 9:17PM

Six Degrees Could change the world - Blu-ray

The big news this week is what's not being released on Blu-ray, as the two biggest titles released today on DVD are not available in HD. The biggest one is easily 'Cloverfield,' which is obviously MIA because Paramount has yet to release any Blu-ray movies since going Red exclusive. But the bigger mystery is why Fox isn't releasing 'The Savages' on Blu -- this doesn't leave Blu with much. We have two sub-par horror flicks with 'One Missed Call' having an unbelievably low IMDB score of 2.8 out of 10 and Sublime is pretty pitiful itself at 5.2. Your best bet this week is the Global Warming documentary from National Geographic, which looks interesting but is no Planet Earth. Next week is a little better though, but still another unexciting week of releases for April.

Blu-ray 508*

Blu-ray

National Geographic: Six Degrees Could Change the World (National Geographic)
One Missed Call (Warner)
The Orphanage (New Line)
Sublime (Warner)

* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously officially available.

Blu-ray Releases This Week (April 15)

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Apr 14th 2008 at 3:05PM

There's something for everyone coming out this week on Blu-ray with the number one title easily being the Academy Award winning 'Juno' (IMDB 8.1), which features the best audio Blu-ray has to offer: DTS-HD MA (48hz/24-bit).

But that's not the only title featuring master quality audio this week, as 'Alien vs. Predator: Requiem' is sure to thrill you -- even with it's painfully low IMDB score of 5.1 and a unfun BD Live game.

The somewhat unknown title this week, which also looks like it's worth a watch is 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.'

Fox has a few catalog titles this week as well, but from the looks of the reviews, it doesn't appear the studio is very serious about releasing high quality HD catalog titles as both 'Predator' and 'Commando' get low marks on both audio and video quality -- perhaps the prints were so bad, Fox didn't have much to work with.

Blu-ray 504*

Blu-ray

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Fox)
Alien vs. Predator/Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (Two-Pack) (Fox)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Image)
Commando (Fox)
Juno (Fox)
Mariah Carey: The Adventures of Mimi (Image)
A Passage to India (Sony)
Predator (Fox)

* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously officially available.

More Hints of Blu-ray Playback for Xbox 360

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 1st 2008 at 3:01PM

More Rumors of Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox 360

In the early days of the format wars between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Microsoft seemed to be hedging its bets. It supported HD DVD by releasing an optional add-on for the Xbox 360. By not building the format into the game console it seemed to be saying "We like you, but we just want to be friends." It's possible that lack of commitment helped tip the battle to end the way it did, but since then everyone has been wondering one thing: when will MS offer a Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360? If a new bit of info from the always reliable "inside sources" is to be believed, it could be sometime this year.

The rumors about a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 started right after Toshiba ducked out of the competition. Microsoft issued a denial, but it just seems like a matter of time before something is released. The difference about this rumor is that it doesn't point to an external add-on, similar to what MS released for HD DVD, instead for a wholly new version of the 360 that has a built-in Blu-ray player. This version is supposedly currently under development for a release sometime in the latter-half of the year.

True info, bogus rumor, or someone just predicting the inevitable? One thing is for sure: we'll find out sometime within the next eight months!

From Engadget

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Dell's New Under-$1,000 Blu-ray Laptop

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 31st 2008 at 5:09PM

Dell Debuts Sub $1,000 Blu-ray Playing Laptop

We assumed that following the collapse of HD-DVD the rapid price drops on Blu-ray equipment would at least slow down. At least Dell is out to prove us wrong, offering the first sub $1,000-laptop with a Blu-ray drive.

For $879, you get a Inspiron 1525 with a 15.4-inch HD wide screen, 1-gigabyte (GB) of RAM, a 120-gigabyte hard drive, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a Blu-ray player / DVD burner (sorry, no burning of your own Blu-rays here).

Best of all is the included HDMI port for plugging your (relatively) cheap-o Blu-ray playing media PC into your HDTV.

All of this is available now from Dell's Web site or here.

From Crave

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Is VMD the Next Blu-ray?

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 10th 2008 at 5:49PM

VMDs Want to Challenge Blu-Ray's Dominance

Just when you thought the format wars were over, along comes an upstart called New Medium Enterprises (NME) with its Versatile Multilayer Disc, or VMD. VMDs were originally set to debut in 2006, but for currently unknown reasons are only now making their debut.

The discs and players are much cheaper to produce than either Blu-ray or HD-DVD because it uses the same red lasers that standard DVD players use. Red lasers are cheaper and easier to produce than the blue lasers used in the other high-def disc formats.

According to an article in today's New York Times, VMD players are sold directly through the NME Web site and will be available on Amazon in about five weeks for about $200, though Michael Jay Solomon, the chairman of New Medium, seems to think prices could quickly drop to $90 a player.

Low prices, however, didn't save HD-DVD, and with the lackluster selection of VMD movies (only 17 titles available stateside), the upstart disc format is going to have a tough time even carving out a small niche for itself.

Whatever. All these next-gen disc formats are doomed, since HD-downloading on devices such as Apple TV and Vudu are only going to grow.

From the New York Times

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Netflix Not Stocking Enough Blu-ray Discs?

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Feb 25th 2008 at 2:00PM

Excited to see all the Academy Award winners you missed over the last year? Want to see them on your new Blu-Ray payer? Psyched to check out all the new releases in high-definition? Sure you are, so you hit up Netflix to add them to your queue and wait for them to arrive. The only problem? It seems Netflix isn't stocking enough Blu-Ray discs, and your queue looks something like the one above.

We've been aching to say something about this apparent Netflix Blu-Ray shortage for a while, but before we went off on some wild accusatory tangent, we decided to wait for a couple weeks to see if the death of HD-DVD would get Netflix to stock more Blu-Ray discs. You know, to be fair to Netflix. It seems the problem hasn't let up, however.

The above picture is what our queue has looked like for the past couple weeks. See all those "Short Wait, Long Wait, and "Very Long Wait" messages? Those mean those discs are not in stock at Netflix, they're not sure when they will be, and we'll just have to wait for other customers to return their discs. And in the afterglow of the Academy Awards, we're not confident the problem will let up any time soon.

Isn't it time for Netflix to stock more Blu-Ray discs? With the rising popularity of the format, the end of HD-DVD as we know it, and the oncoming rise in Blu-Ray releases (just take a look at the Blu-Ray association's web site that lists upcoming releases), we think it's time for Netflix to stop treating Blu-Ray like a niche product and let us have the HD goodness we're (apparently) waiting for.

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It's Official: Toshiba Ducks Out of Format War - R.I.P. HD DVD

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 19th 2008 at 8:24AM

It's official. After plenty of rumors and speculation Toshiba itself has indeed confirmed that it will cease production of HD DVD players and recorders sometime next month. That means the high-definition format war is over and Sony, having lost so many of these battles in the past (Betamax, MiniDisc, UMD, etc. etc.), has finally got winner on its hands.

Or does it? Having offed HD-DVD on the high-def front, Sony's format now must face off against two even stronger competitors: Downloadable films such as those offered by Netflix and iTunes, and the humble DVD, which is still selling like hotcakes even among owners of high-definition televisions. But, now that there is a clear choice, the landscape may change quickly.

Industry reaction is, for the most part, a big sense of relief that this format war didn't drag on any longer. Forbes is saying that the real winners are the retailers, who can now tell consumers without a doubt which high-def format they should put their money on. For its part, Microsoft, which early-on threw its support behind HD-DVD -- both with an add-on for its Xbox 360 and also by providing some of the technology used within the encoding of the discs -- is saying that the death of the format will do little to impact the success of its console. Hedging its bets by not building an HD-DVD drive into the console itself is finally looking like a smart move, and many industry pundits are now wondering just how long it'll be before there's a Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360.

We're inclined to think it'll be awhile before we see that, but anything is possible.

From Toshiba, Forbes, and BetaNews

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Wal-Mart Sides With Blu-ray

by Thomas Houston, posted Feb 15th 2008 at 6:16PM

It's been a rough week for HD-DVD, Toshiba's high-definition video format, and things are starting to look even worse. Sony Corporation's Blu-ray format, supported by heavyweights 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Walt-Disney, won important allies this week: Best Buy announced it would start recommending Blu-ray over HD-DVD to its customers, Netflix completely dropped HD-DVD in favor of Blu-ray, and now Wal-Mart is making a move to potentially end the format wars once and for all.

Wal-Mart, one of the world's leading retailers of movies, announced today that it would sell exclusively Blu-ray movies and hardware (though it will continue selling standard-definition DVDs), beginning in June. As we announced earlier, anonymous sources are suggesting that Toshiba may be halting production of HD-DVD players in the coming weeks.

In light of these recent announcements, Blu-ray may have won the format war, which will come as a relief to many consumers waiting for it to be over before purchasing a next-generation video player.

From Check Out

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Final Blow to HD-DVD From Toshiba?

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 15th 2008 at 10:01AM

The chips are down for Toshiba and its HD-DVD format, the competitor to Sony's Blu-ray that has been on the receiving end of some serious knocks lately. Netflix said it's dropping the format, and Best Buy indicated it's beginning the process of doing the same. Blu-ray player sales are way up and things are looking so bad that Toshiba's response to all this sounds half-hearted at best. No wonder, then, that rumors are swirling of Toshiba's plans to drop the format entirely.

The always ambiguous "reliable sources" are indicating that Toshiba will stop production of HD-DVD players within the next few weeks, the final result of the fallout caused by Warner's surprise January CES announcement that it was jumping ship and going Blu-ray-exclusive.

It's clearly game over for the format, a disappointing reality for many early adopters. But hey, look on the bright side: Some great deals are ahead for those looking to extend their HD-DVD collections while they still can.

From The Hollywood Reporter

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HD DVD Responds to Bad Press Day

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 13th 2008 at 6:00PM

Yesterday was a bad day for HD DVD. We've already declared HD DVD dead in the water, but not everyone has come around just yet. Yesterday both Best Buy and Netflix helped bury the Toshiba-backed HD DVD coalition. Netflix announced that it would begin exclusively carrying Blu-Ray discs, and Best Buy will continue to carry HD DVDs and HD DVD players, but will "recommend" BluRay to customers.

The HD DVD Promotional Group released a press statement in response to the two major setbacks:

"We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

Obviously, some of the spark and fight has left the group when the best they can come up with is Blu-Ray hasn't pushed us off the shelves yet.

From Engadget

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Pioneer To Launch Blu-ray Recorders By Year's End

Blu-ray Drives for Your Computer to Break Below $100 By Year's End

Majority of Americans Still Clueless About Blu-ray

PlayStation 3 Draws More Power Than a Refrigerator

Blu-ray Slow to Catch On, May Not Dominate for Years

Blu-ray Releases on April 22nd, 2008

Blu-ray Releases This Week (April 15)

More Hints of Blu-ray Playback for Xbox 360

Dell's New Under-$1,000 Blu-ray Laptop

Is VMD the Next Blu-ray?

Netflix Not Stocking Enough Blu-ray Discs?

It's Official: Toshiba Ducks Out of Format War - R.I.P. HD DVD

Wal-Mart Sides With Blu-ray

Final Blow to HD-DVD From Toshiba?

HD DVD Responds to Bad Press Day

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