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Home Cinema
ViewSonic VOT550: Itsy-bitsy Blu-ray PC
By Rory Reid on 21 September 2009, 2:58pm
Heads up, home-cinema fans, we've just got our greasy paws on the ViewSonic VOT550 -- a Blu-ray playing PC so small it could hang-glide on a Dorito. No, seriously -- it's so tiny it could milk a cow standing up. Honestly, it's like Mini-Me's Mini-Me. What we're trying to say, right, is that it's not very big, okay?
The VOT550 isn't just a Blu-ray player, it's a fully fledged personal computer, in a similar mould to the Mac Mini. Its 50 by 165 by 165mm chassis is slightly larger than its Apple rival, but its specification more than makes up for it. You get a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6500 CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, as well as the aforementioned slot-loading Blu-ray combo drive, which also lets you play and burn DVD discs. Continue reading...
Tags:ViewSonic
2 Comments Samsung HT-BD8200: Blu-ray speaker bar with salty kelp and crystal-clear sound
By Ian Morris on 15 September 2009, 12:17pm
Here are some facts that you may not know about kelp, unless you've been to the Wikipedia page too: per 100g, kelp has 0.6g of fat, 1.7g of protein and 40kcal of energy. Kelp is also used to make the speakers found in the Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-ray speaker bar.
Apparently, kelp is a good material with which to construct speakers because its density is quite high, which means less sound distortion and better clarity. Unless you read the box, which makes a moderate fuss about the speakers' ocean-based origins, you wouldn't know the HT-BD8200 feature a healthy dose of seaweed though. Continue reading...
Tags:Samsung, Xbox 360, iPod, iPhone, wiki
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Popcorn Hour C-200: OMG! Now with Blu-ray
HD DVD disc sales figures: Blu-ray gets really cross
Toshiba's BDX2000 Blu-ray player: In person, in pictures
By Nate Lanxon on 04 September 2009, 6:55pm
Toshiba didn't want to adopt Blu-ray any more than the UK wants to adopt the Euro. But while our impenetrable economic skin has so far shielded us from the threat of the standard European currency, Toshiba hasn't fared so well. In fact you could say that it's looking rather tender.
Sorry, that was uncalled for. Anyway, Toshiba's doing Blu-ray now and it's got its first standalone player -- the BDX2000 -- on show here at IFA. We just planted our gaze down upon it, poked it with a stick and can confirm it is, in fact, real. Continue reading...
Tags:Toshiba, LCD display, DivX video, Dolby TrueHD, video files
1 Comment Toshiba BDX2000: It's Blu-ray all the way
By Rory Reid on 03 September 2009, 5:06pm
Remember when Toshiba tried to flog us all HD DVD? Remember when it tried to make us believe Blu-ray was wasn't as good? Yeah, us too, so it's with a wry chuckle that we observe the same company has now hopped on that very bandwagon with the BDX2000, its first standalone Blu-ray player.
From what we've seen, Toshiba has avoided the temptation to cripple the device in a belated and futile attempt to prove that HD DVD is the superior format. On the contrary: the BDX2000 packs most of the features we'd expect from a modern standalone unit, including support for BD-Live Profile 2.0, which allows access to interactive features such as Bonus View picture-in-picture, via the machine's Ethernet connection. Continue reading...
Tags:Toshiba, audio formats, Dolby TrueHD, Ethernet, upscaling
2 Comments Philips: Don't get too excited about 3D
By Rich Trenholm on 03 September 2009, 2:40pm
Shelled out £4,000 for a Philips Cinema 21:9 television? You'll be pleased to hear it's obsolete. Philips has bumped the firmware and added a micro polarising lens to the screen, to create a prototype 3D TV.
The TV gets its tri-dimensional input from a prototype 3D Blu-ray player. Philips says it's "actively participating in the 3D specification work of the Blu-ray Disc Association". Continue reading...
Tags
hilips, IFA, firmware
7 Comments Sony unveils 3D Bravia TV and movie downloads for PS3 and PSP in Europe
By Rich Trenholm on 02 September 2009, 5:03pm
We're at IFA at the Sony press conference, where Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer reckons the "3D train is on the track -- and we're the ones to drive it home." 3D is Sony's big push, but we're more interested in the announcement of a movie-download service for PS3 and PSP, via the PlayStation Network.
Sony has announced its first 3D-compatible Bravia LCD TV, to arrive in 2010. It promises a high frame rate and 1,920x1,080 pixels per eye to give what Sony describes as "high-definition, high-quality 3D images". 3D-enabled Blu-ray players are set to follow and even the PS3 will be involved. Continue reading...
Tags:Sony, PlayStation Network, Bravia, PlayStation, PSP
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Photos: Popcorn Hour A-110 does media streaming even better
What's wrong with Blu-ray, and how to fix it
WD TV Mini: Minier, and with less HD
By Ian Morris on 19 August 2009, 12:29pm
Not so very long ago we had the WD TV in for review. We're old hands at the media-streaming game, but even we were excited by the WD TV, because it cost very little and had massive format support. We weren't disappointed in person, and our review congratulated it for doing many things for very little money. Bizarrely, it seems that now Western Digital is trying to make a media player that's even better value for money -- the WD TV Mini. Continue reading...
Tags:Western Digital, BitTorrent, storage, network attached storage, AV receiver
2 Comments Onkyo Digital Media Transport: Dock your iPod or iPhone in style
By Ian Morris on 18 August 2009, 12:51pm
You know the score: you bought an iPod or iPhone and you find yourself with all of your music on one device. But how do you listen to it on that expensive home cinema in your lounge? Onkyo, like so many other companies, is keen to be the receptacle for your pod-based device with its Digital Media Transport -- a very glamorous name for an iPod dock.
The Digital Media Transport is designed to work with Onkyo equipment and it features its new dock connection. Digital optical and coaxial connectors mean it will work with any suitably endowed audio equipment. A remote control is also supplied, which makes controlling your iPod a little easier too. Continue reading...
Tags:Onkyo
2 Comments Toshiba exec: Blu-ray is just one part of our HD strategy
By Ian Morris on 11 August 2009, 4:04pm
With the 'shock' announcement yesterday that Toshiba would be supporting Blu-ray with its own hardware this year, we sought some chatting time with the company's very own Olivier van Wynedaele. A senior executive at Toshiba Europe, he's involved with optical storage and we've spoken to him before about Toshiba's DVD upscalers and HD DVD players. He's certainly a chap who knows his stuff when it comes to optical formats.
Some people have had a bit of a pop at Toshiba since it announced the end of HD DVD 18 months ago. There are some who think the company should have hopped straight on the Blu-ray wagon. Others think it's a massive climbdown for the company to be producing Blu-ray hardware now. The fact is, when it launched, HD DVD was a completed format. Blu-ray, on the other hand, was not, and it's only now that we're at the final profile (2.0) that Toshiba is prepared to get involved. Continue reading...
Tags:Toshiba, HD DVD, UK, hardware, research
1 Comment Photos: Asus O!Play Media Player hands-on
By Rory Reid on 11 August 2009, 12:50pm
We've just got our hands on the Asus O!Play HD Media Player -- an Apple TV-style box that lets you play digital media on your big-screen TV -- without those awkward disc thingies.
The premise is very simple. Connect the O!Play box to your telly via HDMI or composite video, slap a USB or eSATA storage device in one of the two ports at the side (or connect it to your wired home network), then marvel as high-definition movies splay themselves seductively across your television set. Continue reading...
Tags:Asus, FLAC, Apple TV, Dolby Digital, OGG
3 Comments 430Stories1 2 3 4 5 ... 43Go to page Latest Popular Most Discussed ViewSonic VOT550: Itsy-bitsy Blu-ray PC
Samsung HT-BD8200: Blu-ray speaker bar with salty kelp and crystal-clear sound
Toshiba's BDX2000 Blu-ray player: In person, in pictures
Toshiba BDX2000: It's Blu-ray all the way
Popcorn Hour C-200: OMG! Now with Blu-ray
HD DVD disc sales figures: Blu-ray gets really cross
Photos: Popcorn Hour A-110 does media streaming even better
What's wrong with Blu-ray, and how to fix it
Philips: Don't get too excited about 3D
Toshiba BDX2000: It's Blu-ray all the way
ViewSonic VOT550: Itsy-bitsy Blu-ray PC
Toshiba's BDX2000 Blu-ray player: In person, in pictures
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