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New LG LHB975 Blu-ray + YouTube Home Theatre System

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:31:49 +0000

LG seem intent on merging the Web and telly using as many different ways as possible. This time, it’s with the LG LHB975 Blu-ray Disc Home Theatre System, a mouthful of a name that features a mouth-watering set of features (see what I did there?

Just announced at CES 2010, aside from the usual set of Blu-Ray and home theatre features (you know, 5.1 channel surround sound, wireless rear speakers, subwoofer, etc.), the LG LHB975 also features Ethernet and Wifi and a range of built-in Web apps that let you connect to dozens of online media services.

Like what, you might ask? Well, like this:

NetFlix
VUDU
CinemaNow
YouTube
Pandora
Picasa
AccuWeather

All of these are accessible directly from the box and can be used via its remote. Just one more way the Web (or at least parts of it) can be piped directly to your telly.

You can also access contact wirelessly from a variety of other devices, as the LG LHB975 is DLNA certified. So if you get bored with YouTube, you can watch the camera phone videos you took on your DLNA-equipped mobile phone (which most of them are these days).

If you’re still bored, the LHB975 also comes with an iPod dock, which, with its the LHB975′s Watts of power, should help you enjoy your music, even if you’re 30 miles away!

Clever stuff!

[Source: Engadget]

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray DVD review

Mike Evans — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:46:21 +0000

The Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray player that I’m reviewing here has the perfect combination that you want from a gadget – fantastic features combined with huge discounts despite the fact it was only released back in October 2008! So you get a fantastic, award-winning gadget at a fantastic price – bonus!

Of course, it’s only really a bargain if it’s actually any good, so I thought I’d find out to see what you get for your money these days for a decent Blu-Ray DVD player.

Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-Ray DVD player overview

The first thing that hits you about the DMP-BD35 is the name – I mean, could Panasonic throw any more letters and numbers at it? It’s a source of constant annoyance to me that consumer electronic manufacturers give their products such appalling names. I know it’s because most of these gizmos are simply commodities that have a half-life of 6 months before something better is released, and so it’s not worth spending the money on branding them.

But still, you’d think if they were going to give it a name, even if it’s only a codename, they could make it short!

Clearly not, though, so we’re stuck with the appallingly long DMP-BD35, which isn’t just annoying to read, it’s annoying to type as well!

OK, rant over. Name aside, the DMP-BD35 is just like most Blu-Ray players from the outside – sleek and black with a few minimalist features letting you know whether the thing’s alive or not, and a hugely ugly remote control. It’s the inside of this beast where all the goodness lies.

Panasonic DMP-BD35 features

The DMP-BD35 comes with the following array of features:

VIERA Link
SD Memory Card Slot
HD Audio Decoding and HDMI Out
Progressive Scan
1080/24p Playback
Playback: BD-ROM, BD-R (Blu-Ray Disc Recordable), BD-RE (Blu-Ray Disc Re-Recordable), DVD+R/RW (Re-Recordable), DVD-RW (Re-Recordable), DVD-R (Recordable), DVD RAM (Re-Recordable), MP3 (MPEG-3), CD-R (Recordable), CD-RW (Re-Recordable), JPEG (JPEG/Image CD), DivX

Blu-Ray finally comes of age with the Sony BDP-S350

Mike Evans — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:56:00 +0000

This is the Sony BDP-S350, a new Blu-Ray from the people who invented the format. You’d think, given that Blu-Ray is a Sony technology, that the company’s Blu-Ray players would be up there with the best of them – but no, they’ve traditionally been over-priced and under-featured.

The Sony BDP-S350 changes all that, though, as not only is it a great Blu-Ray player, certainly up there with the best, but it’s only

Blu-ray dead by 2013

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:16:45 +0000

Don’t get too attached to that new Blu-ray player; by 2013 it could be no more than a large paper weight. This is according to Forrester Research, which states the Blu-ray adoption rate is still far too low, so unless hardware manufacturers and content providers act now to ensure that it’s much more attractive to consumers Blu-ray is doomed. As we all know technology has a habit of changing a lot in 5 years, but due to the high price of hardware and media, the inability to transfer movies, and the expected surge in high definition downloads, Blu-ray may be skipped in favour of downloads and streaming entertainment.

[Source: The Industry Standard]

Vudu, the Blu-Ray killer

Mike Evans — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:21:40 +0000

The great Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD battle may about to be relegated to a meaningless squabble as a new streaming technology threatens to render the whole concept of watching movies on a disc as antiquated as recording them onto a magnetic tape.

The technology in question comes in the form of the new Vudu, a set top box that streams over 5,000 high quality movies direct to your TV. No need for a PC, and no subscription or activation fees, either. You can rent movies from $0.99 to $3.99 or buy them from $4.99 to $14.99.

All you need is the Vudu set top box, an Internet connection and a TV – oh and a sofa wouldn’t hurt as well!

We’ve had similar Internet movie streaming devices before, but the Vudu looks set to succeed where the others failed:

With over 5,000 movies available at the push of a button, the Vudu has the range of titles required to compete with your local Blockbuster.
The streaming technology it uses means that the movies can be watched instantly at the touch of a button – no waiting for the movies to be buffered.
The quality of the movies is also impressive, with the Vudu providing full HD resolution pictures and quality HDMI outputs to ensure the movies you watch are as good as they would be on a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD device.

All this combined with the low rental and purchase prices makes the Vudu a convincing proposition.

However, Vudu isn’t alone in focusing on streaming movies over the Internet, with even Sony and other electronic giants involved in the great Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle working on similar technology.

All this means that the shelf life of the DVD, in whatever format you choose, is limited. TechNewsWorld author Rob Enderle argues that for either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD to succeed, the players need to come down to below $200 in the next year, and that only HD-DVD has any chance of doing that.

With huge external hard drives, fast broadband speeds and protocols such as BitTorrent that are capable of shifting large files swiftly, there are fewer and fewer reasons to use DVDs, and certainly ones as expensive as Blu-Ray.

As such, the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD battle may be a phoney war, a mere footnote in the evolution of technology, in which streaming media devices and super cheap hard drives render the optical drive redundant. You might want to think about that before spending hundreds on your next DVD player!

[Source: TechNewsWorld-1, TechNewsWorld-2, Vudu]

Sony unveils Blu-Ray players with half a terabyte hard drive

Mike Evans — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:48:30 +0000

Sony has unveiled four new Blu-ray players, with the top of the range model (the Sony BDZ-X90) coming with a huge 500GB hard drive, which should see you right for 160 hours of HD recording. The other models (Sony BDZ-L70, BDZ-T70 and BDZ-T50) come with 320GB, 320GB and 50GB hard drives respectively.

All four Blu-ray players support 1080p full-HD resolution at 24 frames per second, with the top-end X90 also supporting 60 frames per second.

Even more impressively, the X90 also uses Deep Color technology, which apparently provides billions of colours rather than millions, making the colours much richer and the blacks much darker.

All four models support DVD rewriting, letting you both play and record your shows either onto a Blu-ray disc or the hard drive. The low-end BDZ-T50 comes with a single analog tuner, while the other three each come with dual digital tuners and an analogue tuner, letting you record two channels simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the new players are only being released in Japan at the moment (priced £602 – £860), but it at least gives us an idea of the new Blu-ray players that Sony should be releasing in other markets real soon.

[Source: RegHardware]

Pioneer Blu-Ray player first to support all surround sound formats

Mike Evans — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:32:47 +0000

Pioneer have announced the Pioneer BDP-95FD, a cool looking fully specced top-end Bl-ray DVD player. The BP-95FD is the first Blu-ray player to support all four HD-level surruond sound formats (Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and Master Audio – yes, as if HD TV technology wasn’t confusing enough with all the different resolutions, screen refresh rates and what not, there’s also four variants of surround sound!)

Better still, it also comes with DLNA-support and Ethernet, enabling you to share your videos with any DLNA-equipped device that’s also connected to your Ethernet network. Add 24fps playback speeds and HDMI 1.3 with enhanced colour, and you have one seriously feature-rich DVD player. Looks cool, too!

The Pioneer BDP-95FD release date is October 2007, priced around $1000.

[Source: Electronista]

The Pioneer BDP-94HD – a cheaper Pioneer Blu-Ray player

Mike Evans — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:54:31 +0000

No sooner had I posted about the Pioneer BDP-LX70, than I came across the Pioneer BDP-94HD, another stunning looking Blu-Ray player from the company. As its name suggests, the BDP094HD also offers full HD quality pictures, as well as Dolby True HD sound and DLNA support, but it doesn’t support 1080p/24p (it supports 1080p, just not 24p!).

It also retails for just $1,000, or $1,000 less than the BDP-LX70. I guess you can look on the BDP-LX70′s support for 24p as an outrageously expensive luxury, or see it as a good sign that in a few months’ time, when 24p is supported by a much wider range of players, the price of a 1080p/24p player will come down to match that of the BDP-94HD.

Full details of the Pioneer BDP-94HD Blu-Ray player after the jump.

From the press release:

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. offers the pinnacle of home theater to entertainment junkies with the introduction of its next generation Blu-ray Disc® player, the Elite® BDP-94HD. The well-rounded player offers playback of the newest high resolution audio formats, home networking capabilities and is easily integrated into even the most complicated home theaters. However, it shines most in its ability to deliver stunning image quality of Blu-ray Disc titles.

“The decision to purchase a Blu-ray Disc player is generally made because a consumer recognizes the benefits of the HD quality. This new player is a prime example of our dedication to exceptional quality, creating sights and sounds that leave an emotional impression for movie enthusiasts,” said Chris Walker, senior manager of marketing and product planning at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “A significant aspect to a quality home theater is convenience and this unit is designed to deliver high performance with minimal user effort for a premier entertainment experience.”

The BDP-94HD arrives at specialty retailers this month, and will be bundled with two Blu-ray Disc film titles giving consumers the opportunity to enjoy these feature films in premium Dolby® TrueHD lossless advanced audio. The BDP-94HD has a suggested price of $1000.

Home Theater Integration

Pioneer designed the BDP-94HD for seamless home theater integration via HDMI® Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) technology. The new feature allows users to synchronize the Blu-ray Disc player with multiple CEC-enabled home theater products to manage an entire system with a single remote control. The newly designed graphical user interface enables simple navigation with easy to read icons.

Home Media Gallery

The BDP-94HD offers an enhanced version of Pioneer’s exclusive Home Media Gallery home networking feature. With faster navigation, consumers can stream video and music content as well as view photo slideshows directly from their computer in high definition. With IP networking and a new user interface, Pioneer makes it extremely easy for users to access and load protected content and even download new digital media files straight from their computer for immediate viewing through the player on a large flat screen television. It is compliant with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), Windows PC’s using Windows Media Connect, and Microsoft’s playsforsure™ DRM technology.

Movie Theater Playback Performance

Pioneer ensures smooth universal product compatibility with state-of-the-art HDMI connectivity to rapidly transfer pure digital video and audio data between source and display resulting in uncompromised imagery of Blu-ray Disc and standard definition DVD. It offers superb audio performance with internal decoding of premium Dolby TrueHD lossless audio technology for high-definition content and Dolby® Digital Plus, a highly flexible audio technology that delivers outstanding high-definition sound and up to 7.1 channels of surround sound for a richer, more involving entertainment experience.

Pioneer BDP-LX70 Blu-Ray player with DLNA

Mike Evans — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:35:26 +0000

Pioneer have announced the pioneer BDP-LX70 Blu-Ray player. Apart from looking simply glorious and obviously offering excellent playback, the BDP-LX70 has one other trick up it’s sleeve – it’s DLNA-compliant, meaning it can stream all manner of media direct form your PC, including MPEG2 and WMV videos, and MP3 tunes.

More details of the Pioneer BDP-LX70 Blu-Ray player after the jump.

The BDP-LX70 doesn’t just content itself with playing Blu-Ray discs, though. It offers full 1080p support and features what’s known as 24p, which means it supports playback at a full 24 frames per second, which is the same rate at which the film being played was originally shot.

Pioneer BDP-LX70 and 24p

You may think that offering this as a feature is a little unnecessary, as surely all players playback their films at the same rate they were shot? But no – it’s a little-known fact that for HD players (of both types), the actual frame rate sent to the TV has to be speeded up in order for the TV to process the signal correctly.

The UK’s PAL format, for example, specifies a rate of 50 frames per second, so PAL-based TVs expect this rate from anything plugged into them. The only way to send a film shot at 24 frames per second to a TV expecting 50 without doubling the speed of the image is to send two identical frames instead of one, thereby increasing the frame rate to 48 frames per second without making everyone look like the Keystone Kops.

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that 48 frames per second still isn’t 50, and so what you’re left with is a 4% speed-up of the resultant image. This isn’t enough for the eye to notice (unless you’re an officianado), but it can make the audio sound a little odd, which also has to be speeded up by 4%.

None of this is a problem with the BDP-LX70, though, as through complicated trickery, it supports the complete 24 frames per second of the original source, without the TV or the viewer noticing anything.

Dolby True HD Sound

In addition to a fantastic picture that’s completely unmolested, the BDP-LX70 also supports Dolby True HD, which compresses sound without any loss whatsoever. The result is a film that’s not only shown as the director intended, but which also sounds as he intended it, too.

Pioneer BDP-LX70 Summary

With full 1080p/24p support, Dolby True HD sound and home network streaming via DLNA, not to mention killer good looks, the Pioneer BDP-LX70 should become one of the best Blu-Ray players on the market. The only down-side is its price – at £1,000, it’s for serious film-buffs only.

[Source: Crave]