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]

I’m a big fan of ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, and I’m also quite fond of Blu Ray, too. Luckily for me, someone at CNet obviously shares my interests, as they’ve just released a video of Konnie explaining the delights of Blu-Ray to a sceptical audience.

According to Konnie, all you need to get your Blu-Ray discs running on your TV is some sticky-backed plastic and single-sided tape (neither of which I was ever able to find as a kid, but that’s another story!)

Now if only I could find a way of getting a Blu-Ray player and Konnie in my stocking this Christmas…!

[Source: Crave]

The company has just announced its latest range of Sharp Aquos LCD TVs, each of which comes with a built-in Blu-Ray recorder. The Sharp Aquos DX series is a range of 16 new LCD TVs from the company that let you play Blu-Ray discs, record your programmes onto the built-in Blu-Ray recorder, and even watch and record at the same time.

All the LCD TVs provide a smooth picture using Sharp’s Kameyama LCD panel, and the sizes range from 26 inches to 52 inches. The only downside is the contrast ratio, which, at 2,000:1, is a little weedy compared to other top-range TVs (although Sharp is one of the leaders in TV screen technology, so its screen might compensate for a relatively low contrast ratio with sophisticated algorithms and what the industry-insiders call “gubbins”!)

You get the usual array of incomprehensible acronyms with these TVs, ensuring you’re well up to speed with the latest state of the art in TV technology, but it’s the built-in Blu-Ray player that’s the big differentiating feature for these TVs.

This time last year, people were still undecided about whether to buy a dedicated Blu-Ray player, as the battle between Blue-Ray and HD-DVD was still being hard fought. The idea of integrating a Blu-Ray player into an expensive TV (the top of the line 52″ version of the Sharp Aquos DV TVs willl cost 3,200 Euros) would have seemed madness, when the format war was still being fought.

In little over a year’s time, the war has not only been won by Blu-Ray, but with companies such as Sharp confident enough to integrate it into their TVs, it seems destined to become the new de facto standard for High Def video for years to come.

[Source: Akihabara News]

Japanese researchers have been hard at work fiddling with discs and they have come up with a way to multiply the capacity of a CD or DVD by 9 fold. The researchers have managed this magnificent feat by reshaping the pits on the media surface, which are normally flat, into ‘v’ shapes.

Unfortunately you won’t be using discs based on this method any time soon as it renders them incompatible with current players, and worse still, the process cannot be applied to Blu-ray discs. This particular piece of research is unlikely to amount to much, at least for consumers.

[Source: Engadget]

[Source: The Industry Standard]