Jun 29
UK newspaper The Independent is reporting that as part of the ‘This is it’ concert deal with promoter AEG recent rehearsals where filmed in HD as part of planning for a future DVD/BluRay release. No word on when by will be released but with all the renewed interest in his music and life this could be the last chance to see a great performer in action.
Obviously we send our condolences to the Jackson family. I saw him on the Bad tour at Wembley in the 80’s and it was a fantastic spectacle, he is a great loss to the world.
Jun 29
LA residents will soon get coverage of city goings on from TV station KTLA in glorious HD. The stations Sky5 helicopter has been upgraded with TELAIRITY MPEG-4 digital TV encoder. KTLA’s fleet of ground trucks has also been upgraded.
So if you’re in LA, look up your in HD
Jun 29
Handspree today announced the ST251MKB a 25” HD LCD TV.
Specifications include;
Viewable Size: 24.6″
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Response Time: 2ms
Brightness: 300cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1 X-Contrast
Viewing Angle: 170 degrees/160 degrees
Supported TV Formats: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i
Tuners: ATSC/NTSC/Clear QAM
Inputs: RF, 2x HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite, VGA, PC Audio
The ST251MKB will be exclusively available from Costco for $399
Jun 25
Crunchgear and several other sites are reporting that at the recent shareholder meeting company president Atsutoshi Nishida said the company was thinking about producing BluRay products., BluRay is one technology that’s currently enjoying reasonable growth in the current financial crisis and BluRay recorders are doing well in Japan and Panasonic recently launched models in the US and UK.
You will al remember that it’s a years ago that Toshiba lost the HD format way and bowed out and at the time said they would not produce BluRay products. Well the market may be getting to a state where they can’t ignore it.
Jun 25
Onkyo has released two new receivers and a new BluRay player. Both receivers are THX certified with 7.2 channels. For audio quality they feature Audyssey MultEQ speaker/room correction and the latest Dolby Pro Logic IIz that adds a front height channel. Audyssey DSX like Pro Logic IIz can also add extra presence as well as either extra front speakers or height channels.
Key features
THX Select2 Plus-certified performance
Six HDMI inputs (including one front-mounted input on TX-SR707)
DLNA 1.5-compatible Networking Capability For Streaming Audio and Internet Radio Connectivity for LastFM/vRadio (on TX-NR807)
Audyssey DSX and Dolby Pro Logic IIz decoding
1080p video upscaling via Faroudja DCDi Cinema video processor
7 x 160w (TX-SR707), 7 x 180w (TX-NR807)
4 x dedicated DSP modes for Gamers
U.Port for one-cable connection to optional iPod dock/DAB+ modules
Firmware updatable over the internet (TX-NR807)
As you can see both receivers feature internet connectivity and the 807 allows streaming of internet radio from Last FM and can also update its firmware from the internet.
Expected pricing is £700 for the TX-SR707 and £800 for the TX-NR807
Dam it’s official my 806 is obsolete. However I notice that the TX-SR806 is THX Ultra2 plus but the new TX-NR807 is only THX Select2.
New from Onkyo is the slim-line DV-BD507 BluRay player. All the usual features are there including 1080/24p output for Full-HD movies, 1080p upscaling for all standard definition DVDs, Dolby TruHD/Dolby Digital+/DTS-Master Audio Essential decoding, BD-Live functionality and AVCHD/DivX-HD replay. The player also features a front mounted SD card slot for playing back video from a PC or camcorder.
Jun 24
A work colleague of mine recently purchased a £250+ media streamer to stream movies from his PC to another room in the house. My first reaction was OK looks like a good solution, then I thought a little more about it and realised he could have purchased a XBOX360 60GB which all now feature HDMI plus wireless adapter plus remote for less. Both of the HD games consoles will stream media from a PC including DIVX files over a network, the PS3 which is higher priced (but not by much) will also give you web browsing and BluRay playback. Are Sony and Microsoft not pushing these capabilities enough, are they missing a market? So if you are thinking about getting one of these media streamers (i’m talking about the devices from the likes of Netgear, D-Link, Linksys etc), have another think.
Jun 24
Zinnet today announced two new products. First off and of most interest here is the Brite-View Air HD, a wireless HD video sender that can transmit uncompressed HD video up to 70 feet (line of sight, through walls and ceilings will be less). You can connect your BluRay player, HD cable or satellite receiver or HD games console and transmit the signal to another HD TV around your house. The really good news is that it operates in the 4.9GHz-5.9GHz range so it won’t kill your wireless computer network like so many video senders (unless you’re running 8802.11a or 5GHz 802.11n which is not that many people). It also features both analogue component and HDMI inputs so you can connect a couple of devices and remotely switch through the built-in IR extender. The Air HD is available now with a price of $399
Also announced was the CinemaCube (not code shaped) which is a HD (720p) media streamer with built-in P2P bittorrent client (say no more). It also has component and HDMI outputs and a USB port. It can either stream video from a USB memory stick or download video from teh internet directly. It supports most media formats including Xvid, RMVB (Real), WMV, AVI, MP4, MKV, H.264, MP2, MP3, JPEG, BMP and PNG. The CinemaCube is also available now with a price of €89.
Full details here
Jun 22
Warner will release 23 new catalogue titles on September and October. Many of these titles will be around $28.999 (no word yet on European releases but expect most around the same time) which is lower than many current titles.
On September 28th the release list will include including Snakes on a (mother*******) Plane (will always be that to me), Catwoman , Creepshow, Dead Calm, Freddy vs. Jason, Friday and Menace II Society, Sphere, Over the Top, The Postman, Set It Off and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Warner will continue to release its larger titles with more extras and scheduled are; Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, previously mentioned Wizard of Oz.
Jun 22
Paramount Home Entertainment has announced the Sapphire line of BluRay Disks. This new label will carry the studios premiere releases from the past with the first two releases being Gladiator and Braveheart on September 1st followed by Forrest Gump later in the year.
Braveheart will feature two hours of extras including interactive timelines and new documentaries. Gladiator will feature both the theatrical cut as well as the extended cut previously released on DVD. Also included will be four hours on extras including new featurettes and HBO specials.
Full story here on Video Business
Jun 21
Not a bad week in terms on number of titles a few good releases, Have not seen Hardware for years
Franklin
Hardware – Special Edition
Junebug
Linkin Park: Road To Revolution
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
The Mike Stern Band: The Paris Concert
The Punisher 2: Warzone
The Unbourn
Torchwood: Complete Series 2
Tokyo Sonata
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Jun 19
Sony will add a new database feature to its future BluRay releases. Dubbed MovieIQ the feature will enable BD-Live titles to access the database of real-time information on cast and crew and production facts. The first titles to feature MovieIQ will include Angels & Demons, Easy Rider, Punch Drunk Love, The Quick and the Dead and Sex, Lies and Videotape
Jun 19
Sony in the US has announced the new NW series laptops. The most interesting model is the $880 model with integrated BluRay player and 15.2” widescreen 1366 x 768 resolution display. Accelerating the video playback is an ATI Radeon 4570 with 512MB of dedicated video memory, should also be reasonable for playing games too. Processing duties are handled by an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 2GHZ processor with 2GB RAM. Internet connectivity Gigabit wired Ethernet and 802.11n wireless networking. Weight is 6lbs. I have to say the spec looks good for $880 and it’s a Sony.
Jun 18
Sharp has announced a new BluRay player for the UK. The £199 BDHP22H features all the usual features including BD-Live, 24fps playback, HDMI v1.3 for x.v. Colour, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio onboard.
Full details here
Jun 18
Following a recent release in the UK for the first time Keane’s recent final tour concert from their ‘The Iron Sea’ convert at the O2 Arena in London will be available in the US from July the 14th
Jun 18
Pioneer is attacking the burgeoning Pro HD market with two new products. First up is the BDP-V6000 Pro BluRay player. This high end player is aimed at public HD displays with BD-Live support with 1GB of memory, pro graphical interface and RS232 port for remote control. Also included is a full rack mount kit. The BDP-V6000 will be available in September, no word yet on price.
The HD-V9000 is a standalone HD video player based on SDHC memory cards. If you are looking to run a public HD display you can now play HD video from a memory card instead of a disk. The player includes a 16GB memory card as standard. The player includes RS232 control, has an embedded web server for automated updates over the internet. The HD-9000 will be available early next year
