cyberlink mediashow 5.pngCyberLink Corp., innovative solutions provider for the connected media lifestyle, today released CyberLink MediaShow 5, the fast and easy way to organize, fix, and share videos and photos.

Today’s digital still cameras, camcorders and smart phones make photo and video taking easy, while large storage capacity has allowed consumers to generate more files than ever. MediaShow 5 helps consumers better manage their collections in the following ways:

  • MediaShow 5’s face recognition technology and smart tagging feature provides a speedy way to tag faces in large photo collections.
  • One-click fixes allow consumers to quickly enhance videos taken in less-than-ideal situations, such as in poorly lit rooms or while moving. This feature also applies to photos, allowing consumers to apply one-click edits and effects.
  • Easy-to-use tools let consumers create memorable slideshows by combining videos, adding user specified transitions and animated text effects.
  • Optimization for CPU and GPU hardware acceleration enables fast conversion of videos for enjoyment on a range of portable media devices, including iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Xbox and Zune.
  • MediaShow offers an easy way to share and preserve media files, allowing anyone to quickly create DVDs of their videos or slideshows, and upload directly to Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced two new editions to its S Series external hard drive line up; the 3.5-inch 2TB (Terabyte) S3 Station and the 640 Gigabyte (GB) 2.5-inch S2 portable. These two new family members strengthen Samsung’s external drive portfolio of 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5” drives, thereby widening the choice of reliable portable storage solutions for customers. Samsung’s hard drive line up, including S2 Portable 640GB, S1 Mini and STORY Station will be demonstrated in Hall 20 at IFA.

“As consumer demands continue to escalate for storing personal data, music and video files, Samsung has expanded its extensive family of external hard drives to support the growing personal storage market,” said Cheol-hee Lee, vice president of marketing, Storage Systems Division, Samsung Electronics. “The new drives provide users with a sleek design and high-density choices in both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors.”

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Sonic Solutions®, today released the Sonic BD PowerStation™, a new cost-effective Blu-ray Disc (BD) production suite for professional videographers that's built on Sonic's Hollywood-standard CineVision® HD video encoding and Scenarist® authoring products, which have been used to create millions of DVD and BD titles worldwide.

Configured and priced to meet the needs of professional videographers, independent film and corporate video producers, Sonic BD PowerStation includes a special version of CineVision featuring multi-codec and segment controls, as well as DVDit!® Pro HD for authoring BD and DVD titles and Scenarist QC™ Studio, a specialized BD emulation system that provides a detailed title proofing step during the authoring process. The result is the world's first truly focused BD authoring solution for desktop video professionals that delivers the ease of use, quality, speed and the dependability required for meeting tough production schedules.

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Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced the availability of YouTube™ on select Samsung Blu-ray players. Owners of the BD-P1600, BD-P3600 or BD-P4600 Blu-ray players will be able to enjoy user-generated content on YouTube by uploading the value-added service at no additional cost. The new service will be on display publicly at Samsung Booth #925 at CEDIA EXPO 2009, taking place September 10-13 in Atlanta, Ga.

When connected to a wired or wireless internet connection, Samsung Blu-ray players deliver a wealth of online entertainment at the user’s fingertips. YouTube can be easily accessed by simply pressing a button on the remote control from the main screen. One can choose to watch the most popular or highly rated videos. Videos can also be searched via a mobile phone-like on-screen key pad. The categories listed make the user experience very similar to that on the website.

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Whether you are looking for the best performance in high definition entertainment or looking for a refreshingly designed and well featured Blu-ray Disc player, Philips has the right product for you. Further securing their leading position in delivering the ultimate home cinema experience, Philips now extends its Blu-ray range with exciting new products offering both, superior quality and refreshing designs.

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The new flagship Philips Blu-ray Disc Player BDP9500 raises the bar in performance and quality with its sophisticated Qdeo video processor and its premium design in solid 3mm aluminum. Even on Blu-ray, the video processor eliminates annoying noise effectively without affecting sharpness, improves colors without disturbing the balance and brings greater depth to the picture without becoming unnatural. Coupled with a best-in-class audio performance ensured by the use of Burr-Brown analogue to digital convertors, it ensures that your Blu-ray experience gets even more immersive and closer to reality. DVD playback benefits as well, as this new flagship player provides the most advanced high definition up scaling technologies available on the market to breathe new life into your existing DVD collection.

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Toshiba America Consumer Products L.L.C. ("Toshiba"), a market leader in home entertainment products, underscores its commitment to high-definition entertainment with the introduction of its first Blu-ray Disc player. The BDX2000 provides Full HD 1080p digital output that when coupled with a REGZA(R) LCD TV, enables consumers to enjoy the superior quality of high-definition audio & video content.

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Supporting BD-Live(TM) (Profile 2.0), the BDX2000 allows users to take advantage of interactive features through an Ethernet connection. With interactive content enabled on select Blu-ray discs and Bonus View(TM) support for picture-in-picture capability, Toshiba's Blu-ray player offers state-of-the-art home entertainment.

Complementing the player's stunning picture quality, design is an integral component of Toshiba's home entertainment products. This new Blu-ray Disc player boasts a faceted design featuring a smoked mirrored front panel. The stylish front panel dropdown door conceals the player's primary functions, allowing for a smooth, clean facade.

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Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. (MKM) announced today the acquisition of Freecom B.V., a privately held data storage and multimedia solutions provider established in Germany with headquarters in Rijswijk, Netherlands and offices in Austria, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom. Effective September 1, 2009, the stock-funded acquisition includes all of Freecom’s physical assets, patents, trademarks, technology, engineering, sales and marketing expertise. The purchase price was not disclosed. With the acquisition, MKM adds Freecom to the MKM/Verbatim group. Verbatim is already a leading brand in the worldwide external storage market.

The Freecom acquisition represents yet another investment made by the MKM/Verbatim group aimed at the growing external hard disk drive (HDD) market. The asset acquisition of SmartDisk, made in June 2007, has proved successful in establishing MKM/Verbatim in both the portable and desktop external HDD markets on a global basis. By leveraging the strength of the Verbatim brand and channel relationships in the worldwide removable storage markets, the MKM/Verbatim external HDD business has grown more than 600 percent during the past two years.

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Today, Sony reveals the newest additions to its Blu-ray player line up, the BDP-S560 and BDP-S760, and its latest AV Receiver, the STR-DN1000. All three products are designed to provide you with the latest in powerful technology, such as 7.1 surround sound and pristine 1080p picture quality, without compromising on style.

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Both the BDP-S560 and BDP-S760 are fully Wi-Fi-enabled using Wireless-N, the fastest and most reliable wireless system. They are also Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) enabled, which means that by pressing a single button on the WPS enabled router a secure connection from your player to the wireless network is established. Similarly, the STR-DN1000 allows you to enjoy a surround sound experience without wires, using S-AIR (Sony Audio Interactive Radio Frequency) Digital Wireless Ready technology to connect to your wireless speakers.

The wireless capability of the BDP-S560 and BDP-S760 also means it's even easier for you to run firmware updates for your player via the Internet and to experience the exciting possibilities offered by BD-Live(TM). More and more titles are utilising BD-Live(TM), allowing you to enjoy bonus content such as additional scenes, trailers and movie-based games.* Both Blu-ray players are DLNA(TM) certified, allowing the transfer of JPG files from other DLNA(TM) enabled devices, such as your VAIO PC, even if they're not in the same room.

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Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.'s Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today introduced a 640GB model to its personal storage line, responding to consumer needs for robust storage space in an intuitive, easy-to-use backup solution for the exponential amounts of digital content they are amassing.

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According to leading research firm IDC, consumer-generated digital content is growing 55 percent annually with 70 percent of all digital content being created by individuals versus businesses. IDC predicts that by 2010, 36.5 terabytes of data will be created per second - that's a stack of books that could extend from the sun to Pluto - and back.

To address this explosion in personal digital content and help consumers protect their precious data for years to come, Toshiba's new portable hard drive offers high capacity, an easy-to-use interface and special features to enhance the backup experience, making it a flexible and dependable storage solution for any user. This digital safety net can store up to 182,000 digital photos, 168,000 digital music files or 520 downloaded digital movies.

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blu-ray logo.pngThe Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced its plans for incorporating 3D into the widely successful Blu-ray Disc format. The rapid and enthusiastic consumer adoption of Blu-ray Disc, coupled with the format’s technical capabilities and capacity make it the ideal format for bringing a vibrant 3D experience to consumers.

“The BDA intends to take full advantage of the format’s high bandwidth and capacity to achieve the very highest possible quality 3D experience,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee Chair. “Just as Blu-ray Disc has paved the way for next generation, high definition home entertainment, it will also set the standard for 3D home viewing in the future.”

The BDA, comprised of major motion picture studio, IT and consumer electronics companies, is working on a uniform specification to ensure consistent delivery of 3D content across the Blu-ray Disc Platform. The Association is examining a number of criteria and at a minimum, the specification will require delivery of 1080p resolution to each eye and backward compatibility for both discs and players, meaning that 3D discs will also include a 2D version of the film that can be viewed on existing 2D players and 3D players will enable consumers to playback their existing libraries of 2D content.

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