- Details
- Home Entertainment
Sigma Designs today announced that it has begun sampling its new SMP8642 media processor SoC, designed for mainstream Blu-ray players. Product demonstrations are available at the Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in suite # 3707 at this week’s Computex 2009 Show, located in Taipei, Taiwan from Tuesday, June 2 to Saturday, June 6. The SMP8642, coupled with Sigma’s proven Blu-ray Profile 2.0 software suite, provides the highest performance interactive experience and a cost-effective architecture for competing in today’s player market.
“For years, Sigma has been a pioneer in media processor system-on-chip solutions for Blu-ray players,” said Ken Lowe, vice president of strategic marketing at Sigma Designs. “We see a great deal of opportunity in offering an optimized solution with industry leading performance, a cost-efficient architecture, and the most proven Blu-ray software suite available.”
- Details
- Home Entertainment
LG's BD370 and BD390 Network Blu-ray Disc players, previewed at the 2009 International CES®, provide consumers with access to an almost endless array of movies and TV shows. Equipped with WiFi capabilities, the BD390 is the first-ever Blu-ray player to offer an interactive Download-to-Own and Pay-Per-View options, allowing consumers to purchase content from Roxio CinemaNow at the click of the remote. The BD390 also has one gigabyte (GB) of built-in memory for BD Live functionality.
- Details
- Optical Storage
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, reported record sales for its slim external WriteMaster DVD writers amid a global economic recession. The monthly sales volume of slim external DVD writers, which has tripled from last October, is linked to the rise in netbook sales.
“The netbook is a streamlined economical PC with limited storage capability, designed for mobility and Internet access,” said Jin-soo Lee, vice president of Samsung’s Optical Disk Drive (ODD) marketing division. “Netbook consumers often need an external disk drive, such as a Samsung external DVD writer, for disc booting and installation of application software from CDs or DVDs.”
Samsung has two different types of slim external DVD writers: the SE-S084, which is a slot-in DVD writer and the SE-T084, a tray-type DVD writer.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
Panasonic, a major developer and contributor to the success of the Blu-ray Disc format, announced the availability and pricing for the world's first portable Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMP-B15. Designed to provide the ultimate High Definition Blu-ray experience for those on the go, the B15 features a high quality 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD screen and includes Panasonic's VIERA CAST(TM) Internet accessibility and BD Live functionality, as well as a SD Memory Card slot. The B15 will be available in June and will have an SRP of $799.95.
The DMP-B15 includes all the technology found in its stand-alone counterparts, the DMP-BD60, DMP-BD80 and the VHS-Blu-ray dual player DMP-BD70V. Image quality is of the highest level, thanks to PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus technology, developed in collaboration with Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.
The PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus is a high quality image-processing technology that precisely processes each pixel of the Blu-ray Disc(TM) video signal in the vertical direction. It reproduces color data with twice the accuracy of conventional systems, resulting in faithful and sharp colors.
- Details
- Flash Memory
Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, made their fifth significant announcement of the week, adding to the broadest SSD portfolio in the industry by introducing the world’s fastest upgrade SSDs for the ASUS® Eee PC™ 900, 901, 901A, 901 GO, and S101 netbook PCs.
The SATA Mini 2 PCIe SSDs are Super Talent’s second generation product focused on enabling better performance for ASUS Eee PC users and feature a SATA-II (3Gbps) interface.
The products are available with both MLC and SLC flash memory. The MLC version delivers sequential read speeds up to 150 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 100MB/s, and is available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities at very affordable prices.
- Details
- Other
"Professional content creators have discovered that H.264 compression technology delivers a high-quality video experience at low bit rates for a variety of devices ranging from iPhone to Blu-ray, but they have had to constantly make compromises, trading off quality for encoding speed, or paying a high price for equipment that can give them both," said Wayne Andrews, Matrox product manager. "Matrox CompressHD removes all the hurdles, providing incredible encoding speed and quality at a very affordable price point".
- Details
- Flash Memory
Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announced it is now shipping new families of PATA/IDE 2.5” SSDs featuring both MLC and SLC Flash and nearly tripling previous performance specifications.
The MasterDrive EX2 is available with capacities from 16GB to 128GB, features sequential read speeds up to 80 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 40MB/s, and uses MLC flash. It also comes with a 2 year factory warranty.
The MasterDrive IX2 is available with capacities from 16GB to 64GB, enables sequential read speeds up to 80 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 60MB/s, and uses SLC flash. It also comes with a 3 year factory warranty.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
HDMI Licensing, LLC, the agent responsible for licensing the High-Definition Multimedia Interface® (HDMI®) specification, today announced the features that will be incorporated in the upcoming HDMI 1.4 specification. This latest version of the HDMI specification will, among other advancements, offer networking capabilities with Ethernet connectivity and will add an Audio Return Channel to enable upstream audio connections via the HDMI cable. The HDMI specification 1.4 will be available for download on the HDMI LLC website no later than June 30, 2009.
The HDMI 1.4 specification will offer the following enhanced functionalities:
HDMI Ethernet Channel
The HDMI 1.4 specification will add a data channel to the HDMI cable and will enable high-speed bi-directional communication. Connected devices that include this feature will be able to send and receive data via 100 Mb/sec Ethernet, making them instantly ready for any IP-based application.
The HDMI Ethernet Channel will allow an Internet-enabled HDMI device to share its Internet connection with other HDMI devices without the need for a separate Ethernet cable. The new feature will also provide the connection platform to allow HDMI-enabled devices to share content between devices.
Audio Return Channel
The new specification will add an Audio Return Channel that will reduce the number of cables required to deliver audio upstream for processing and playback. In cases where HDTVs are directly receiving audio and video content, this new Audio Return Channel allows the HDTV to send the audio stream to the A/V receiver over the HDMI cable, eliminating the need for an extra cable.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technologies, today announced their Convoy Series Dual 3.5" HDD/SSD enclosures.
Convoy XL is a complete RAID solution with USB and eSATA connectivity. Dual 2.5" drive bays hold either two SSDs and/or HDDs mounted in one standard 3.5" form factor bay. The built-in RAID controller can be configured for performance (RAID 0), redundant for backup (RAID 1) or two drives combined to be one large drive (JBOD). Additionally the one-touch-backup (OTB) feature is a perfect complement of SSD's robust and durability nature.
- Details
- Hard Disks
Following their SSD success, Silicon Power announces the release of portable hard disk drives to further boost their already potent product lineup. Though SSDs seem destined to replace HDDs in the future, current SSD pricing makes them slightly out of reach when compared with traditional hard drives. Thus, Silicon Power releases their first traditional HDD in the form of the USB interface Armor A10.
As traditional HDDs are made up of delicate moving parts and are prone to damage from accidental shock and vibration. Considering this, Silicon Power’s Armor A10 is built specifically to withstand shock and vibration. Tested in compliance with stringent US military MIL-STD-810F (transit drop test), tests include (1) free fall drop directly onto concrete or hard surfaces; (2) specific height free fall test (122cm); (3) product’s 8 corners, 12 sides and 6 surfaces all must pass free fall tests. Silicon Power’s Armor A10 has passed all the tests mentioned above and offers users a greater peace of mind when it comes to data security.
Add a comment
