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Home Entertainment

01 May 2008

Despite the death of HD DVD, consumers have been slow to adopt Blu-ray. According to NPD's Retail Tracking Service, sales of standalone Blu-ray player sales dropped by 40% from January to February and rose only 2% from February to March. Instead of going Blu-ray, the NPD Group found that many consumers are buying up-converting DVD players. As a result, sales of these players were up 5% over last year.

Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales dropped 40 percent from January to February in the U.S. and only saw a 2 percent increase from February to March, according to NPD's Retail Tracking Service. HD DVD player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, but as production stopped and inventories dried up, sales spiraled down 65 percent from February to March.

"That standalone Blu-ray players haven't picked up significantly from HD DVD's loss shows that few consumers were dissuaded primarily by the 'format war'," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis, NPD. "When we surveyed consumers late last year, an overwhelming number of them said they weren't investing in a new next-generation player because their old DVD player worked well and next-generation players were too expensive. It's clear from retail sales that those consumer sentiments are still holding true."

One option consumers are embracing to enhance their DVD viewing experience is purchasing up-converting DVD players. According to NPD's Retail Tracking Service, unit sales of up-converting players were up over 5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 2007, while sales of DVD players without an up-converting feature declined 39 percent.

If you'd like to read more, the NPD Group's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Other

30 April 2008

ASUS LS201 20" LCD Monitor @HotHardware.com
Cooler Master Z600 and Sphere CPU Coolers @Bigbruin.com
Gigabyte AirCruiser GN-WI06N-RH 802.11n WiFi Adapter @Phoronix
HP 2133 Mini-Note @VIA Arena
Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 & QuickCam Pro For Notebooks @HardwareLogic
Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 @Everything USB
Motorola MotoPure H12 Bluetooth Headset @BlueTomorrow.com
Nexus XiR-2300 Aluminum Ed. CPU Cooler @TweakTown
OCZ Quad 2Gb Memory Kit @Madshrimps
Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator @ThinkComputers.org
Samsung SyncMaster 245BW Widescreen LCD Monitor @Benchmark Reviews

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Software

30 April 2008

CyberLink recently announced the launch of CyberLink Live Premium. This new version of its remote media access service offers advanced capabilities including a hosted relay service for optimized bandwidth, scheduled recording of TV shows, an electronic program guide and the ability to download photos, videos, audio and documents.

CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, today announced the release of CyberLink Live Premium, the secure and personal web service for remote media access. CyberLink Live Premium’s place-shifting technology allows users to access digital media as well as business documents stored on a remote PC via a web browser. Targeted at the media enthusiast, CyberLink Live Premium offers advanced capabilities including:

• Hosted relay services to enable connectivity across firewalls
• Optimized bandwidth for the best TV, video, and photo streaming quality for full screen displays, and CD-quality audio streaming
• Scheduled recording of live TV programs
• Electronic program guides for scheduling broadcast TV programs
• Downloading of photos, videos, audio and documents
• Uploading and management of all sorts of document file formats
• Support for all types of file formats
• Webcam monitoring, including motion-detection recording, scheduled recording, and manual recording of up to 3 hours.

CyberLink is currently offering two subscription plans. CyberLink Live Premium users can choose to pay $18 for three months or $48 for an entire year. If you'd like to read more, CyberLink's entire announcement can be found here. Add a comment

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Duplicators

29 April 2008

Aleratec announced this week that it has started shipping its new duplicator grade LightScribe DVD-R media. These new discs are produced in five different colors (red, orange, yellow, green, and blue) to help organize and identify different types of data.

Aleratec Inc., leading developer and manufacturer of "Prosumers' Choice" solutions for the USB, Flash, HDD, Blu-ray, DVD/CD, duplicating, and DVD/CD publishing markets, is now shipping its new Aleratec color coded duplicator grade LightScribe DVD-R recording media. Aleratec duplicator grade LightScribe media is optimized for LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling DVD Duplicators and Publishing Systems producing the highest contrast LightScribe Direct Disc Labels and maximum yields in demanding professional disc publishing applications. The new Aleratec duplicator grade LightScribe media is produced in 5 different colors to aid in segregating and organizing different types of data or multimedia. These color-coded discs are LightScribe-ready and can be direct-to-disc LightScribe labeled in LightScribe DVD-RW drives without a printer. The Aleratec Rainbow 100 Pack(tm) contains 20 each of 5 key colors (red, orange, yellow, green, and blue) for a wide range of disc identification options.

Aleratec's duplicator grade LightScribe DVD-R media is available now in packs of 100 for an estimated street price of $89.99. More information can be found here. Add a comment

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Other

29 April 2008

ASUS Eee PC 900 @Hardware Zone
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply @ThinkComputers.org
Gateway P172X FX 17-inch Gaming Notebook @I4U
NZXT Alpha Case @TweakPC
Razer Piranha Gaming Communicator @Bigbruin.com
Ultra m998 ATX Mid-Tower Enclosure @TweakTown
XFX GeForce 9800GX2 1GB @InsideHW

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Home Entertainment

29 April 2008

ABI Research released a new report this week, stating that the Blu-ray market won't reach its full potential for another 12 to 18 months. According to their report, the delay is due to the high price of Blu-ray players and the lack of support for features like BD Live and Bonus View.

It will be 12 to 18 months before this market kicks into gear. Consumer electronics manufacturers need to introduce full-featured players and then get prices down to the $200 level. Until then, non-HDTV owners will certainly favor standard definition DVD players. A depressed economy in the United States could also lead HDTV and prospective HDTV owners to opt for upconverting standard players as they delay buying higher-ticket CE items. In addition, Blu-ray packaged media comes at a heavy premium over standard DVDs, although studios have brought prices down to the low $20-range for some titles.

Optical disc drive manufacturers have lowered their prices for computer BD-ROM drives in an effort to kick-start adoption in the PC market. But BD drives, priced three to four times higher than red laser drives and requiring an advanced graphics IC, will struggle for support in entry-level products.

ABI Research has hit the nail on the head with this report. If Blu-ray is to succeed, manufacturers need to stop messing with the specifications and bring player prices down to affordable levels. More information about ABI's new report can be found here. Add a comment

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Other

28 April 2008

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition @ InsideHW
ASUS Striker II Extreme Motherboard @HardwareLogic
Cirago Micro USB Bluetooth Adapter @Tweaknews.net
CoolerMaster Real Power Pro 1000 watt Power Supply @High Tech Reviews
Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16GB @Phoronix
DIAMOND Radeon HD 3650 1GB Graphics Card @TweakTown
Edifier M1550 5.1 Speakers @BCCHardware
Honeywell 22-Inch LCD Monitor MT-SY-HWLM2216 @Benchmark Reviews
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor @HotHardware.com
Motorola MotoPure H12 Bluetooth Headset @BlueTomorrow.com
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX520 Digital Camera @Hardware Zone
Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock @Virtual-Hideout

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Duplicators

28 April 2008

Virtual Console sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new 60-port USB duplicator. With a maximum writing speed of 7MB/sec, Virtual Console claims that the duplicator can copy sixty 1GB USB flash drives in a little more than 2 minutes.

Virtual Console, LLC, a global provider of products for communications and media companies, unveils the latest addition to its flash memory duplicator product line by introducing the 60-port USB duplicator. The USB duplicator, which is the fastest product currently available on the market, offers 7MB/sec write speed on each of its 60 ports, simultaneously resulting in a 420MB per second total duplication throughput.

The USB duplicator, with its capacity to copy from 1 to 60 cards at once, compliments the already existing line of Compact Flash and SD/SDHC flash card duplicators. All products feature IP Multicast duplication, which allows connecting several units via IP Multicast protocol for large-volume duplication. Also, the “Smart Duplication” technology permits copying only actual files instead of creating a full binary copy of the flash drive.

Virtual Console's 60-port USB duplicator is available now for $7999. Full details can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment

28 April 2008

Samsung Electronics recently launched its fourth-generation Blu-ray Disc player, the BD-P1500, in the Korean market. At the press event, Jun Dong-soo, the chief of Samsung’s AV business, stated that the global Blu-ray player market will grow at least 80% each year through 2012. Dong-soo also forecast that his company's Blu-ray product sales will exceed $1 billion by 2010.

Jun Dong-soo, chief of Samsung's digital audio-video business, said Monday that he expects the global market to grow at least 80 percent each year through 2012, with worldwide annual sales of 51 million players by that time.

Jun added that 5 million Blu-ray products were likely to sold this year, or three times more than last year, though he also characterized such an estimate as conservative.

"Our own Blu-ray product sales should increase to 400 billion won ($402 million) this year and surpass 1 trillion won ($1 billion) by 2010," he said in a press release, referring to Samsung's lineup.

If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment