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.
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Toshiba announced today that its profit fell by 95% during the first quarter of 2008. While a drop in flash memory chip prices accounted for some of the lost profits, the majority of it was due to Toshiba shutting down its HD DVD business.
Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said Friday its net profit plummeted a staggering 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to losses related to its exit from the next-generation video HD DVD business.

Toshiba Corp.'s profit stood at 1.25 billion yen ($12 million), sharply down from 26.17 billion yen a year earlier.

"Our net profit sharply fell due to the end of HD DVD business," Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida said, adding the one-time for pulling the plug on its HD DVD business cost about 48 billion yen ($461 million).
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CDRLabs has taken a long overdue look at Samsung's LightScribe capable 20x DVD writer, the SH-S203N. While affordably priced, the drive features some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available. The SH-S203N is capable of 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it's one of the few drives to offer both 16x DVD+R DL and 12x DVD-R DL writing speeds.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the SH-S203N and see how it compares to some of the 20x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the SH-S203N have what it takes? You'll have to read the review to find out.

Samsung SH-S203N 20x DVD±RW/RAM
If you have any comments or questions about this review or the Samsung SH-S203N, please post them in the forum. Add a comment
CyberLink announced this week that Toshiba has chosen to bundle PowerCinema with their new consumer notebook PCs. Here's part of their press release:
CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, announced today that its complete home entertainment solution, PowerCinema, was chosen by Toshiba Corporation to be included in its consumer notebook PCs in the United States. The combination offers the perfect digital media solution, allowing users to play videos and music on their new Toshiba notebooks through CyberLink's software.

CyberLink PowerCinema combines advanced video and music playback features with an intuitive, responsive 3D user interface. Power Cinema's support for a wide range of video formats—including ASF, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2,DVR-MS,AVI,high-definition, MPEG-2-HD and WMV-HD—delivers uncompromised video playback performance. PowerCinema also supports MP3, WMA, and WAV audio file formats, turning notebook PCs into digital music players.
If you'd like to read more, CyberLink's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Earlier this week, Sony Europe unveiled its new line of hard drive equipped DVD recorders. The flagship models RDR-HX1080 and RDR-HXD1090 feature a 500GB hard drive, integrated analog and DVB-T tuners and a HDD camcorder connection for direct digital dubbing. The players also feature X-Pict Story which allows the creation of enhanced slideshows with music.

New for 2008, HDD camcorder connection with all models allows direct digital dubbing from any Standard Definition Handycam Hard Disk Drive camcorder by Sony. There’s no quality loss during digital transfers via USB. Whole dubbing mode transfers everything that’s stored on the camcorder’s hard drive. Alternatively, incremental dubbing transfers only new footage that hasn’t already been recorded onto the Hard Disk Drive DVD recorder.

Also new this year, X-Pict Story is a powerful yet easy-to-use feature for creating your own personal slideshows. Using your remote, slide shows can be built up in moments from images stored on the recorder’s hard drive. A choice of transition effects adds extra sparkle to slide shows, along with your own selection of musical soundtrack from stored music files. The results can be viewed directly on your TV or burned to DVD for sharing or storing.
No word yet on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Sony's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Samsung announced today that the release of its fourth generation Blu-ray player has been pushed back to June. Originally scheduled for May, the BD-P1500's launch has been delayed so that the player can be made BD Live Ready.
As the first company to introduce a stand-alone Blu-ray player, Samsung reinforces its support of the Blu-ray format with the next generation, full HD, BD-P1500. An ideal player for anyone who enjoys Blu-ray, DVDs or CDs in their home, this groundbreaking model significantly improves the home viewing experience and accommodates each of these formats in one unit. Further, the BD-P1500 can upconvert standard DVDs to 720p, 1080i and 1080p resolutions and offers Full HD video playback capabilities for a crystal-clear picture.

Designed with fans of multimedia technology in mind, the BD-P1500 easily connects to other digital devices through an HDMI 1.3 port with CEC for expanded color delivery and easy home theater control. The P1500 has BD Profile 1.1 Bonus View and is BD Live Ready. With its built-in Ethernet connection and USB input users can quickly upgrade their BD-P1500 with the latest firmware which ensures the player remains at the cutting edge of Blu-ray technology. By making these firmware upgrades simple and easy, Samsung allows consumers to continually upgrade their BD-P1500 with the latest features.
At this point it is unclear what BD-Live "Ready" means. While the BD-P1500 will most likely play BD-Live titles out of the box, this could also mean that it is capable of doing so after a firmware update. No word yet on price. However, if Samsung sticks to their original price point, the BD-P1500 should cost around $399. If you'd like to read more, Samsung's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Iomega sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive. This new portable hard drive gives users the ability to take the photos, music and video stored on their PC and play them back on their TV at resolutions up to 1080i.

Iomega Corporation (NYSE:IOM), a global leader in data protection and security, today announced thenew Iomega(R) ScreenPlay(TM) HD Multimedia Drive, a portable external harddrive that leaves the PC behind, delivering multimedia content tohigh-definition televisions and home theater systems.

The Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive is a 500GB* drive with thestorage capacity to hold up to 2 million photos, 9,250 hours of music, or750 hours of video**, enabling family and friends to share high-resolutionphotos, music, and video clips in the comfort of the living room, without acomputer.
The 500GB version of the Iomega ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive is available now for a suggested retail price of $209.95. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
Yamaha Japan announced today that it will be distributing its new Labelflash Photo Labeler software to the public on April 25th. This free software comes with 30 templates and will allow users to turn their photos into labels by performing a few simple steps.

Yamaha Corporation (Head Office: 10-1, Nakazawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka; President: Mitsuru Umemura; hereinafter: Yamaha), working together with FUJIFILM Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter: Fujifilm), has developed LabelflashTM Photo Labeler software using Labelflash technology for easily printing display labels containing photographs on specially made DVD disc using templates. Free distribution of this Labelflash Photo Labeler software will begin from Labelflash’s official Web site on April 25, 2008. The site may be accessed at the following URL: http://labelflash.jp/.. The English version is expected to become available in a few months.
With support for Labelflash lagging well behind LightScribe, its good to see Yamaha and Fujifilm making applications like this available for free to their customers. If you'd like to read more, Yamaha's entire announcement can be found here. Add a comment