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Home Entertainment
Good news for Blu-ray fans. Target has reportedly decided to promote the format through the upcoming holiday shopping season. According to an article by the Associated Press, Target stores will start selling the Sony BDP-S300 in October and will display Blu-ray titles from three studio at the end of aisles.
Target Corp., the nation's second-largest retailer, will start selling a Sony Blu-ray high-definition DVD player during the critical holiday shopping period and feature the player along with Blu-ray discs in store displays, dealing a potential blow to the rival HD DVD format.

The move, which the companies will formally announce Thursday, is another step in resolving a format war that has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market.

Target said it will sell the Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) BDP-S300 for $499 in October and display it along with Blu-ray DVDs from three studios, including Sony Corp. and The Walt Disney Co., at the ends of store aisles.
Take note that Target isn't exclusively Blu-ray. The company still sells Toshiba's HD DVD players on their website and the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive in stores. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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Software
Sonic Solutions has announced a new version of its Scenarist Designer PS Software. By using this plugin, graphic designers can design menus in Photoshop and export them for use with both Blu-ray and HD DVD. With version 2.1, Sonic has broadened the applications reach by supporting non-Scenarist-based authoring systems.
Sonic Solutions today introduced Scenarist Designer PS Software Version 2.1, a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that brings increased power, flexibility, and automation to the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc menu design process. Offering seamless integration with the title-creation workflow in Sonic's industry-leading Scenarist Workgroup authoring applications, Designer PS enables simultaneous format-compliant output of color-optimized menu graphics for both Blu-ray Disc (HDMV and BD-J) and HD DVD (HDi). New in version 2.1 is support for non-Scenarist-based authoring systems, which broadens the application's reach and effectiveness for graphics professionals joining the high-definition format evolution. Scenarist Designer PS 2 is available immediately through Sonic's resale channels worldwide.
If you'd like to read more, Sonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
Like Toshiba, Microsoft is doing their part to help promote the HD DVD format. The company announced today at Comic-Con that it will lower the price of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player from $199 to $179. Anyone buying the player between August 1st and September 30th will also get five free HD DVD movies.
Today at Comic-Con International 2007, Microsoft Corp. announced it will lower the price of the popular Xbox 360 HD DVD Player from $199 to $179 ERP (United States only) starting Aug. 1, 2007, and will add five free HD DVD movies for anyone purchasing an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30. In addition, Microsoft further solidified the Xbox 360 as the ultimate high-definition (HD) entertainment platform, with key announcements around the HD DVD launches of “300” from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and “Heroes: Season 1” from Universal Studios.
The five free HD DVD movie promotion is very similar to the one Toshiba is offering. People buying the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player will be able to choose five HD DVD titles from a selection of 15 through a mail-in offer. Full details can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
With Samsung's combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player hitting store shelves later this year, there has been a lot of speculation regarding its price. While some sources have stated that the BD-UP5000 would be priced at only $545, others have reported that it would cost $550 more than Samsung's single format Blu-ray player. Samsung has finally come out and announced the player's price. According to a blog post at CNET News.com, the BD-UP5000 will retail for $1,049.
Samsung announced final official details on two expensive Blu-ray players today, including the HD DVD-playin' BD-UP5000 we wrote about before, and a new home theater-in-a-box (HTiB) that incorporates a Blu-ray player, the HT-BD2. We're now told the BD-UP5000 will retail for $1,049, and the HT-BD2 will sell for $1,499. Both will ship sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, and will round out the company's five-model series of 2007 Blu-ray players.
The BD-UP5000 will reportedly feature ethernet and HDMI 1.3 ports, HQV video processing and the ability to output 1080p/24 video from Blu-ray discs. Oddly enough, it does not support 1080p/24 when playing HD DVD movies. If you'd like to read more, the entire blog post can be found here. Add a comment

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Optical Storage
LightScribe announced today that 12 more companies, including Sony and Kodak, have licensed their direct disc labeling technology. Here's part of their press release:
LightScribe today announced that an additionaltwelve hardware brands, personal computer and optical drive manufacturers, mediabrands and disc publishing systems manufacturers have licensed its direct disc labelingtechnology. These new licensees include hardware brands Apricorn, Ativa, Gear Head,and Sony; personal computer manufacturer MESH Computers; optical disc drivemanufacturer Sony NEC Optiarc; media brands Ativa, Intenso, KODAK Media Products,and Vakoss; and disc publishing systems manufacturers Advanced Digital Research,Amtren, and Mexty Productions.
If you'd like to read more, LightScribe's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
Denon recently announced their new high end Blu-ray Disc player, the DVD-3800BDCI. This $1999 monster is the first player to feature support for BD-ROM Version 1.1 which, among other things, allows for playback of picture-in-picture content. The DVD-3800BDCI also features the Silicon Optix Realta chipset, which provides enhanced video performance with upconversion and IP scaling to 1080p.
Denon Electronics, a world leader in high-performance home entertainment products, today announced the upcoming introduction of two groundbreaking DVD products, the new reference-standard DVD-3800BDCI BD-ROM Profile 1 version 1.1 Blu-ray Disc Player and the DVD-2500BTC BD-ROM Profile 1 version 1.1 Blu-ray Disc Transport. The DVD-3800BDCI (SRP: $1,999) is the world's first BD-ROM Profile 1 version 1.1 Blu-ray Disc Player from a Blu-Ray Disc Association member featuring the acclaimed 10-bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset. It provides users with the highest resolution high-definition video available today via HDMI connection, as well as the ultimate in audio performance, including high-definition audio decoding and DDSC-HD audio output. The DVD-2500BTCI outputs audio and video signals and requires a connected audio/video receiver to do the decoding. Both BD-ROM Profile 1 version 1.1 Blu-ray units are slated to ship this fall.
As impressive as this sounds, it will be interesting to see how many people will shell out $1999 for the DVD-3800BDCI. If you'd like to read more, head on over to Gizmodo. Add a comment

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Optical Storage
Toshiba announced today that they've starting shipping the Qosmio G45-AV680. According to their press release, the Qosmio is the first notebook computer in the U.S. to feature an HD DVD-R drive.
Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the availability of the Qosmio G45-AV680, a cutting-edge audio-video notebook computer with Dolby surround sound technology and the first U.S. model to feature an HD DVD-R optical drive and full 1080p playback resolution.

As the first U.S. notebook computer with an HD DVD-R optical drive, the Qosmio notebook provides users with a state-of-the-art multimedia machine that can burn up to 30 GB of data, including home-videos, entire photo albums and music libraries onto a single HD DVD recordable disc. In addition to storage capacity, the HD DVD-R optical drive also plays HD DVD movies at a resolution six times sharper than the DVD format.
The Qosmio G45-AV680 also comes equipped with a 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 17-inch widescreen LCD, GeForce 8600GT graphics card and dual 160GB hard drives, resulting in an estimated price of about $3200. More information, including a full list of specs, can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
Helios Labs has announced their latest DVD player, the H2000. While priced at only $99, the H2000 offers features like HDMI output and the ability to upscale DVD's and videos in MPEG-4, XviD, DivX and MPEG-2 format.

Helios Labs announces today the H2000, an HD upscaling DVD player that allows you to experience the most from your HDTV set all at an affordable price. Helios Labs, known for their innovative X-series line of networking DVD players, is poised to release an affordable option for their customers.

The H2000 is a region-free DVD player capable of upscaling a variety of formats including: MPEG-4, XviD, DivX and MPEG-2 to 1080i resolution via Component, HDMI and VGA; not to mention upscaling your entire DVD collection. Furthermore, it can output 480i/576i unprocessed digital signal via HDMI. But what does this mean for you? Helios Labs’ CTO, Roy Ping, weighs in on this feature.

“H2000 offers the most HD upscaling options. You can let it upscale all your content to 720p/1080i, or you can allow it to output an unprocessed 480i/576i video signal and allow your TV/external video scaler to do the work. This will help customers maximize its performance and consequently, ensure you have a much clearer, distortion-free image.”
The H2000 will launch in the US on August 10th. More information is available on Helios Labs' website. Add a comment

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