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Toshiba, in expectation of surging demand for high-definition (HD) video due to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will launch HD DVD recorders in China in 2008 in a bid to promote the HD DVD standard over the Blu-ray Disc (BD) standard, according to industry sources in Taiwan.Toshiba and the rest of the HD DVD Promotions Group is banking heavily on the Chinese market. However, with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games more than a year away, the format war could be over before Toshiba gets a chance to launch their HD DVD recorders. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
TV broadcasters in China project eight million LCD TVs will be sold in China in 2007 and the demand will rise to 10 million units in 2008, the sources indicated. The growth in demand for LCD TVs reflects increasing demand for HD video, which is conducive to the sale of HD DVD and/or BD players/recorders, the sources said.
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HD DVD video players have outsold rival standard Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year, according to a lobby group.Keep in mind that these numbers are spun heavily in HD DVD's favor. The HD DVD Promotional Group is only looking at stand alone players, the one area where HD DVD does have the advantage. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74 percent market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for stand-alone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK.
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According to AV Watch, TDK's 4x BD-R and BD-R DL media is expected to cost about 1,700 Yen ($14US) and 4,000 Yen ($33US) respectively. More information can be found here. Add a comment
TDK marketing corporation (president: Matsui national rapture), the blue ray disk BD-R for the data which this each time corresponds to 4 time fast record (postscript type) single sided 1 layer (25GB) with single sided 2 layer (50GB) 2 types are merchandised, 1 layer type sells on July 25th. 2 layer type, the ink jet printer corresponding disk (1 layer type), we plan the sale September 20th.
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Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is now shipping the highly anticipated BDC-2202 combination Blu-ray Disc BD-ROM/DVD/CD computer drive to retail stores. The product can also be purchased online at pioneerelectronics.com. The new drive comes bundled with Corel Corporation’s digital media software for playback of multiple Blu-ray Disc (BD) formats, including new commercial film titles. Corel’s digital media software also provides enhanced reading and high-speed archiving of personal content to DVD and CD formats. The Pioneer BDC-2202 is available for a suggested price of $299.99.If you'd like to read more, Pioneer's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
“Our new Blu-ray Disc combo drive is one of the most exciting introductions for Pioneer, as it is one of the industry’s most advanced optical drives for business and consumer users,” said Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “With BD-ROM compatibility, the new drive enables users to play Blu-ray Disc movies and explore their impressive new interactive features on their PC. We’ve also included a solid software bundle from Corel that allows creative individuals to assemble and preserve their own video, photo and music projects onto CDs and DVDs.”
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2P Slim Mouse Laptop Mouse @The TechZone
Albatron Mini-ITX KI690-AM2 Motherboard @TweakTown
Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 VGA Heatsink @HardwareLogic
Cooler Master NotePal W1 @InsideHW.com
Cooler Master Real Power 750 Watt Power Supply @Tweaknews.net
Coolink Silentator @BCCHardware
Genius Look 313 Media Webcam @The TechZone
Logitech VX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks @Futurelooks
Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray DVD Player @Futurelooks
Thermaltake Shark Aluminum ATX Full Tower Case @Tweaknews.net
Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler @ThinkComputers.org
XFX GeForce 8600 GT Fatal1ty @Hardware Zone
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Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL; TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced that Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is bundling its next-generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) combo drive, the BDC-2202, with selected titles from Corel’s digital media software lineup. The software bundle includes special editions of Corel’s WinDVD 8, Ulead VideoStudio 11 and Ulead Burn.Now1.5.If you'd like to read more, Corel's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Affordably priced at $299.99, Pioneer’s BDC-2202 drive offers a compelling solution for consumers who want to use their PC to view the growing number of high-definition Hollywood movies that are being released on BD.
In addition to ensuring compatibility with commercially released Blu-ray Disc movies, the Corel software that comes bundled with the new Pioneer BD combo drive allows users to create and burn personal DVD movies and digital photo slideshows, backup files to a DVD or CD, and create and burn music to a CD.
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In reality, Albatron's Blue Ray Decoder Card is nothing more than a low-profile version of the 8500GT-256 graphics card. No word yet on price or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Albatron's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Albatron has recently announced the exciting new "Blue Ray Decoder Card" giving mainstream users a great alternative to Integrated Graphics. This low-profile VGA card can provide even the most basic systems with High Definition video playback including Blu-ray and HD-DVD. This card also supports DirectX 10, boosting 3D graphics performance for the Windows VistaTM operating system...
...The technology behind this high performance, high definition video playback is NVIDIA's PureVideo HD technology, embedded into the NVIDIA Geforce 8500GT GPU. One of the most practical aspects of this technology is that it focuses video playback mostly on the GPU, leaving your CPU to do other things. In fact, systems using Core 2 Duo processors with PureVideo HD usage has consistently shown CPU utilization under 20% during high definition video playback which also demonstrates up to a 60% reduction in CPU impact when using PureVideo HD versus using other technologies. This card also supports H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 encoding/compression formats used to record data on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks.
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Samsung Electronics, at an IFA (Internationale Funhausstellung in German) conference held in Hamburg, Germany last week, announced it will launch the Duo HD (high-definition) BD-UP5000, the world's second dual-format disc player model supporting both HD DVD and BD (Blu-ray Disc) next to the LG Electronics BH100. The device will be initially introduced in the European market at a tentative price of 400 euro (US$545) in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to industry sources in Taiwan.It will be interesting to see if Samsung can deliver the BD-UP5000 at this price. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
Update - Apparently, DigiTime's "sources" got the price wrong. According to heise online, the BD-UP5000 will cost about 400 euro more than their single format Blu-ray player, putting it in the same ballpark as the LG BH100. Add a comment
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Serial numbers for DiscJuggler 4 do not work with this new version. You will need to purchase an update ($5.99) or upgrade ($14.99) license. If you'd like to give DiscJuggler 6 a try before purchasing, a demo can be downloaded here. Add a comment
Among the many features introduced in this new build (see version history) we are proud to announce complete support for MP3+G, WMA+G and WAV+G. The MP3+G and WMA+G consist of two files, the audio track compressed to the MP3 or WMA (Microsoft Windows Media Audio) format and a separate CDG file containing the graphic data. Depending on the compression ratio, these two files combined occupy about one eighth of the disc space of a standard CDG track. This offers a convenient and effective way to back up your karaoke discs to your hard drive and to create CD+G compilations by mixing and matching songs from different sources.
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Atmel(R) Corporation(Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the availability of the ATR0881 laser diodedriver IC for use in combined HD-DVD/Blu-ray, DVD, and CD drives. TheATR0881 is housed in a 4 mm x 4 mm QFN24 package. This is the industry'ssmallest laser diode driver solution and is especially suited for smallslim drives used in notebook computers as well as for half-height drives indesktop PCs and consumer DVD recorders.Samples of the ATR0881 are nowavailable and are priced at US $5.00 in quantities of 10k. If you'd like to read more, Atmel's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The ATR0881's QFN housing is a lead-free paddle-up package with theexposed paddle on top to improve heat dissipation. A bottom-located exposedpaddle, as found in conventional QFN packages, causes difficulties due toits inaccessibility for circuit design, particularly in optical pick-upproducts. This design restriction is eliminated with Atmel's ATR0881.
