- Details
- Home Entertainment
Until April 27, HD-AX1 will come bundled with two complimentary HD DVD titles: "Resident Evil" and a Japanese film, "Moonlight Jellyfish". More information can be found here. Add a comment
Toshiba Corporation today took the home video experience to the next, high definition level, as it started the Japanese roll out of the world's first commercially available HD DVD player. The new player, HD-XA1, delivers high definition images and crystal clear sound, bringing home entertainment to a new level.
Toshiba's HD-XA1 is the first player to support the HD DVD format approved by the DVD Forum, the international association that defines and promotes DVD standards. HD-XA1 supports playback of pre-recorded HD DVD, offering consumers stunning digital high-definition picture quality far surpassing that of standard DVD. Sound is also enhanced. Along with L-PCM 5.1ch audio, HD-XA1 supports the clarity and realism of three next generation surround-sound formats, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, and sound sources can be output to audio systems via the player's HDMI output or multi-channel audio output. Support for up-conversion of standard DVD to a resolution of 1080i or 720p through HDCP capable HDMI output allows consumers to enjoy current DVD libraries with output resolution scaled to their HDTV or HD displays.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company today announced the upcoming availability of the company's first Blu-ray Disc player, the DMP-BD10, available this September.Pricing has not been finalized yet. However, Panasonic expects the DMP-BD10 to go for less than $1500. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Blu-ray Disc is the next generation optical disc format that features capacity as large as 50 gigabytes on a dual-layer disc and will be capable of holding high-definition movies, tens of thousands of songs, and extensive capacity for extraordinary video games and PC storage. Blu-ray Disc has the support of more than 170 leading companies including the top studios and consumer electronics manufacturers.
"With the DMP-BD10, Panasonic proves its commitment to providing the best high definition entertainment experience for the home," said Reid Sullivan, vice president, merchandising, Panasonic's entertainment group. "Our goal is to focus on the total solution for an uncompromised high definition experience. In addition we want to ensure that the consumer experience is as easy as possible, so we've added EZ-Sync HDAVI control function to make it simple to connect and control multiple products, such as a Panasonic Plasma TV, Blu-ray Disc player and receiver. Plus, with the BD10 we respect the legacy content that consumers have in their entertainment libraries, including virtually all DVD and CD formats, as well as video and image formats."
- Details
- Home Entertainment
The launch of HD-DVD took another hit Wednesday with Toshiba announcing it is holding off on shipping next-generation players until April, a month behind schedule.This delay is a smart move on Toshiba's behalf. Without any titles, there's really no reason to buy one of their HD DVD players. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Last week, Warner Home Video, the only studio that had set firm release dates for high-definition DVD software, said it wouldn't release its first three titles until April 18, three weeks behind schedule, because of technical issues.
On Wednesday, Toshiba said its players, which had been slated to go on sale in large consumer electronics retailers like Best Buy late this month, won't be made available for purchase until the software arrives in stores.
- Details
- Home Entertainment
In a QA session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.This is definitely good news, especially for those that like to import games from Japan. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
- Details
- Home Entertainment
To accommodate Toshiba and other companies that wanted to start shipping their high-def products, the AACS Licensing Association came up with a somewhat bizarre solution: It released an interim spec that enables Hollywood studios to securely encode and distribute their content and supports playback of that content on players. But the interim version of AACS has limitations, most conspicuously the lack of support for managed copy. "Managed copy" is industry jargon for the technology that lets content providers offer legal free or fee-based ways for you to move content around on a home server, make a physical copy of content for backup purposes, or transfer it to another device such as a portable media player.Let's hope that these initial players can be upgraded to support the final AACS specifications. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
"A player that's licensed under the interim agreement will not be able to do managed copy," states Richard Doherty, spokesperson for the AACS Licensing Association. Although Doherty declined to go into detail about the outstanding issues, he did say that they concern how managed copy will be implemented (and what it will, and will not, allow), and not the actual technology. Technologically speaking, the spec is done, which means it is plausible that "a manufacturer can implement managed copy [but not turn it on], and then enable it in any number of ways down the road," says Doherty.
