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Panasonic announced this week that it has developed the world's first 3D full HD Plasma Theater System. The system uses a 103-inch plasma television and a Blu-ray Disc player capable of decoding and playing back 3D images, consisting of left and right-sided 1080p full HD images. To experience the 3D images, a user then wears a pair active shutter glasses to distribute the images to left eye and right eye.
Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, has developed the world's first 3D full HD Plasma Theater System, which enables the viewing of true-to-life 3D images by using a 103-inch plasma television and a Blu-ray Disc (BD) player, distributing full high-definition (HD) (1920 x 1080 pixels) images to left eye and right eye. Panasonic will present this system at CEATEC JAPAN 2008, which is due to be held at Makuhari Messe from September 30 to October 4, 2008.
Human beings feel the 3D impression because each of the left and right eyes recognizes different images. Panasonic's system comprises a 103-inch plasma television and a BD player that plays back BD onto which 3D images, consisting of left and right-sided 1080p full HD images, are recorded. By wearing active shutter glasses that work in synchronization with the plasma television, the viewer is able to experience 3D images formed with twice the volume of information as regular full HD images, and enjoy them together with high quality surround sound. This system enables full HD signal processing on each of the left and right images in every process -- recording, playback and display.
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- Hard Disks
Toshiba sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new line of high-performance 1.8-inch hard drives. Available in 120GB, 160GB and 250GB capacities, these new drives feature a 15msec seek time, 5,400 RPM rotation speed and a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface.
Toshiba Corporation, the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced expansion of its market-leading 1.8-inch lineup with three new high-capacity, high-performance Serial ATA HDDs for mobile PC applications, including the industry's first 250GB1) 1.8-inch HDD.
Toshiba's third-generation 5,400 RPM SATA 1.8 HDD family also features 120GB and 160GB capacities, along with the throughput power of the SATA 3.0Gb/s interface. In addition, the new series includes Toshiba's state-of-the-art free fall sensor option, which enhances protection from external shock and vibration events by responding to drops as low as five inches in height.
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- Optical Storage
Despite the increased cost of polycarbonate, the price of recordable DVD+R/-R to has remained relatively unchanged over the last year or so. Unfortunately, the price of DVD+R/-R media is on its way back up. After raising its prices by 10% in August, CMC and Ritek plan to further increase its OEM quotes for the fourth quarter of 2008. In CMC's case, the company plans to raise prices by as much as 15%.
CMC Magnetics and Ritek will increase OEM quotes for DVD+R/-R discs for the fourth quarter of 2008, with CMC to raise prices by 10-15% while Ritek will look at order volumes before determining rates, according to the two companies.
As many small blank optical disc makers in China and several second-tier makers in Taiwan have withdrawn from the market, the global production capacity of blank optical discs has fallen short of global demand since the beginning of the third quarter 2008, CMC pointed out. In light of the favorable situation, CMC hiked its OEM prices by an average of 10% in August and Ritek followed suit soon after, industry sources pointed out.
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- Software
CyberLink PowerDVD featuring support for BD-RE 2.1 and BD-R 1.1 certification allows the playback of Blu-ray recordable and re-recordable discs, providing users with superb video playback performance including recorded HDTV programs on the latest Blu-ray Disc formats.
CyberLink PowerDVD delivers proven quality of HD movie playback on consumer PC’s and has already been certified for significant Blu-ray Disc standards, including BD-Video Profile 1.0, BD-Video Profile 1.1 (Bonus View), BD-Video Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), BD+, BD-RE 3.0, AVCHD, and AVCREC.
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Plextor Europe has announced its first digital TV tuner, the ConvertX PX-DVBT100U. Along with the ability to watch digital TV anywhere, this pocket sized device doubles as a PVR, allowing users to save TV or radio programs to their hard drive with real-time or scheduled recording.
Plextor launches its first Digital TV tuner that enables users to watch digital TV anywhere via their laptop/PC. The Plextor ConvertX PX-DVBT100U doubles as a recorder - turning any laptop into a PVR - enabling digital terrestrial TV or radio programmes to be saved to the hard disk drive with real-time or scheduled recording.
Expanding the company’s portfolio of personal & SMB storage, media player, video converter devices and optical drives, Plextor’s pocket-sized gadget is ideal for ‘Freeview on the move’. Just the size of a memory stick, it is perfect for people who are increasingly carrying around laptops for entertainment and business purposes.
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- Flash Memory
Lexar announced this week that it has increased the speed of its Professional line of CompactFlash cards from 133x to 233x. This new Lexar Professional 233x CF memory cards are UDMA enabled and are capable of reading and writing at 35MB/s.
Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, announced today that it has enhanced the performance of its Professional line of CompactFlash® (CF) memory cards to 233x, a significant speed advancement over the line's previous speed-rating of 133x. The Lexar Professional 233x CF memory cards are now UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) enabled and capable of minimum-sustained read and write speeds of 35MB per second - a considerable improvement over the previous read and write speeds of 20MB per second. These exceptionally fast cards are available in three popular capacities, including 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, and deliver professional-level performance for a wider range of digital SLR users, including professionals and photo enthusiasts seeking high-capacity and high-speed performance. Lexar Professional 233x CF cards also greatly improve digital imaging workflow and convenience by reducing the time needed to transfer images from the card to the host computer. The new cards are also complemented by the line of Lexar Professional UDMA-compatible high-speed card readers. For more information about Lexar Professional 233x CF cards, please visit www.lexar.com.
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AXP Hard Disk Docking Station with eSATA and USB @ TweakPC
Cooler Master HAF 932 Case @ HardwareLogic
LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue Rewriter @ EMedialive.com
iStarUSA HDD Docking Station + HDD Reader @ Virtual-Hideout
iStarUSA T5F-SS 5.25in Trayless SATA/SAS Rack @ BCCHardware
Kingston HyperX DDR2-1200 Dual Channel Kit @ InsideHW
Lian-Li Tyr PC-X2000 Gaming and HTPC Case @ Metku.net
Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition @ Hardware Zone
Plextor PX-B920SA Blu-ray Writer @ BHmag.fr
PowerColor PCS+ HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 @ HotHardware.com
Rosewill RX630-S-B Xtreme Series 630W Power Supply @ Bigbruin.com
Samsung LN-T4681F 46 Inch 1080P LED Backlit LCD TV @ Tweaknews.net
Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB @ Phoronix
Thermaltake Soprano Aluminum Keyboard @ ThinkComputers.org
Thermaltake V14 Pro CPU Cooler @ TweakTown
Vizo Ninja HS Notebook Cooler @ Futurelooks Add a comment
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- Flash Memory
SanDisk announced today that it has added a 16GB model to its Extreme IV series of CompactFlash cards. Developed for the latest UDMA-enabled readers and cameras, the 16GB SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash card is capable of 45MB/s (300x) read and write speeds.
SanDisk today announced that it is now shipping an upgraded family of SanDisk Extreme® IV CompactFlash® (CF) memory cards to better meet the needs of professional digital photographers. The entire series of SanDisk Extreme IV high-performance memory cards has received a 12.5-percent speed boost up to 45 megabytes per second (MB/s)1 and the newly-released 16-gigabyte (GB)2 card is twice as large as previous capacities. The announcement was made at the Photokina trade show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Hall 5.1, Stand A20.
SanDisk Extreme IV CompactFlash 45MB/s (300X) memory cards offer advanced technologies that are fully compatible with all CompactFlash cameras including the latest UDMA-enabled cameras. SanDisk Extreme IV CF cards have undergone internal testing with many leading manufacturers’ cameras and DSLRs, such as Canon’s EOS series, Nikon’s D300 and D3 cameras, the Sony Alpha A700, and the Olympus E500 and E3 cameras. Depending on the camera used, the increased performance of the SanDisk Extreme IV memory card line may help reduce the delay between shots, enabling photographers to take more photos overall. The high-speed cards let all photographers save time and improve their workflow with faster card-to-computer data transfer speeds.
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- Optical Storage
Verbatim recently announced its new PhotoSave DVD. This recordable DVD-R media features integrated software that automatically launches when the disc is inserted into a drive. The software can then be used to find and burn photos located on a user's computer or digital camera.
Verbatim® Americas, LLC, a global leader and innovator in the digital storage industry, announced today Verbatim PhotoSave™ DVD, a recordable DVD that makes finding and saving photos absolutely effortless—even for consumers who have never burned a disc before.
Verbatim PhotoSave DVDs feature integrated software that launches automatically when the disc is inserted into a DVD-R drive. The process of searching for photos is also automated so users only need to click on the record button to save their memories from a PC. In the manual mode, PhotoSave DVDs also support “search and burn” from a digital camera connected to a PC. In addition to offering a long lifespan, each DVD disc provides a useable capacity of 4.5GB (1GB = 1 billion bytes) and can store approximately 2,000 photos.¹
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- Optical Storage
Sony sent out a press release this morning, announcing its third generation Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-300S. The new drive can write to both single and dual layer BD-R media at 8x and, according to Sony's claims, can burn an entire 50GB disc in as little as 30 minutes. To showcase the capabilities of Blu-ray, the BWU-300S also comes bundled with a copy of “Men in Black”.
Sony Electronics today announced its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts.
The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording, with an eye towards data backup, making it an excellent replacement burner for a standard DVD drive while offering all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology.
To provide consumers with the opportunity to experience high-definition movie playback first-hand, the new drive comes bundled with a “Men in Black” Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Men In Black” stars Will Smith (“Hancock”) and Oscar®-winner Tommy Lee Jones (“The Fugitive”) saving the world from a total intergalactic disaster in Barry Sonnenfeld’s smash-hit sci-fi action comedy. The “Men In Black” high-definition Blu-ray Disc boasts advanced BD-Live enabled bonus features, including a multiplayer trivia game, an interactive Frank the Pug advice generator, an alien subtitle track and much more.
