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If you'd like to read more, Funai's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Funai Corporation, Inc., the North American sales and marketing subsidiary of Funai Electric Co., Ltd., today announced the introduction of its first Blu-ray Disc player (NB500 series) for the North American market.
The Company will begin production in the first quarter of 2008, and plans to begin selling the player at retail stores in North America during the second quarter. The retail price is projected to be under $300.
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- Optical Storage
As the number of digital music and video downloads continues to rise, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. makes it simple and quick to keep vital digital media safe with its introduction today of five new computer drives offering high speed performance and multi-format compatibility. With this next generation line, the new Pioneer internal and external DVD/CD writers offer computer users an impressive 20x write speed along with software from Nero for high quality as well as creative preservation and sharing of digital content. Pioneer’s DVD/CD computer drives give users peace of mind that comes with durable copies that preserve valuable personal content well into the future.While the DVR-2910 won't ship until April, the other drives should be hitting stores some time in February. Hopefully Pioneer's marketing folks will get with the program and let us take a look at these new models. More information, including prices, can be found here. Add a comment
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- Optical Storage
Verbatim Americas, LLC announced today that it will begin shipping the world’s first 2x-speed HD DVD-R (recordable) and HD DVD-RW (rewriteable) discs this quarter. By adding the new HD DVD recordable media to its current offerings, Verbatim now offers the industry’s broadest range of premium-quality HD DVD media products. The complete HD DVD media product line, including Verbatim’s 2x HD DVD R/RW media and its 1x HD DVD-R DL media will be showcased at Verbatim’s CES Booth #S4-36249 in the South Hall this week.While this speed boost is long over due, there isn't a lot of hardware on the market today that can take advantage of this new media. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Verbatim 2x-speed HD DVD-R/RW Media -- At 2x-speed Verbatim’s new recordable and rewriteable HD DVDs slash the time required to fill a 15GB HD DVD disc to about 30 minutes, compared to about 1 hour at 1x speed. HD DVD media supports the Advanced Access Content System copy-protection technology.
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Sony expects to start shipping their new BD-ROM drive later this month. More information can be found here. Add a comment
Sony Electronics today announced an internal BD-ROM drive that can upgrade an existing desktop computer into a high-definition Blu-ray Disc player, as well as a DVD and a CD player.
The new BDU-X10S BD-ROM drive comes with CyberLink’s PowerDVD BD Edition software for playback of commercial movie titles, recorded Blu-ray Disc home videos, DVD-ROMs and CD-ROMs.
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Memorex SimpleSave DVDs will be available at retail starting in April. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
It's recording media... It's software... It's an all-in-one back-up solution. Memorex, the leading brand of optical media at U.S. retail and a portfolio brand of Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN), today introduces the first optical disc to provide an all-in-one back-up solution for photos and music. Memorex SimpleSave DVDs automatically back up precious photos and favorite tunes from your PC to a DVD disc.
According to Harris Research, 96 percent of consumers do not regularly back up their computers because they see the process as confusing, overwhelming and inconvenient. Memorex SimpleSave back-up solution DVDs do it all for you. Use SimpleSave:Photo to find and save digital images on your PC. Use SimpleSave:Music to do the same for audio files. Each disc has 4.5GB of capacity, enough to back up approximately 2,200 photos or 1,000 songs based on average file sizes.
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While the re-designed Pivot won't ship until later this year, the Pivot Plus is available now in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities. More information, including pricing, can be found here. Add a comment
Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN), a worldwide leader in removable data storage media, today introduced the Imation Pivot Plus Flash Drive and re-designed Imation Pivot Flash Drive, each engineered to deliver advanced security options. The Pivot Plus Flash Drive features a rugged design and maximum security to meet rigorous government security standards, providing an ideal way for business professionals and government personnel to safely store and transport sensitive or valuable data. The updated Pivot Flash Drive offers an enhanced design and security features, making it the perfect solution for today's mobile business professional.
"Because of their size, ease of use and portability, flash drives are business tools that require enhanced security to ensure data stays safe," said Keith Schwartz, director, North America sales and marketing, Imation Corp. "With the addition of the Pivot Plus Flash Drive and newly enhanced Pivot Flash Drive to the Imation flash suite, Imation is furthering its commitment to security across all its flash drive products. Road warriors can now select the level of memory and security they need to safely store and transfer data on the go."
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Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal U.S. subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE:MC), today introduced the DMP-BD50, Panasonic’s latest Blu-ray disc player - the ultimate playback source for high definition 1080p content. Blu-ray media offers a wide range of functions that foster the transition to HD - including 1080p image quality, lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and versatile Picture-in-Picture applications. The BD50 adds the new BD-Live function, which uses the internet to further enhance the consumer’s entertainment experience and employs VIERA Link, a technology that allows the consumer to operate VIERA Link equipped home theater components with a single remote.No word yet on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
BD-Live opens up a myriad of interactive possibilities for the consumer. In the future BD-Live will allow users to connect the DMP-BD50 to the internet to download such data as images and subtitles, and to join in multi-player interactive games that are linked to bonus movie content contained on Blu-ray discs.
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Leveraging the resources gained with the purchase of SmartDisk Corporation’s external hard drive (HD) assets in July 2007, Verbatim Americas, LLC launched today a whole new line of SmartDisk 2.5” Portable Hard Drives (HDs). With the new elegantly designed HDs, consumers and businesses can immediately add 120, 160, 250, or 320GB of removable capacity without having to open their computer. The palm-sized external drives will be available for both Windows and Mac users later this month with retail prices starting at US$99.00.If you'd like to read more, Verbatim's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.There is some good news for HD DVD fans. Warner Bros plans to continue to release new titles on HD DVD until the end of May 2008. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”
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Toshiba is quite surprised by WarnerBros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the factthat there are various contracts in place between our companies concerningthe support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have longmaintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely togetherto help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to defineand shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.If you'd like to read more, Toshiba's entire statement can be found here. Add a comment
We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spiteof the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well asother regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in theUS market in 2007.
