Panasonic sent out a press release earlier today, announcing its new DIGA Series Blu-ray Disc recorders. The recorders are available with either a 1TB (DMR-BW930), 500GB (DMR-BW830), or 320GB (DMR-BW730) hard drive and come equipped with digital and analog tuners and a second-gen MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoder which can store approximately 24 hours worth of high-def video onto a single 50GB BD-R disc. When it comes to playing Blu-ray movies, the three recorders offer support for BD-Live and bitstream output of Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD Master Audio.

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 For those that can't give up their video tapes quite yet, Panasonic also plans to introduce a Blu-ray recorder with a built in VHS player. While lacking support for BD-Live, the DMR-BR630V sports a 320GB hard drive and can be used to transfer VHS tapes onto BD-R.

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LG announced this week that it will be unveiling its new N4B1 network attached storage (NAS) at IFA 2008. The N4B1 accepts hard drives as large as four terabytes and can be configured for RAID 5, 0, 1, 1+0 and JBOD modes. It also comes with built in Blu-ray drive which allows users to archive their data and create a virtual library by storing and sharing disc images.
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LG Electronics, global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, announced that it will unveil its new N4B1 network attached storage (NAS), which provides integrated data management, at IFA 2008. This NAS targets home and small business users, going beyond just data sharing to offer advanced data management features including a built-in Blu-ray drive and version management.

The SATA-IO announced this week that it will be demonstrating implementations of its new SATA Revision 3.0 specification at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF). The 3.0 spec boosts transfer rates to 6 Gbits/second and offers new features such as data streaming and better power management. Best of all, the SATA-IO promises that the 3.0 spec will be backwards compatible with earlier SATA implementations.

A new specification for the popular Serial ATA storage interface will double the maximum transfer speed from three to six gigabits per second (Gb/s). This will enable large amounts of data to be moved at even faster rates, a key advantage as end-users amass ever-increasing amounts of high-resolution photos, videos, music and other multimedia files. Add a comment

Following HD DVD's defeat, Toshiba announced that it was working on new upconverting technology that could deliver picture quality near that of Blu-ray. The company has finally unveiled its XDE, or "eXtended Detail Enhancement," technology. Available in Toshiba's new XD-E500 DVD player, XDE provides upconversion from 480i/p up to 1080p and offers user selectable picture enhancement modes that bring standard DVD quality closer to the HD experience.

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Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. ("Toshiba") today announces its new video enhancement technology for DVD with the introduction of the XD-E500. XDE, or "eXtended Detail Enhancement," is more than just DVD upconversion. XDE takes DVD picture quality to a whole new level. In addition to providing upconversion from 480i/p up to 1080p, XDE offers user selectable picture enhancement modes that allow for greater detail, more vivid colors and stronger contrast that bring standard DVD quality closer to the HD experience. XDE technology lets consumers enjoy their existing DVD libraries in a whole new way. Add a comment

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