At this year's IFA, Sony unveiled what they call the "world's most advanced Blu-ray Disc Player." Designed to make the most of Blu-ray Disc movies, the BDP-S5000ES uses the HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping to increase the colour depth and deliver the best possible video quality. The player also offers Linear PCM and HD audio decoding with bitstream output and can handle all formats up to Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. To top it all off, the BDP-S5000ES is compatible with BD-Live and BonusView.

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Sony has put all its expertise in video and audio processing into the BDP-S5000ES, making it the best player yet. The combination of the HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping takes the picture quality way beyond what has previously been available from Bu-ray Disc, ensuring a stunning image whether you use a BRAVIA™ LCD TV or a home cinema projector from Sony.

The HD Reality Enhancer continually analyses the image coming from the disc, sharpening edges while not over-emphasising other elements of the picture, reducing the effect of grain on the original filmstock, and increasing the colour depth from the 8 bits on the disc to the equivalent of 14 bits. Meanwhile Super Bit Mapping, which uses unique processing based on human visual sensitivity, enables the player to deliver the best possible quality over HDMI™, with smoother colour tones.

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Lite-On has officially announced its new line of external slim DVD writers. The eSAU108 and eSAU208 can be powered through a USB connectioin and are capable of 8x DVD±R, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds. The eSAU208 ups the ante even further with support for LightScribe.
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Lite-On announces the introduction of a new generation external slim DVD writers. The eSAU208 is a fully featured, USB-powered, 8X slim DVD writer. A perfect solution for those users who are looking for a compact, stylish and portable DVD writer.

Mobility is an important aspect of the eSAU208. The drive can be powered through a USB connection instead of a traditional power adapter, so the mobile user does not longer needs to rely on a power socket to operate the DVD writer. The drive will consume its power directly from the notebook trough the USB cable. Even though the eSAU208 is USB powered, the retail pack still includes a power adaptor for those users who prefer to use a direct power source.

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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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Roxio sent out a press release this morning, announcing the launch of Creator 2009. This updated version of Roxio's media suite sports a sleek new design and features advanced support for HD video, direct access to Roxio Online and new audio capabilities like Audiobook Creator.
roxio creator 2009.pngRoxio®, a division of Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC), the leader in digital media software, today launched Roxio Creator™ 2009, the latest version of the company’s market-leading suite of photo, video, and music authoring, burning, and online sharing applications. Creator 2009 introduces a range of pioneering audio features, integration of family-friendly online services, and advanced support for High Definition (HD) video. Creator 2009 also offers a streamlined workflow that enables consumers to complete a broad range of media creation, editing, sharing, and management projects more efficiently. Taking the guesswork out of evolving technologies and complicated formats and enabling users to take full advantage of all of Creator’s capabilities, Creator 2009 offers direct links to informative tutorials and how-to articles that provide guidance and creative inspiration.
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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.

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