Filed under: HDTV

After just a few delays (cough, cough) it appears that Sony’s first Blu-ray player — the BDP-S1 — has finally landed, and a few days early to boot. At last word the player was expected on or about Dec 4th 2006, but a few lucky Blu-ray fans picked one up from Best Buy today; no word on pre-orders from the Sony Style store as of yet. The early results are good and some have already started to enjoying that 1080@24P that we have all been waiting for. Sure 3:2 pulldown works great, but there is nothing like a native frame rate to bring out the best in film. Early indications seem to point to a lack of Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD decoding, but you can still enjoy uncompressed audio tracks via discrete analog cables or HDMI. As cool looking as this player is, a PS3 at Ebay prices may still be a better deal than a stand alone Blu-ray player.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

It’s starting to look like the greatest enemy to PS3 “security” is the PS3 itself. Thanks to that handy OS named Linux, which conveniently comes prepped for the console, we’re already seeing some pretty nifty things being done with the PS3, and now it’s being put to good use to siphon data off of those nifty Blu-ray discs. So far nothing more than a straight transfer has been achieved, but it appears the PS3 game file structure is similar to that of the PSP. We’re not sure how well on the way this puts us towards the ability to create “backup” discs of PS3 games, but at least it’s a start. Oh, and a quick note to the Xbox 360 fanboys: Madden ’07 barely uses 7GB of that expansive storage medium of Sony’s, so we wouldn’t worry about missing out on content with your dual-layer DVDs just yet.

[Thanks, Tam]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

After raising eyebrows by having no Blu-ray plans to show at its dealer show in Orlando a few days ago, LG finally announced its new BD100 Blu-ray player at the Best of Stuff show in London yesterday. The BD199 player shown previously was cancelled abruptly, and for a moment LG seemed ready to replace it with a dual format HD DVD / Blu-ray player, but the company later backed off those plans. The BD100 will include HDMI, component, composite, coaxial, and S/PDIF outs, whether 5.1 audio output via analog is included is unclear. 1080p Blu-ray playback and DVD upconversion is definitely part of the package, plus DivX, WMA and MP3 compatibility. LG officials refused to commit to a price or launch date, only that it would be “competitively” priced. Whether that means competitive in Australia, relative to the Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD player (£499) or the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player (£1000) — both were also on display at the show — is unknown.

[Via Cnet UK & Stuff Mag]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Watch out, Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic, ’cause there’s about to be a new Blu-ray player on the block gunning for market share, courtesy of consumer electronics powerhouse…”it’s label”? Yeah, we’d never heard of this manufacturer before, either (although for all we know, it could be France’s answer to Coby), but thanks to faithful reader Alex and his trusty scanner, we have incontrovertible proof that the company is set to release a pretty snazzy-looking HD optical disc player sometime next month. According to Alex, the scanned image comes from a French TV / movie guide called Télé Obs, and was found in the corner of their small tech section. So yeah, no specs or other details are available, but if you happen to be hanging out in Nice or something and can tear yourself away from your fruity drink, feel free to call the pre-order line and report back.

[Thanks, Alex D.]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The Panasonic DMP-BD10 is the second standalone Blu-ray player to become available, not quite making its expected September launch but sneaking onto store shelves near you this month. Was it worth the wait and/or the $1,300 price tag? Compared to the Samsung BD-P1000 player, reviewers note a slightly better picture quality and load times, plus excellent audio output. It doesn’t support next-gen lossless audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD out of the box but, those are promised for a future firmware update. Negatives include a clunky remote and lack of BD-Live connectivity that will be present in the PlayStation 3. This player appears to do the same 1080p to 1080i to 1080p conversion present in the Samsung, so if 1080p/24 output is a must, it’s a pass. Still, with EZ-SYNC HDMI control to matching SA-XR700 receiver and flat panel HDTV, if you must have the best Blu-ray hardware available — at least until Sony and Pioneer’s offerings hit the street — the DMP-BD10 is ready to give it to you.

Read – Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray Disc Player – Canada Hifi
Read – Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-Ray Player – Home Theater Forum

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Blue laser shortage or not, Sony’s hoping to avoid the delay bug with its first Blu-ray disc recorders, just announced at CEATEC 2006 for early December release in Japan. Both models will record two TV programs at once via their two digital and one analog tuners. Backing up video to Blu-ray discs is limited to 25GB — no 50GB BD-R/BD-RE writing or reading here — but it will play cartridges from the old Blu-ray recorders, as well as the new AVCHD discs. With the right NTT cellphone you can schedule recordings from anywhere, but at home owners will enjoy the slick PSP-style XMB crossbar menu like other Sony products. The high-end BDZ-V9 is the only choice if you must have 1080p output, DLNA streaming to connected PCs or compatible displays and video conversion to MPEG-4 to transfer directly to a PSP. All the connections you’d expect are a go, including HDMI out, plus i.Link and USB inputs to hook up digicams and make as many sentimental James Blunt-soundtracked slideshows as you can with the included x-Pict Story HD software. The BDZ-V9 will set buyers back a cool ¥300,000 ($2,543 US) or so on December 8th, with the value-priced BDZ-V7 only expected to go for ¥250,000 ($2,119 US) when it hits on December 19th. They may not have the 4x Blu-ray recording of Panasonic’s lineup or the soul-crushing bulk of Toshiba’s 1TB RD-A1, but with a simple menu system and joystick based remote control Japanese gamers who didn’t get one of the 100,000 launch PS3s will still bring Blu-ray to their living room this year.

[Via Impress]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

If you need to store 25GB of data on a single disc, and you need it done (relatively) fast, LG’s GBW-H10N offers up single-layer Blu-ray burning at a currently unprecedented 4x speed. Sure, there’s a few other options out there, but this 3-in-1 offering sports a write speed that’s twice as quick as the BenQ BW1000. As tough as these things have been to actually locate, the fine folks over at HardwareZone were able to get their hands on a unit and give it a good once over. The burner performed essentially as advertised, but the speediness came with a tradeoff — while you can burn a myriad of formats ranging from CD-R / RW, DVD±R / RW, DVD±R DL, DVD-RAM, and BD-R, you won’t be able to make use of those super spacious 50GB dual-layer BD-R discs. While the 4x label may be the primary selling point, the biggest boon was said to be its compatibility with a smorgasbord of media; many first-run Blu-ray burners have been annoyingly picky, but playing nice with basically every brand of media is quite a nice perk for the LG. By garnering a “very good” rating, the GBW-H10N proved to be a satisfactory solution for those who can live without BD-R DL capability, but your time should probably be worth a good bit of money (upwards of $700) before you pull the trigger on this one.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Much like Pioneer, Samsung is still bumming us out by not whipping up a combo Blu-ray and HD DVD player. But good ol’ Sammy is announcing its first Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, to be released in Europe in October 2006, with price estimates reaching €1,400. It’s due to go head-to-head with Toshiba’s HD-E1 and HD-XE1, which ares due to come out the following month. Guys, can’t we bury this hatchet already and just settle this war? It’s obvious that building a hybrid player is entirely possible, and to motivate you to get on it we’re officially going to sulk and go on hunger strike. Go on, try us.

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Filed under: HDTV

Despite our earlier report that Pioneer‘s upcoming BDR-103 would be a combo drive, supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, it appears that Pioneer will join the legions of soulless hardware makers that will not be supporting both formats. Our sister blog, HDBeat, reports that those quotes from Pioneer officials were taken out of context and that the company has “no current plans” to make the BDR-103 a combo drive. Why can’t everyone just be like Ricoh and all get along?

[Via HDBeat]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Judging the quality of a moving image is an extremely subjective task, so it’s with a little trepidation that we report on Hardware.Info’s test which compared two graphics cards with twelve dedicated HDMI-enabled DVD players on the same Samsung 24-inch LCD monitor. The tests found that the PC — which alternated between a ATI Radeon X1900XTX running Cyberlink PowerDVD 7 and nVIDIA’s GeForce 7900GTX running the card’s PureVideo software — offered substantially better video quality than the DVD players, but here’s where the subjectiveness comes in: the testers chose to rely entirely on the HQV benchmark DVD — which requires a human to rate each test — to discern the quality of the playback. The test was also exclusively based around the HQV DVD, with not a single “real world” test in sight. Unsurprisingly, the ATI / nVIDIA setups blew away the DVD players with scores of 118 and 93 respectively: the closest score from the dedicated DVD players was the Panasonic DVD-S97 at 68, which goes for around $250 online. The reviewers concluded that people should ditch their DVD players for media center PC based on the results of their image quality tests: a conclusion that some would take issue with, mainly because there are a dozen different factors other than image quality that can contribute to a good movie experience — but it’s interesting to note all the same.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage

As we promised last month, we’ve finally got the price deets and specs on the new Plextor Blu-ray PX-B900A burner. A wad of 10 Benjamins (or 100 Hamiltons, take your pick) will get you this spankin’ new drive — compatible with 25 GB and 50 GB Blu-ray discs and it’ll burn BD-R/RE media at 9 MBps, or 2X. For DVDs, it does an 8X burn for DVD-Rs, 4X DVD±R on dual-layer (DL) media, and 5X on DVD-RAM. You’ve also got support in there for 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 6X max DVD-ROM, 24X CD-R, 16X CD-RW, and 32X CD-ROM. Also, it comes with a package of software: Ulead’s Video Studio 10 and Intervideo’s WinDVD BD, a Blu-ray media application. Jeez, that’s a mouthful. We still think that Blu-ray and HD DVD need to duke it out in a round or two of Street Fighter to settle this debacle.

[Via TG Daily]

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Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

Although still not shipping its internal Blu-ray burners, Lite-On has already announced an external counterpart for the drive-bay-challenged. Nothing too surprising here, but you can expect the USB 2.0-based LX-2B1U to handle both single and dual-layer Blu-ray discs, and both recordable (BD-R) and rewriteable (BD-RE) discs at 2x speeds, as well as DVD±R/RW for your less storage-intensive burning needs. Seemingly lacking, however, is CD-R/RW compatibility, which seems to be starting its long, slow trip the way of the 3.5-inch floppy. Look for this one “toward the start of 2007.”

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Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

We’ve known this Blu-ray-equipped media center PC was on the horizon, and now AMEX Digital is finally dropping the pimped-out M505-BDR in Europe with even crazier specs than we originally thought. Aside from sporting that swank single-layer Blu-ray burner — which not only plays Blu-ray titles, but also upscales normal ‘ole DVDs to “stunning 1080p” resolution — the M505 apparently houses an unidentified Intel Core 2 Duo processor on the Intel 945P Express chipset, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, 1.5TB of SATA disk space, and a UK-friendly dual hybrid analog / digital DVB-T TV tuner. This beast also rocks Gigabit LAN, 802.11b/g WiFi, a FireWire connector, 8.1 channel HD audio, and, of course, an HDMI port that doesn’t bother to tout its HDCP compliancy (or lack thereof). This Windows Media Center 2005-powered machine delivers that crystal clear HD video via the ATI X1600 graphics card, and AMEX even throws in a “multi-function” remote to control the action from your oh-so-comfy loveseat. The drool-worthy device is set to be released to European markets on August 28th at a cost of near $2,000 — but considering the lofty prices for standalone Blu-ray burners and players alike, we’d say this looks like a bargain; and don’t forget the free Blu-ray title (apparently of your choice) that comes with the purchase, perhaps sending fence-sitters squarely into the “buyers” camp.

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Filed under: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Stephen Speicher contributes The Clicker, an opinion column on entertainment and technology:

There is nothing quite like a format war to get keyboards a’clacking… and why not? We, the media, love a format war. Oh sure — it screws the consumer: two perfectly good technologies rot away on shelves or, even worse, in R&D labs; countless advertising dollars are wasted; years of use are lost forever. Yes, that’s all bad, but look on the bright side: format wars give us a chance to get in touch with that little Dvorak inside us all. They allow pundits and fanboys alike to boldly and without reservation declare winners months, years, or even decades ahead of their impeding victory.

Just this week my colleague and an editor at HDbeat, Ben Drawbaugh, did just that. Ben, armed with the questionable logic of “higher prices attract the customer,” pronounced Blu-ray to be the winner. The siren-like call to pick a winner is irresistible, I know. I too have been bitten by the declaration bug in the past.

With that said, today we step back and do something different. Today we offer the unrealistic fanciful suggestion that the two forces join together and end this “war.”

I know what you’re thinking: “They’ve tried that.” While that might be true, we’ll consider for a minute a different type of union. We’ll consider a union where we get to where we’re eventually going anyway. We just get there years ahead of time.

Allow me to explain.

Despite the fun of picking a camp and sticking with it, we all know how this will actually end. Much like the battle of yore (and by that I mean DVD+ vs. DVD-), this duel will eventually be settled by dual players. Frankly, it makes too much sense not to be. For all the back and forth “we’re better than you” rhetoric exchanged between the parties, the two really aren’t that different. Both offer the same array of codecs and are driven by very similar power requirements. Essentially (and without intending any slight towards the HD DVD camp), anything an HD DVD player can do, a Blu-ray can do also*.

There are two key differences between the players. The first is the navigation system. This is nothing that a little money can’t solve. Diehard proponents can argue the advantages of each player and format until they’re Blu blue in the face, but customers frankly couldn’t care less. The second difference, the laser pickup, is a tougher problem since the two systems aren’t compatible. Blu-ray stores its data 0.1mm from the surface of the disk. HD DVD’s data (like DVDs) on the other hand is 0.6mm from the surface. CDs are at yet another depth (1.1mm). However, this isn’t a deal-breaker either. Between the different lasers required for CD, DVD, and next-gen (be it HD DVD or BD) content, the boxes will likely require multiple lasers anyway — and that’s only if Ricoh doesn’t have something to say about it.

In what could be the turning point in this whole ordeal, Ricoh announced in the beginning of July that they had developed a diffraction plate capable of reading all types of lasers. This is the first step in dual box.

With the end of this war being a fait a compli (we all know it will end up in a stalemate), I hereby suggest the following absurd optimistic plan.

Blu-ray and HD DVD need to get together, find a manufacturer willing to produce a dual box, and then they should both endorse the hell out it. “Huh?” you ask. “Why would they want to do that?” That’s simple. Until now we’ve been under the impression that each camp wants to win at the expense of the other. Sure, that makes sense. But it’s actually so much better when they can both just soak the consumer.

If both parties started loudly praising dual players, they could a) both collect licensing fees from a single box (sure to be passed on to the consumer) b) essentially force all players to be dual (lest the player manufacturers risk looking bad). This plan has other benefits. First, it would mean years of selling boxes instead of years of convincing consumers that their flavor is the right flavor of next-gen shiny disks. Second, each gets to capture the whole market instead of just their portion of it.

Yes, there are drawbacks which make this plan, well, unlikely, to say the least. Most notably and most ironically is the PS3 factor. It’s ironic in that the PS3 was hailed as the force that was supposed to kick-start the next-gen revolution. Instead it might be the best reason Sony has to drag this thing out to the end of time. Likewise, they’re also battling in the title license space and neither wants to give away an advantage there. Yet even considering these obstacles, someone in each camp certainly must realize that the above will eventually happen. The question is simply whether or not the two camps have the foresight to be an active part of it.

* The opposite, however, is not true. In many ways HD DVD is a subset of Blu-ray. Blu-ray adds additional levels of security, but, more importantly, HD DVD utilizes a more stringent subset of VC-1. For example HD DVD has a max GOP length of .6 seconds while Blu-ray can reach 2 seconds (if you stay under 15Mbps otherwise it’s 1 second). BD has a bigger buffer and a higher peak. In other words, clips encoded for HD DVD will play on Blu-ray. The opposite can’t be said.

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If have comments or suggestions for future columns, drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

And we’ve been griping about Blu-ray delays in the good ol’ USofA. Looks like the folks Down Under have it way worse, since Sony has just released their BWU-100A internal PC drive for reading and writing Blu-ray discs in Australia, ‘cept supposedly the thing can’t actually manage to play back is Blu-ray movies. Apparently they’re blaming the lack of HDCP-compliant graphics cards, and the fact that there isn’t any retail software that can play Blu-ray movies, just the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that ships with Sony’s VAIO AR laptop — assuming of course, that your Blu-ray content requires HDCP to begin with. That would make us wonder why Sony can’t just bundle that same software with the BWU-100A, but we’re clearly thinking with the addled mind of a consumer. If we were smarter, we’d realise the logic behind releasing products so saddled with rights management that they can’t even play back the media they were built for. Luckily, Sony says they’re optimistic about resolving both issues soon, and that for now the device is still 100% functional for storage (hooray), and can play back your own home-burnt movies as well (as well as Blu-ray flicks that are HDCP-free). All this can be yours, you lucky Australian you, for a mere AU$1,399, or about $1,075 US.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We hate to up the pundit wars, but we aren’t the ones that released the same titles on both Blu-ray and HD DVD — Warner Home Video did. Thanks to them though, the two high-def camps can now size up their formats mano-a-mano via Training Day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Rumor Has It. HighDefDigest took the 1080i Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player along with the noisy 1080p Samsung BDP-1000 Blu-ray player and hooked ‘em up to their HP Pavilion reference HDTV via HDMI. All three titles suffered from similar issues of extra noise on the Blu-ray side, and appeared just a tad darker then their HD DVD counterparts. An issue with cropping also popped up that we highly doubt anyone would notice unless they too have both players side by side, but the reviewers noticed less of a picture on all three Blu-ray titles even though they shared the same advertised aspect ratios as the HD DVDs. This brings up the question however, if this cropping is caused by the Blu-ray format, a bad Blu-ray master, or the Samsung player? We are willing to bet on latter most of the three, but we won’t be able to find out until Pioneer or Panasonic releases their first Blu-ray players somtime in the next few months. No matter how you spin it, the HD DVD fanboys have something to celebrate as they walked away from this first scuffle without so much as a bloody nose.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Both high definition optical disc formats have already seen their share of setbacks in the form of delays and hardware problems, and now they may be facing some nasty anti-trust allegations pending the results of a recently-launched EU probe. Having already flexed its authoritative muscle against Microsoft, the European Commission has now moved on to investigating the terms that the major backers of Blu-ray and HD DVD are exerting upon their respective licensees. Since the investigation is still “unofficial” at this point, the Commission refused to specify the particular companies being probed, although Sony publicly confirmed that it has received one of the letters in question and that it’s cooperating with regulators. If these same regulators decide that nothing fishy is going on, then the matter will be dropped; but if they’re displeased with the responses they get, a full anti-trust probe is likely. Best case scenario: only one of the camps ends up being subjected to further scrutiny, leaving the other as clear-cut victor in the format war and saving us all the hassle of choosing sides.

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Storage

This thing has been around for quite a while in prototype form, but Sony has finally gotten around to joining the pack and unveiling a PC drive for their own format. The BWU-100A Blu-ray burner doesn’t have a whole lot of surprises — other than that purple faceplate which will most likely totally clash with your PC case — but the $750 pricetag is a nice move. It also manages all three lasers types, allowing it to read and write single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R Double/Dual Layer Discs, and CDs. With 2x burning speeds for BD-R or BD-RE media, you can fill a 25GB Blu-ray disc in 50 minutes, and we’re guessing 50GB discs should fill at a similar rate. Sony also touts the ability to move 1080i HDV camcorder footage natively to the BD-AV format for home playback, with a whole four hours fitting on one 50GB disc. The drive should be out in August, and is available for pre-order now.

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Storage

Sure, Blu-ray burners aren't really the freshest thing on the block anymore -- these days we're getting all prepped for holographic storage to drop -- but there's still a bit of "Magic" left in the idea of burning 50GB of data to a disc. Samsung captures the feel with their new MagicStation MV55 desktop, featuring a SH-B022 Blu-ray drive and not a whole lot else. However, the 3.2GHz Pentium D940 and 256MB GeForce 7600GT should be plenty for a little bit of web browsing or Minesweeper while you're filling those discs with all sorts of good stuff.

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Now we hear from our beloved basement-dwelling brothers at Kotaku that Microsoft spokespeople are saying that Blu-ray discs are apparently “hard to make.” There’s an extra layer of copy protection on Blu-ray discs, called BD+, and that makes the manufacturing of those disks a whole lot more complicated.

In a recent podcast, a couple of Microsofties decried the difficulty of manufacturing Blu-ray discs, saying that the recording surface of the discs is very close to the top layer, and because it’s protected by just a thin coating it requires a much more precise duplication process. On the other hand, HD DVD manufacturing is more akin to garden-variety DVDs, where its data is protected between two layers of protective plastic.

Keep in mind, though, that those two Microsoft podcasters have a vested interest in HD DVD, which is the format of choice for the company’s Xbox 360. Even so, the ease of manufacturing HD DVDs, plus the simplicity of converting an existing DVD plant to HD DVD also translates into lower-cost duplication facilities. This can’t be good for Blu-ray. – Charlie White

Blu-ray a Ballbreaker [Kotaku]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Being an early-adopter is risky business -- especially when the product in question costs $1,000 and is embroiled in a so-called format war -- so the opinions of experienced reviewers are key in helping folks to decide whether or not to take the Blu-ray plunge, and whether Samsung's BD-P1000 is the machine to do it with. Luckily PCMag has a thorough write-up which not only discusses the merits and detriments of the player itself, but looks at the format as a whole to determine what type of consumer would actually benefit from next-gen optical devices in the first place. The review basically boils down to this: if you have a high definition TV larger than 42-inches, then you'll definitely notice a difference between Blu-ray and standard or upscaled DVDs, and the Samsung does a good job delivering the picture quality that Blu-ray is capable of. However, this particular reviewer also feels that Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player -- at half the price -- has a slight edge in the picture department, although the P1000's uncompressed audio and ease-of-setup are judged to be superior. Ultimately the decision comes down to personal preferences, so you'll probably want to give both devices a thorough going-over at the store (even if you're buying online); as for us, we're just hoping that Ricoh gets that dual format laser out the door poste haste, so we never have to make a choice at all.

[Via Digital Media Thoughts]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Lately it's been the Blu-ray camp cruelly torturing us with product delays, but in a refreshing change of pace, today it's rival format HD DVD's main proponent Toshiba announcing that a next-gen optical disc device won't be shipping as scheduled. Unlike Sony's procrastination in releasing the PS3 and BDP-S1, though, Toshiba claims that it only needs two more weeks to get its RD-A1 HD DVD recorder out the door, citing inadequate inventory stemming from component shortages as the reason for putting off tomorrow's scheduled launch. Since this model, with its 1TB storage capacity and OTA digital tuner, is only headed for Japan anyway, the delay probably doesn't concern the vast majority of our American readers -- nor most Japanese, for that matter, as the $3,500 pricetag will likely dissuade all but the most fervent early-adopters.

[Via HDBeat]

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As companies such as Toshiba, Samsung and LG allude to dual-format Blu-ray and HD DVD players, Ricoh jumps in with a tiny optical device that makes a goes-both-ways player easier to execute. The company said it has created a 3.5mm diffraction plate that can rock pretty much any format, including Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD and CD without the need for multiple pickups and lenses. Ricoh will offer the technology to all takers by the end of this year.

A spokesman for the company also said this diffraction device, which will sit between the laser and objective lens, will make it possible to not only build switch-hitting players that can deal with all the optical formats, but recorders as well. Ricoh said it will offer the device for players first, and burners will come along later as soon as blue lasers with higher power are rolled out. By then, hard disks will be so cheap the entire issue of burning data onto slow, removable media—regardless of its format—will be irrelevant. – Charlie White

Optical device could help read most disk formats [EE Times, via digg]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We’ve been tempering our enthusiasm about the possibility of next-gen hybrid HD DVD / Blu-ray player — mostly because of Samsung and their fear of commitment — but Ricoh‘s new lasers have got us feeling a little more optimistic. Using a 1mm thick diffraction plate with concentric grooves on each side, the new lasers can recognize what kind of disc you’ve inserted into a drive (be it CD, DVD, HD DVD or BD) and adjust the beam to play it. The ability to write data is further off because of the extra fire power necessary to make up for light lost to diffraction, but until the price of blank media comes down, we won’t be worrying about that too much anyway. Ricoh is hoping to start supplying manufacturers with these by the end of this year, so barring any legal and or licensing nonsense, Samsung (or others) could actually make good on their original plan to be the “world’s first” to market with a hybrid player by early 2007. We won’t be holding our breath, though, not on this one.

[Via HDBeat, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Media PCs

With all of the time and money that Hollywood and the consumer electronics industry have poured into copy-protecting high definition content, we were amused to learn that both formats can already be duplicated by the simplest of means: the trusty Print Screen button on your keyboard. UK-based Heise Security is reporting that the special OEM version of Intervideo's WinDVD software bundled with both Sony's first Blu-ray Vaio and Toshiba's first HD DVD Qosmio contains a security hole that allows users to capture video frames at their full resolution by simply triggering that Print Screen option -- which in and of itself is little more than a curiosity, but opens up the possibility of running a script that advances a given film one frame at a time and automates the whole screencap process, which would allow pirates to create high def copies by compiling the pictures and dubbing in the audio. Toshiba is already aware of the "problem" and claims that an impending software update will provide the fix, but as one HDBeat commenter astutely pointed out, as long as you can see a picture on your monitor or hear sound through your speakers, there will always be a way to capture that data.

[Via HDBeat]

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