It’s received some good reviews, can record 25GB onto a single-layer Blu-ray disc in 45 minutes, and now it’s available for purchase — if you’ve got a grand to spare. We’re talking, of course, about Pioneer’s BDR-101A Blu-ray burner, one of the first products of its kind to hit store shelves. The 2X E-IDE internal burner for PCs is now available from Tiger Direct for $999.99, and the etailer claims it will ship units in “7-21 days.” Start clicking if you just can’t bear to wait. And don’t forget to budget an extra $25 a pop for those blank BD-Rs.

[Thanks, Alex]

Hot on the heels of that Sony AR Blu-ray Vaio laptop comes AMEX Digital's Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC with Blu-ray Disc recorder. Going by the oh-so-swanky moniker of MPC-505BD, this Intel Viiv enabled monster offers DVI and HDMI (HDCP?) outs, 7.1 channel audio with SPDIF optical out, and a hybrid analog and digital DVB-T TV tuner. And if that 23GB of single-layer BD recording don't cut it son, then how about the 120 hours of high-def recording possible on that full Terabyte of SATA disk? Yeah, we thought you'd like that. The box is powered by a 3GHz Intel Pentium D 930 and features Intel 945P Express graphics, 2GB DDR2 RAM, and 802.11a/b/g WiFi. Sadly, no deets on the expected biggie price tag or date for availability but let's hope an ATSC tuner version is in the works for these here United States.

[Via Newlaunches]

Lest you thought Sony had managed to put the issue of Playstation 3 pricing behind them with defenses earlier this week by Kaz Hirai and Phil Harrison, Sony Computer Entertainment chief Ken Kutaragi has now weighed in with his verdict. Kutaragi has reportedly stated that the pricing of the PS3 is “probably too cheap,” and he likens the console to a fine dining experience, saying that it’s nonsense “to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant.” Based on what he calls the PS3′s “amazing experience,” he says “we believe price is not a problem.” Meanwhile, Microsoft has responded to the PS3′s pricing with a suggestion that you can eat at both the cafeteria and the fine restaurant by picking up both an Xbox 360 and a Wii. As Xbox head Peter Moore told Reuters, it makes good economic sense to “buy an Xbox and … buy a Wii … for the price of one PS3.” Of course, if you’re really hardcore and well-heeled, you’ll pick up both of those, and grab a PS3 for dessert.

Read: Kutaragi
Read: Moore

Sony and Panasonic-parent Matsushita have teamed up to develop an encoding format based on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 that will enable future camcorders to capture HD footage directly to standard 8-centimeter DVDs. Called "AVCHD," the new format is able to handle numerous resolution/frame-rate combinations, including 480i at 60fps, 720p at 24, 50, or 60fps, and 1080p at 24fps (or 1080i for 50fps and 60fps configurations), and can encode audio in either 5.1 channel AC-3 or up to 7.1 channel Linear PCM. The advantages of this format over the current HDV scheme used with MiniDV cassettes aren't exactly clear -- although you are getting random scene access thanks to the nature of optical discs, recording time is cut down from around an hour with MiniDV to only 20 minutes at the AVCHD "average setting." Even worse, DVD players will require special software in order to read discs containing content encoded in the new format, and even then, they will obviously only play back at a maximum resolution of 480p.

[Via PCWorld]

We’ve become accustomed to seeing some good looking hard-drive video units from Korea’s TViX, and the company’s latest, the M-3100U, appears to be no exception. Besides having a sleek, HTPC-style case, the M-3100U can record video content from a TV, PC or just about any analog source, and can save it in MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 formats. The box is also apparently capable of HD output at resolutions up to 1080i, though we assume that’s analog HD, given that this thing doesn’t have HDMI or DVI, but does have component outs. We somehow suspect that, if you want a similar box with real digital HD, you’re probably better off seeing what you can get from your cable company or waiting for a TiVo Series 3 box — though neither of those may be quite as pretty as this one.

It’s been a bad year for the Miami Dolphins: first they lost Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ricky Williams for the upcoming season, and soon their “biggest HD display in the world” may have to play second fiddle to a new scoreboard being installed this summer for the University of Texas Longhorns. At 7,370 square feet, the 134-foot by 55-foot ‘board being built for the school by Daktronics (who also manufactured the Miami display) has a slightly larger screen area than the current 7000-sqaure-foot title-holder, but nitpickers may argue that since the UT model will be almost a foot shorter diagonally, that it doesn’t qualify as the “world’s biggest.” The argument may turn out to be moot, though, as a horse track in Tokyo is supposedly planning to install a ridiculous 197-foot-wide monster of a screen later this year that will overshadow all who came before it. UT’s project comes as part of a multi-million dollar overhaul of their stadium, which will also include several other large displays, a new sound system, and a $150 million renovation of the north end zone meant to enable a 90,000 person capacity.

[Thanks, Brian]

At Microsoft’s E3 presentation today, one of the most eagerly awaited pieces of infomation concerned the company’s plans to offer an external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360. And the company delivered — sort of. Yes, they showed off a slide with a picture of an external player designed to match the 360. And the slide did state that the player will be available “this holiday.” And, yes, that slide included images of HD DVD flicks that it will presumably be able to play. But the crucial details, such as a ship date, pricing, and, perhaps most important, info on whether or not the player will support HDCP or HDMI, were nowhere to be found.

After showing it off for close to six months, Toshiba is finally ready to drop the Qosmio G35, the company's first laptop with a built-in HD DVD drive. Toshiba is expected to show off the box at E3 today, and will begin selling it on its web site later this week for about $3,000. In addition to its HD DVD player, the G35 includes a 2GHz Core Duo processor, two 100GB drives, 1GB RAM and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB. The 10-pound portable features a 17-inch display, and comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition.

When Sony gave out the specs on the PS3 earlier tonight, the company mentioned that there would be two configurations: a $500 version with a 20GB hard drive and a $600 edition with a 60GB drive. Turns out that was only half the story. Yes, that pricing and storage info is accurate. But it turns out that there are a lot of other things missing from the lower-end (we can’t bring ourselves to call a $500 console “cheap”) version, besides an extra 40GB of storage. According to the specs released by Sony, the 20GB version will lack WiFi, a memory card reader and, most significantly, HDMI output. While you could probably get along without WiFi in a home-based console that already has Ethernet, and you can always presumably hook up a memory card reader via one of the unit’s four USB ports, the lack of HDMI output makes this pretty much a non-starter for anyone hoping to actually use the PS3′s Blu-ray drive for anything more than playing games. Sure, we can understand Sony not wanting to undercut sales of its own dedicated Blu-ray players by offering the $500 PS3 as a cheaper alternative. But if the company was hoping to use the gaming platform as a way to build a base of fans for HD discs, chances are the strategy is going to backfire the first time someone tries playing a Blu-ray flick in their 20GB version and discovers that the unit’s lack of HDMI limits them to analog 1080i output (or worse, depending on a disc’s use of HDCP).

[Via HD Beat]

If you’ve been following this story even a little bit over the last few months, you probably won’t exactly be shocked to hear that Microsoft is going to roll out a USB HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. But if you’re tracking the ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, you should check out Microsoft’s announcement anyhow. What’s unusual about this release is that you won’t find any rhetoric about HD DVD being superior to Blu-ray — or even a ghost of Bill Gates’ earlier comments that the latter format was “anti-consumer.” Instead, Microsoft calls the quality of the two formats “a wash in terms of video quality,” and declares that the main difference between the two is pricing. We assume that means the 360′s HD DVD drive will be a bargain. Unfortunately, that’s one detail Microsoft has skipped, preferring to “save that good news for another day.” Like maybe the day after the PS3 — which will have a Blu-ray drive built in — gets its official price?

[Via Joystiq]

Lest anyone question their position as king of the Blu-ray mountain, Sony has announced that it has started shipping single-layer 25GB Blu-ray discs, and will begin follow up with 50GB discs in June. Yes, we know that TDK has already announced their own dual-layer discs (and is even working on eight layer 200GB versions), but it looks like Sony may just get their 50 giggers out the door first. Pricing is set at about $20 per disc for the single-layer version and $48 for the 50GB discs. Yes, that's right. The higher-capacity disc will have a higher per-GB price than the single-layer version. Such is the price for burning on the cutting-edge (and, no, we're not even going to try to visualize that horribly mixed metaphor).

HD Beat has the scoop
on an upcoming 42-inch plasma display from Hitachi that delivers a lot of features for its $2,500 price tag. The
42HDS69 accomplishes a native resolution of 1,080i through a rather strange pixel configuration of 1,024 x 1,080,
sports such viewing enhancements as an anti-reflective screen and ALiS pixel barrier minimization technology, and
features three each of component and HDMI inputs along with an optical audio out and CableCard support. No definitive
release date has been announced, but the ‘Beat reports that we can expect to see this model in stores
“soon.”

[Via HD
Beat]

The faint of wallet can bail out now, we're about to engage in some multi-thousand dollar camcorder biz up in here: we've got two new 3-CCD 720 / 60p options for you, indie filmmakers, so welcome JVC's GY-HD250U and GY-HD200U. The $7,995 GY-HD200U rocks the same accessories as their previous GY-HD100U, as well as new 1/3-inch mount HD lenses; the $8,995 GY-HD250U can also record to hard drive via JVC's optional DR-HD100U Direct-to-Edit recorder for dual MiniDV tape and drive recordings. Both should ship in October, which should be more than enough time to decide what you love more: your car, or the up and coming Sundance-bound documentarian in your life.

[Via Mobilewhack]

Weighing in at the customary "HD ready" resolution of 1366 x 768, the two new LCDs from Sanyo look pretty snazz if you can sacrifice your 1080p dreams. Along with that large, but attractive, bezel, the displays feature 160GB hard drives for storing recorded content, and both have DTV tuners, a HDMI hookup, and a USB 2.0 port. The 32-inch LCD-32HR100(S) and 27-inch LCD-27HR100(S) go for roughly $3500 and $3000 respectively, and look to be available now in Japan.

[Via Akihabara]

Epson may be first out the door with a PC using Panasonic’s recently announced LF-MB121JD Blu-ray drive (or at very least, they’re one of the first to announce such plans). Epson will make the drive available as an option in its new Endeavor MR3000 build-to-order desktop. The PC is available in a variety of configurations, with prices starting at ¥60,900 (about $520), but with the Panny Blu-ray drive, the price will start at ¥126,000 ($1,074 — ahem!). The MR3000 is expected to begin shipping in mid-May, though the BD version, presumably, won’t be available until June at the soonest, which is when Panny expects to start shipping the LF-MB121JD.

So, Apple wasn’t the only company with something big to show off at NAB today. Turns out that Red Digital Cinema, a company started by Oakley founder Jim Jannard, chose the venue to roll out the Red One, an HD camcorder that boasts 11.4 megapixels at up to 60fps. The camera is based around what the company calls the Mysterium CMOS, which we assume is made by Kodak, Sony or one of the other big sensor makers, though — as made clear by the name — Red is maintaining an air of mystery (we assume someone will pull the lens off one of these soon enough and solve this one, though). The camera also features an optional "Red Cage" — designed, presumably, to protect it from hordes of digicam junkies eager to check it out, and has a big red HAL-like light on the front, presumably because Jannard and company think it looks slick (and it does look a lot better than most of Oakley’s traditional gear). A mere $17,500 will get you one of these (if and when they’re manufactured, that is), and a 300mm lens will set you back another $4,750.

[Thanks, Henry]

Today Sharp loosed their new Internet AQUOS TV/PC combo systems. At the top end is the LD-37SP1 LCD and PC-AX50M mini-PC kit capable of pumping out (and recording) those Hi-Vision (Japanese high-def) broadcast pixels onto a 37-inch LCD with 1200:1 contrast ratio, 6-ms response, 176-degree viewing angle, and HDMI and HDCP DVI ports. A wireless (RF) keyboard and remote are perfect for getting all potato-like up on the couch. The PC manages to eek out 500GB of S-ATA disk for hi-def recordings and such, up to 1GB DDR2 RAM, a DVD combo-drive, and SD and xD picture card slots with direct-to-card MPEG-4 recordings -- all powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 CPU and XP Home edition. The kit is also available with a 32-inch LCD (LD-32SP1) and PC sporting a terrestrial analog tuner and 250MB of disk (PC-AX50M) all of which you can mix-n-match to your heart’s desire. No doubt, we like the design, but these systems are kept out of the high-end game with their Intel graphics cards, LCD resolutions of just 1366 x 768, and lack of a Windows Media Center Edition install option. Expect these to hit shelves in Japan sometime in May for an undisclosed price.

[Via Akihabara News] 

Now that Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player is finally available in stores -- and there are even some discs out to play on it -- reviews are starting to trickle in, mainly from dedicated early adopters, who've braved confused sales clerks, cumbersome boxes, and a remote with more options than Windows Vista, to try the player themselves. We saw one of the first such reviews, from The Man Room, yesterday. Now, we've had a chance to check out a few more (props to PC World's Martyn Williams, who not only got one of Toshiba's Japanese HD-XA1 players to review, but even checked out the bundled Japanese films "Biohazard" and "Moonlight Jellyfish"). If there's a consensus opinion, it's that HD DVD may be great for early adopters and HD connoisseurs, but less discerning viewers may not see what the big deal is. As Ben Drawbaugh puts it on HDBeat: "Bottom line is that HD-DVD is great, but will you notice? If you can't tell the difference between DVD's and HBO HD than you might be just as well off with a upconverting DVD player. If you never noticed HBO-HD's cropped movies, non-dynamic sound and compression artifacts you may be better off sticking with HBO-HD. If you do notice these annoyances you won't be disappointed with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray."

• HDBeat
• DVD Town
• PC World
• High Def DVD Digest
• CNET
• AVSForum (long thread of user reviews and reports)

href="http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=97264&modelNo=Content04172006034156146&surfModel=Content04172006034156146"> vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/103_1.jpg" alt="" />

You know that
103-inch,
ain’t ever going to go on sale, plasma TV Panasonic’s been lugging around the trade show circuit? Well, start
pinchin’ those pennies son, cause Panny is putting them on sale in time for the holidays. This 7.5 x 4.2-foot (8.5-foot
diagonal) plasma goes 16:9 and throws up a 1920 x 1080 resolution, 3000:1 contrast ratio and features Panasonic’s 1080p
HD high-speed pixel drive we’ve already seen in their href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/26/panasonics-viera-th-65px500-sub-9k-65-inch-plasma/">65-incher. The
perfect, er, accessory for their href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/12/panasonic-shows-off-dmp-bd10-blu-ray-player-final-design/">DMP-BD10 Blu-ray
player, no doubt. Sorry, no pricing announced — but if you gotta ask, href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/06/lg-brings-their-71-inch-plasma-to-the-us/">you can’t afford it.
/>[Via New
Launches]

As the first HD DVD players finally make their way to stores, The Man Room wasted no time in going out and buying one to test it out. Well, actually, it looks like the reviewer wasted a little time, since he had to call no fewer than four Best Buy outlets to find one that actually had a Toshiba HD-A1 in stock -- or even knew what he was talking about (one clerk's comment was a simple "What is it?"). But by last Friday, when each Best Buy was supposed to have three of the units in stock, he was able to set out and make the purchase. So, what did he find? Well, besides the massive player we've already seen, he discovered an equally bulked-up remote, the HDMI cable and a pitch from NetFlix (hey, you've gotta get those discs somewhere, right?). Of course, all of that is incidental to the real question: how did the video look? Well, we're not sure we're going to get a straight answer here, since this early reviewer had to use an adapter to connect the player's HDMI cable to his DVI-based projector. However, since the discs he picked up weren't hampered by the Image Constraint Token, he was able to get full 720p and 1080i output. That said, the reviewer still found the output only  "a hair sharper" than that he got from upsampled 480p DVDs using a Momitsu upconverting player. So, is that "hair" worth $500? If you've been waiting for the chance to watch, er, "The Last Samurai" in true HD, you already know the answer. If not, you've probably already missed your chance to pick up one of those three HD-A1s from your local Best Buy, so kick back with your over-the-air, cable or satellite HD, and let someone else fight the format war for you.

Although not the complete screw-by-screw disassembly that we're accustomed to, here's your first chance to get a glimpse inside Toshiba's new HD-A1 HD-DVD player and check out the magic circuitry delivering all that 1080p goodness. As we learned yesterday, a few retailers (we're looking at you, Best Buy) jumped the gun on Tuesday's scheduled rollout and began selling some of their stock early, much to the delight/frustration of early adopters who got the latest tech but no HD content to play on them. Luckily for us, one of those foolish trailblazing souls was kind enough to remove the lid from his unit's case (gently, we hope) and snap some photos of the guts for all Internetland to peep. Nothing really exciting here -- like the VCRs and DVD players before it, most of the content is air -- but there is a nice closeup of the rather imposing heat sink, along with the obligatory CPU and RAM shots. Click on for another pic, or hit the "Read" link for the entire set...

[Via HD Beat, thanks Dave Z.]

With the Tuesday official launch of HD DVD drawing near, a couple of retailers are starting to predict delays for getting the actual products into the hands of customers. Turns out some major online sellers haven't gotten their initial shipments yet, with Best Buy predicting April 17th to April 24th player availability, and Amazon mentioning that "Million Dollar Baby" won't be ready for April 18th. There aren't any official delays mentioned by Toshiba and friends, who seem well practiced in the art by now, so this could all be some miscommunication, but things don't look especially good for the earliest adopters out there. Luckily, all of this hullabaloo hasn't stopped a random Best Buy in Surf City, CA from accidentally selling a couple of players early, one of which was purchased Friday and is pictured above.

Read: HD DVD delays; via Slashdot
Read: HD DVD player released early; via HD Beat

Early scans of the
boxes from some of the first flicks to be released on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc are starting to show up, and it looks
like at least some of the first releases will ship in 1080p. DVDActive has shots of the boxes from several HD DVD
movies, including "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Last Samurai," and they’re listed as being in
1080p. No word yet if this is an across-the-board thing, or whether the early BD titles are also 1080p (DVDActive only
has the fronts of the BD boxes). But this is sure to be good news for anyone planning to build a collection of discs;
at least you won’t have to toss them when you can finally buy a 1080p-capable player. Of course, that doesn’t mean you
won’t still be chucking your discs before you have a chance to watch them in true 1080p glory. After all, there is that
pesky format war going on …

[Via href="http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/04/13/hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-movie-boxes-unveiled-1080p-standard/">HD Beat]

Now that we’ve got Sony’s href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/12/sonys-new-vaio-l-series-all-in-one-desktop/">brand spankin’ href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/12/sonys-vaio-rc300-series-with-blu-ray-disc-get-official/">new Vaios out of
the way, we can move on to the rest of the 40-odd models the company announced in Japan today, most of which represent
spec bumps to existing boxes. Most of the Vaio laptop lines,
including the multi-hued F, href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/24/sony-adds-vaio-f-tv-laptop-for-video-on-the-go/">F-TV and S series get
Core Duo processors (or Core Solo for the lower-priced models). Most also get that coveted "Windows Vista
Capable" sticker, which you can proudly display until you can actually run Vista. The F-TV model also gets a new
display with improved brightness and darker blacks, along with an enhanced sound system. Meanwhile, the desktop V and H
(shown above) lines get processor bumps (up to a P4 641 at 3.2GHz on one model) , analog and terrestrial digital tuners,
and new LCDs with resolutions up to 1366 x 768. The 20-inch version of the LCD also includes DVI-D for HD input. So, how
does this add up to over 40 new and updated models? Well, if you add up all the display and processor permutations (and,
of course, the different colored cases on the F series and V displays), you’ll hit a number up around there. But unless
you’re a Japanese retailer or hate your job so much that you’ll do almost anything else to avoid it, we suggest
skipping that exercise.

Read – V/H Series
Read – href="http://tinyurl.com/jlwyj">F/F-TV/S Series

Seems that Sony just can't help themselves: Every time we take another look, the company beefs up its Bravia S and V lines with new models, sometimes in smaller sizes, sometimes in larger ones (not that we're complaining). This time, Sony's added a nice range to the LCD line, with models from 32 to 46 inches. All models have a 1300:1 contrast ratio, 1366x768 resolution, a 178-degree viewing angle and an 8ms response time. The V series also includes Sony's "live color" enhancement technology. All models are due out next month, with pricing in Japan expected to run from about ¥250,000 ($2,113) for the 32-inch S2000 to ¥490,000 ($4,143) for the 46-inch V2000 model.