It’s been less than a month since Pioneer announced their 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray disc and now they’ve announced that a 500GB Blu-ray disc is feasible. Research by a team of engineers at Pioneer HQ, Tokyo has found this 20-layer Blu-ray disc is possible by applying proprietary technology to the layers of the optical discs. The only thing we need to know if these will play in current Blu-ray players and drives. Pioneer previously mentioned that some kind of modification might be necessary but so we’ll keep our fingers and see what happens.
[Pioneer]
Tags: Blu-ray Media, Blu-ray News, Pioneer
Panasonic will release the LF-BD371JD SATA Blu-ray Burner this September 13th. This internal drive burns Blu-ray discs at the speed of 8x and features an 8MB buffer. The LF-BD371JD will also support formats DVD-RAM (5x), DVD-R (16x), DVD-R DL (8x), DVD-RW (6x), CD-R (48x), CD-RW(24x). The cost will be $386.
[AkihabaraNews]
Tags: Blu-ray Burner, Panasonic, Panasonic LF-PB371JD
NEC announced today the EMMA 3PF chip, which is the first large-scale integration (LSI) chip that contains all the major functions of Blu-ray including Profile 2.0, analog-to-digital conversion, HDMI output, and sound encoding/decoding. The EMMA 3PF also features a multicore CPU which allows for improved startup times and operation speeds. Most importantly, the chip will significantly reduce the physical size of Blu-ray players as well as reduce the overall cost. The chip will start shipping in September so expect players that use it to begin appearing in the near future.
[Gizmodo]
Tags: Blu-ray News, NEC
Although we’re not getting as many releases as last week, we do get quite a good variety of new releases. Brand new releases include Nim’s Island and for music fans, Korn: Live at Montreux. BBC is releasing their delayed documentary, The BBC High Definition Natural History Collection. The most notable catalog release is Starship Troopers available as separate purchases for the first and third film or packaged all together in the Starship Troopers Trilogy.
Here’s the full list:
- The BBC High Definition Natural History Collection (Planet Earth / Wild China / Galapagos / Ganges)
- The Counterfeiters
- Epic Conditions: The Weather Channel
- Korn: Live at Montreux
- Lonesome Dove
- Nim’s Island
- Robin Hood – Season One
- Starship Troopers
- Starship Troopers 1-3
- Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
- Wild China
Tags: Blu-ray Movies, Blu-ray New Releases
As always we bring you this week’s ad prices for Blu-ray movies and players from major retailers.
Circuit City has the cheapest prices for new releases Starship Troopers for $22.99 and Starship Troopers 3: Marauders for $27.99. Best Buy has a 2 for $30 deal when you buy any two of the following titles: Hellboy, The Patriot: Extended Cut, Black Hawk Down, and The Fifth Element. Finally both Circuit City and Best Buy will give you John Mayer: Where The Light Is for free with the purchase of the Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player for $399.99
See all of this week’s prices after the jump
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Tags: Blu-ray Deals
It looks like Netflix users will have to pony up an extra dollar or two to be able to rent Blu-ray movies as the rental company’s CEO mentioned earlier this week would happen really soon. EngadgetHD is reporting some Netflix members have been notified of a $1 per month charge (plus taxes) while others say they’ve been notified the charge will be $2. Regardless of which two amounts is correct, this change will come within a month and we really don’t the see this increase as reason enough to cancel a membership.
[EngadgetHD]
Tags: Netflix
We just can’t seem to get enough of LG’s BD300 since it was introduced just yesterday. First we got pictures, now Crave gives us their hands-on impression of the new Blu-ray player.
Among their impressions, they note that the Netflix functionality is identical to that of a standalone Roku Netflix Player. You load up an “Instant” queue on your Netflix account, pair the LG player to your account, and then begin watching the movie or tv show as it streams using your broadband connection. Other features includes the ‘home’ button on the remote that give you instant access to the most common features such as Netflix, as seen in the picture above. The LG BD300 will also stream music and pictures from networked PCs or flash drives plugged into its front panel USB port.
Click the link below to see more details.
[Crave]
Tags: Blu-ray Players, LG, LG BD300
According to a new consumer survey by ABI Research, over half of the 1000 respondents said they had ‘other priorities and have no plans to purchase a Blu-ray player in the near future; about 23% said they would likely purchase one in 2009.
According to ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson, this response can be attributed to consumer’s perception of the value propisition that Blu-ray holds. Wilson notes that with DVD technology, consumers did not have to purchase a new TV as most do with a Blu-ray player, namely an HDTV. Additionally he says, “While half of the respondents to our survey rated Blu-ray’s quality as ‘much better’ than standard DVD, another 40-percent termed it only ‘somewhat better,’ and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players”
Wilson expects the price of entry-level Blu-ray players to remain at the $300 price point, with retailers using Blu-ray movie bundles to attract potential buyers. Just like we reported a couple days ago, he points out the success of the PS3 and notes that owners purchase just as many movies as those with standalone Blu-ray players.
[MarketWatch]
Tags: ABI, Blu-ray News
Yesterday we brought you the news of LG’s BD300 Blu-ray player that will be capable of streaming Netflix movies. Today Gizmodo has the first pictures of this new player. We also get a glimpse at the interface where you’ll be able to select your Netflix movie streams. The itself is slim and comparable in size to other Blu-ray players. The LG BD300 is one sweet looking player!
Check out all the pictures after the jump
(more…)
Tags: Blu-ray Players, LG, LG BD300, Netflix
The X-Files: I Want to Believe has just hit theaters but producer and co-writer Frank Spotnitz along with director Chris Carter are still exploring the capabilities of the Blu-ray format as they work on the movie’s planned Blu-ray release.
Spotnitz said, “I had no idea what Blu-ray could do. I thought it was just a higher-definition picture, but it’s much more than that. We are trying to think of every possible way to exploit the Blu-ray medium. Those discussions are still continuing. We’ve been working on the Blu-ray and the DVD release for months already. It’s going to be packed with a lot of bonus features.”
Although, Spotnitz said details will be confirmed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, he did share some some of the extras that will be included. “There will be a gag reel; a making of, as there always are; multiple commentaries; both audio and video that you can access in a unique way because its Blu-ray,” Spotnitz said. “We are going to take advantage of the online feature in a way we haven’t determined yet.”
[HomeMediaMagazine]
Tags: Blu-ray Movies, X-Files
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