Sony BDP-S350

Sony’s next-generation Blu-ray Disc player BDP-S350 supports BonusView (picture-in-picture), which is featured on select new Blu-ray Disc home video releases, and is also BD-Live ready, with an Ethernet port for easy firmware updates and access to Internet-based interactive content features. It also features quick start up mode improving the player’s boot up time to approximately a few seconds and offers an external port for local storage for BD-Live, allowing users to add an optional flash storage device (sold separately).

Sony Blu-ray Disc player BDP-S350 offers 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding and bit-stream output, as well as DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output. The compact size of BDP-S350 allows Sony to reduce the C02 emissions related to shipping by approximately 43 percent. The Sony BDP-S350 is now available for about $400 at Sony authorized retailers.

According to a report on Japanese news site Yomiuri, sources at Toshiba have let slip about the company’s plans to launch a DVD player capable of upscaling standard-definition DVDs to 1080p HD.Upscaling an SD image to an HD one is nothing new, but Toshiba will pitch its rumoured player as the best way of doing so. Towards the end of its its time as the HD DVD format’s cheerleader, Toshiba began promoting its HD DVD player family as superior DVD players. The units have long won plaudits for the quality of their upscaling technology.

Toshiba has already unveiled “Super-resolution” imagery, which is still essentially standard-definition content upscaled to 1080p, but done with an interpolation algorithm that Toshiba believes is superior to the likes used on rival upscalers, such as Sony’s DVP-NS708H.

One of Blu-ray’s drawbacks is the rather limited number of titles currently available – relative to DVD, at least – along with the still relatively high cost of standalone players. The Toshiba mole has also claimed that the manufacturer’s latest player will be marketed as one capable of playing a broader array of content than currently available through Blu-ray.

It’s though Toshiba’s upscaling DVD player will be out by December. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it won’t be Blu-ray compatible.

The deets are a little sparse at the moment but it seems Toshiba has come up with a nice, simple way of getting your treasured memories off your HD camcorder and onto a Blu-ray disc.

The DZ-WR90 is a Blu-ray recorder, which can be connected straight up to your camcorder without having to use a PC.

There’s no editing features, it seems, but if it saves you losing your treasured HD vids of your tropical hols, to watch on a dreary day, well – does it matter?

NPD Group retail sales tracking data released this week show sales of Blu-ray standalone players have decreased drastically since the beginning of the year.

Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the States dropped a whopping 40% from January to February and saw just a 2% increase between February and March, according to NPD.

Unsurprisingly sales of the now obsolete HD DVD standalone players sales also dropped dramatically seeing a 65% decrease.

But these Blu-ray stats are being considered surprising by some who assumed now the format war has been won, consumers would feel happier to splash the cash on a next-gen player, the price of which averages out at $400 in the US.

NPD suggests that consumers are not making the leap to Blu-ray as DVD is “good enough” for most – in the same time period that Blu-ray sales dropped, upconverting DVD players sales have actually increased 5%.

Sony has launched a new Blu-ray recorder in Japan, the BDZ-A70 with some interesting integration features.As well as all the connectivty you’d expect and recording to a 320GB hard disk drive or dual-layer BD-RE media, Sony has given the new player special, super-easy linking tech with other Sony in-house devices.

As well as the ability to transfer data to certain NTT DoCoMo handsets, there’s one-touch video transfer to Sony’s PSP as well as for some video Walkmans from the company’s range too.

A Japan-only launch at this stage, the price tag is set at 170,000 yen (£850) but there’s nothing to say they won’t be heading our way soon…

Toshiba will take a serious but far from fatal blow to its bottom line for its decision to discontinue HD DVD, according to a report by Japan’s Nikkei Business Daily (account required). The electronics maker is predicted by the newspaper to be spending $986 million this quarter to ramp down its production of HD DVD players and discs at its factories as well as writing down the cost of unsold devices. The tally will significantly affect Toshiba’s income but should still result in a significant profit, as official company estimates would have it generating $2.9 billion in the same period.

The former HD DVD producer has declined comment on the subject, saying through a spokeswoman that it had not announced any of its finances and so couldn’t comment on Nikkei’s claims. Continue Reading…

Paramount has confirmed its last ever HD DVD releases will go on sale in the States on Tuesday, 4 March. From then on, it’s DVD and Blu-ray Disc only.And DreamWorks Animation has clearly had word from Toshiba: it’s knocking its HD DVD release schedule on the head too, including the Bee Movie disc, originally due to go on sale in the US on 11 March.

Movies schedules for HD DVD release from both companies will appear on DVD, but don’t expect Blu-ray versions until the summer, Paramount said. Neither have said what their first Blu-ray releases will be.

DreamWorks’ CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg earlier this week said he was committed to the agreement reached with Toshiba in August 2007 to release hi-def content only on HD DVD.

“We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” he said. “It really is in [Toshiba's] court at this point to really declare what the next step will be.”Presumably, Tosh told him that it’s OK to go Blu. The Japanese consumer electronics giant’s thoughts on the matter were so important to Katzenberg and co. because, as he admitted, DreamWorks was “well-compensated” for backing HD DVD.

The only other studio that had committed itself exclusively to HD DVD was Universal, and it hopped on the Blu-ray bandwagon very quickly after Toshiba announced it would no longer manufacturer HD DVD hardware.

Samsung has announced a series of firmware upgrades for its range of Blu-ray players, rolling out over the next few weeks.

The BD-P1000 will get new firmware from 25th January, followed by the BD-P1400 on 26th January, the BD-P1200 on 2nd February, and the BD-UP5000 “soon”.

Exact details of the upgrades are sketchy at present, but should ensure the players are compatible with Blu-ray discs they previously had problems with.

All models but the BD-P1000 can be upgraded over the Internet via their Ethernet connection.

Source: Crave

For anyone continuing to keep a close, interested, eye on HD DVD versus Blu-ray statistics, here are a few international numbers to chew on.

In Japan, new figures suggest that overall sales of high definition hardware increased rapidly at the end of 2007 — up from 6.1% in October to around 20% in November and December — with Blu-ray taking 90% of that market.

Meanwhile, in the US, Blu-ray reportedly took an 85% share of high definition disc sales for the week ending 13th January, with no HD DVDs in the top ten selling discs.

Source: Japan Today