They ruined “Planet Earth” with narration by Sigourney Weaver and James Earl Jones. They ruined “Life” with narration by Oprah Winfrey. At least on Blu-ray, though, you have the choice to choose the real versions, narrated by one of my personal heroes, Sir David Attenborough. There are, in fact, two versions on the shelves right now, and the Winfrey one, in addition to having an inferior narrator, also has inferior picture quality. Yes, incredibly, they released it in 1080i. High definition fail! → Read More
There is nothing worse then getting home after buying a PS3 – for use as a Blu-ray – and realizing no one told you the box comes missing one important item. If this happened to you, then you know how it felt to watch a Blu-ray through component because Sony decided to skip out on the HDMI cable. → Read More
A little birdie told me that the World Cup begins in just a few weeks, on June 11, 2010, in South Africa. Four years prior saw Italy lift the trophy in Germany, beating France on penalties. Zinedine Zidane also headbutted Marco Materazzi that day—an immense event in Internet history. A lot of things have changed since that day in Berlin, a lot of things that will shock and amaze you. For example, did you know that Facebook was still only open to college and high school students the moment Fabio Grosso smashed the ball past Fabien Barthez? So, what else has changed between then and now? → Read More
Valuestar N VN790/BS – that’s the name of the 3D PC that NEC today announced [JP] for the Japanese market. The company’s faster than expected: just last month, NEC teased such a machine in Tokyo, saying it’s likely to ship by October 2010. But Japan will get the PC as early as next month. And it appears to be a pretty cool machine. → Read More
Call me crazy, but wasn’t the point of Avatar to go see it in 3D on the big screen? Otherwise, why bother? Be that as it may, Avatar is on track to hold the distinction of being the most pirated Blu-ray release of all time. Nice job, guys! → Read More
Break out a blank DVD and fire up x264! The folks behind x264, the freeware h.264 encoder, have announced Blu-ray compatibility. That means you’ll be able to burn a DVD containing h.264 video that will play on your standard-issue Blu-ray player. That’s good news if you still burn DVDs, something I haven’t done in for something like a year, and even then it was for someone else. Go away, plastic discs. → Read More
Denon is jumping into the the 3D market with both feet, bringing two new Blu-ray players to the market. Both feature 5.1 audio, BD Live, Netflix, and YouTube Streaming, and (my personal favorite) 1GB of on-board memory. → Read More
This is not for you Hey, cutting edgers! How does it feel to be the first kid on your block not to be able to play a brand new movie because of some wonky firmware issue. I have a Samsung BD-UP5000, the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo device that came out just as the last shots in the format war were being fired, and Avatar will not play on it. Others have had the same issue and it’s a firmware problem. Considering the firmware hasn’t been update since 2008 and they’re slow as molasses over there to react, I suspect I’ll be watching Avatar on a BR laptop before I watch it on this thing. → Read More
In Japan, Sharp has been offering AQUOS LCDs with integrated Blu-ray players or recorders for quite some time now. And today, the company announced [JP] the AQUOS DX3 series, which consists of another five of those TVs (with built-in Blu-ray recorders) for the Japanese market. → Read More
Blu-ray won the format war. I was wrong and Ben was right. Oh well. At least Blu-ray players are finally dropping down in price. Today’s Woot is a $79 Sammy model that’s capable of streaming Netflix. Yeah, it’s a refurb, but the price is right. → Read More
So Lord of the Rings (hereafter called LOTR) is coming out on Blu-ray tomorrow. Cool, having it in HD will nice. Better sound and maybe better picture. But you shouldn’t buy the version that comes out tomorrow, because you won’t be happy. → Read More
The Lord of the Ring Blu-ray discs will be released on April 6, but a few lucky nerds already have access to it. And they don’t like what they see. → Read More
Dear friend, I hope the letter carriers get this utmost urgent note to you on time. If so, there’s still a good chance that you’ll be able to acquire a brand new Toshiba Blu-ray player for only $99. Think of your children. They need a Blu-ray player but not at the expense of other things. But this one from Newegg is so inexpensive that I hope you’ll be able to forgo a few speakeasy trips this month to cover it. You must, friend, you must. But hurry! The deal is only good until 1:00pm PDT. → Read More
Samsung might be joining Panasonic in offering portable Blu-ray players if a Ben Lyons twoot is to be believed. Let me quote, “I just partnered w/ Samsung & they asked me 2 host an event in NYC tonight for their new line of portable Blue-Ray players that are amazing!” Interested? We are. → Read More
The Mac mini has long been a HTPC fan favorite. It’s small, quiet, yet powerful. But it doesn’t have an HDMI port, which makes many Apple clowns sad. But hold on, a rumor just popped up that states that Apple is working on a Mac mini with *gasp* an HDMI port! → Read More
I’ll be honest with you. This was an odd product to see first thing on a Monday morning. Take the futuregasm known as Blu-ray and mix it with the nostalgia of VHS and you’ve got the Panasonic DMP-BD70V. Normally selling for $200 and up, Amazon’s got it for $140 today. → Read More
Isn’t it grand that Blu-ray players keep dropping in price. Like this Samsung BD-P1590. First off, it’s a refurb, but you still get a 3-month warrenty on a player that offers so much for the money. I would buy it. → Read More
Ready or not, 3D Blu-ray movies are coming and the new Sony BDP-S470 is ready to handle all of them — once Sony outs the necessary firmware. The same goes for the previously-announced BDP-S570 player and BDV-E770W and BDV-E570 HTIB systems. All these systems will be rocking 3D movies soon. The new S470, however, is just curiously $20 more than the S370 and a few dollars less than the flagship S570 besides the fact that all three models are nearly identical. → Read More
The VIERA 3D full HD plasma TVs weren’t the only 3D products Panasonic priced and dated for the Japanese market today. The company also announced a total of three new Blu-ray 3D recorders and one player. Here are the details. → Read More
