A little personal information about me: I’ve never seen a single episode of Lost. I understand it’s quite popular, though. A co-worker of mine at a previous place of employment was so adamant that I join the Lost-watchers club that she leant me the first season and then asked me every day what I thought of the show. After a month of not even taking the first disc out of the sleeve, I returned… → Read More
Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for such a thing to transpire. I think it’s safe to say that most of us have seen vending machines spewing out electronics at airports and other random establishments for some time, so this bit of news should come as no surprise. → Read More
Who else thinks Blu-ray is doomed? I mean, other than Steve Jobs? ZDNet’s Robin Harris does, and he makes a decent argument. Consider the following: only 4 percent of movie discs sold in the U.S. are Blu-ray discs; these discs often don’t play reliably on your more-than-likely expensive player (as I found out this week); it costs a tremendous amount of money to author Blu-ray discs… → Read More
RealDVD hasn’t even been available for more than an hour and already Hollywood studios are upset about the ramifications it could have on the industry.
According to a statement released by RealNetworks, it has filed suit against Hollywood studios asking the court to rule that RealDVD “fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.” The suit was filed against DVD Copy… → Read More
So you’re thinking ’bout going cheap inexpensive this Christmas by throwing some pics on a DVD and calling it your mom’s present. She will probably love it ’cause you made it for her, but why not pony up, and use Maxell’s synthetic leather discs for a nostalgic photo album feel. The discs will start around $11 for a ten pack when they launch in Japan next month… → Read More
As anyone with a lick of tech knowledge knows, ripping a DVD onto your hard drive is, well, frowned upon by the “Powers that be” in the motion picture industry. Realizing that, RealNetworks has launched a new solution called RealDVD, which lets users copy DVDs onto their hard drives without facing legal troubles. Even better, it only takes about 20 minutes to do so. Sounds great, right? … → Read More
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Wal*Mart rules. Why? Because they’ve got a pretty sweet promo going on that will soon become obsolete since we’re posting the exclusives, but we’ll tell you about them anyway. So here’s the deal. When you purchase one of three special edition cover Transformers DVDs you’ll get a special access code that unlocks a… → Read More
There was a time when the CD was the saving grace of the computer and media world. No longer would it take 22 floppy disks to install Windows 95. Oh no, just one magical disk. But as everything digital, things change overtime, and so optical formats are now loathe as the bastard child you wouldn’t dare get rid of, but can’t stand the sight of him nor his loser friends. → Read More
In the sheer hopes that The Dude does, in fact, abide, Universal Studios will be releasing a 10th anniversary edition of The Big Lebowski. You can pre-order it from Amazon.com for a measly $24 if you want to get a head start. The two-disc set comes packed inside a bowling ball — a bowling ball! – and is “loaded with all-new bonus features that will take you beyond the movie!” The Big… → Read More
Happen to be a HD DVD earlier adopter? Sorry to hear that. Paramount and Dreamworks wants to help switch your library to the winning side and is offering up a $10 rebate. All the studios ask is that when you buy a Blu-ray title of a disk you currently own, mail in a promo certificate along with the proof of purchase from the original disc’s packaging. That’s not all good reader… → Read More
Toshiba may be out of the high definition disc war altogether (not that many people are participating anyway), but it knows there’s plenty of life left in plain ol’ DVD. To that end the company has been showing off its $150 XD-E500, an upconverting DVD player that’s supposed to, I don’t know, beat the pants off other upconverting players. The AP uses the phrase “subtle… → Read More
Even after HD DVD’s demise, Blu-ray still isn’t catching on, the PS3 excepted. Maybe the real format war was between DVD and Blu-ray all along? A recent survey, carried out by ABI Research, found that more than half the respondents have no intention of buying a Blu-ray player. About a quarter said they had plans to buy one, but not till next year. And why are consumers so reluctant to… → Read More
If the MPAA had its way, your DVR would be nothing more than a hunk of useless metal and plastic, unable to record and pause live television. Steps are being taken to ensure that it gets its way. The fun-loving association is pushing hard for a technology called selectable output control, or SOC, which allows content providers—movie studios and the like—to prevent material from being… → Read More
Now you’ve gone and done it. “It” being, maybe, freaking out the entertainment industry by not buying as many DVDs as you used to. (That, incidentally, sorta gibes with a study that come out today.) One of them there Lehman Brothers analysts downgraded numerous industry stocks yesterday because he doesn’t like how people are now downloading movies more and more often. Studios… → Read More
A research team from the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials of prestigious Tohoku University in Northern Japan announced [JP, PDF] it has found a way to multiply the amount of data that can be stored on a DVD or CD by a factor of 9. It is claimed the result was achieved by shaping the pits on a DVD’s surface, which are usually flat, like “V”s. The… → Read More
Today Panasonic announced [JP] they will introduce the world’s first Blu-ray discs with 6x writing speed in Japan next month. The company will offer 25GB (LM-BR25MD) and 50 GB (LM-BR50MD) versions. The new discs feature a maximum data transfer speed of 216Mbps. Panasonic claims this is 20% faster than the transfer speed of 16x DVD-R discs. The 25GB discs will be priced at $16 per piece… → Read More
Sometimes I like to take a break from the cutthroat world of technology reporting to immerse myself in the moving and imaginative stories of a group of men and women from a simpler time of cutthroat…well…throat cutting, as it turns out. I’ve you’ve never seen HBO’s Deadwood and you happen to be looking for a way to spend ninety bucks, you wouldn’t be disappointed to own the entire… → Read More
Japan thinks that a video of a couple of women are looking you in the eye for 96 minutes will make you more confident. That’s the content of a DVD [JP] which has been released by Japanese entertainment powerhouse Avex a couple of days ago. The girl in the video is just one of 50 women of different ages and nationalities. So what is this about? The DVD is aimed at curing shyness, especially… → Read More
Yesterday Victor-JVC unveiled a new recorder [JP] in Japan, which is capable of simultaneously recording two programs on either VHS, DVD or HDD. The DR-HX500 comes with the following features: – HDMI connection – D4 connection – 500 GB HDD – VHS player / recorder – DVD player / recorder (DVD-RW/-R) – Digital / Analog TV tuner – DTS and Dolby Digital support – S-VHS and Composite outputs – 2 remote… → Read More
I have an upconverting DVD player that I love. I can watch my SD copy of Transformers at 720p on my Olevia HDTV. While it looks great, it’s still not true HD, it’s interpolated. But that’s not stopping Toshiba from embracing the technology, and doing so in spite of the victory against it in the next-gen format war by Sony’s Blu-ray. It’s not saying that it won’t… → Read More
Here are some shows where you can really see some gear crunch. They’re part of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels series, which cover (as you may expect) the major works, megastructures, and, in this set, the spectacular failures of modern engineering. You won’t be seeing the Apple Newton on there or Microsoft Bob, but you will see bridges and buildings collapsing, huge ships… → Read More
Blu-ray isn’t dead yet. Sales of Blu-ray players in Japan topped sales of regular DVD players for the first time last month, an indication that consumers are finally warming up to the high-def format. Spun a different way, sales of Blu-ray alone in April were three times the amount of both Blu-ray and HD DVD combined in January. Reasons for the sudden uptick in sales include people finally… → Read More
Yeah, that rumor saying you’d be able to buy certain movies from iTunes the same day as their DVD release was true. Real recognize real. New releases will set you back $14.99, or 1/1000th of a Euro, for a download, while a 24-hour rental costs $3.99. PS, lol @ Bayern Munich. PPS, keep the Blue Flag flyin’ high. Thank you. → Read More
Remember DIVX? Not DivX the codec, but DIVX as in Digital Video Express — from Circuit City — the ill-fated self-destructing DVD system from lo those many years ago. A similar idea just might be able to succeed where DIVX failed. Or not, who knows? Anyway, whereas DIVX relied on special DVD players that could play DIVX discs (and also regular DVDs), a new disposable DVD coming from a… → Read More
This just in: HD DVD is in trouble, much to the chagrin of our own intrepid HD DVD-lover Devin Coldewey. According to a Reuters report, Netflix said that it’ll be offering Blu-ray DVDs exclusively. It’s been divvying up both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs but will stop purchasing HD DVD movies today and phase out its inventory by the end of the year. Netflix says chooses Blu-ray format over… → Read More
[photopress:hddvdwins.jpg,full,center] Welcome to the Unreasonable Stance, where our own Devin takes the minority opinion on a tech matter and defends it with convenient data, spun numbers, fanboyism, and insults until he proves, without a doubt, that those that disagree with him are filthy mouth-breathers. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy. Well, maybe I am. But that’s just… → Read More
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