CNet UK: Do you dream of Blu-ray players? If the answer is ‘yes’, then we suspect the Onkyo BD-SP807 might be the player that features in your brain’s nocturnal activities. What makes this machine factor in so many happy dreams is that it offers stunning-quality hardware at a wallet-friendly price. The £600 BD-SP807 is intended to best machines that cost twice as much, and we’re very pleased to have got our hands on one for testing purposes.

The BD-SP807 has a fairly interesting appearance. Quite a large player, it’s roughly the size of early machines from the likes of Panasonic and Sony. In the BD-SP807’s case, however, the size, weight and design are all intended to produce the best picture and sound quality possible from Blu-rays, DVDs and even audio CDs. It’s not ugly either. It looks quite industrial, but that’s kind of cool. The LED display is rather basic, but we’re not too bothered about that — it’s not like you have to watch a film on it. Read more…

Blu ray players onkyo

CNet: Sony has announced that its new line-up of Blu-ray products will go 3D with a firmware update this year.

Sony announced a line-up of 3D home cinema products at CES in January, including the Bravia LX and HX 3D TVs.

The range of products to go 3D includes the BDV-E670W, BDV-E870, and BDV-IZ1000W. We’ve contacted Sony for a full list of which products will get the update, and when.

The big question is whether an update will be available for the PlayStation 3. The 3D Blu-ray spec was only finalised in December, so manufacturers are wasting no time. Other 3D Blu-ray players coming soon include the Samsung BD-C6900 and Panasonic DMP-BDD300.

All well and good, but what are you going to watch? Monsters vs Aliens looks set to be the first 3D Blu-ray release, with Avatar no doubt close behind. James Cameron has hinted that a 2D release will come first, followed by a 3D release towards the end of the year, if there is enough uptake of the technology. Disney is weighing in with A Christmas Carol at the end of the year.

3d Sony

EngadgetHD: While Futuresource may still be sticking to its 2012 predictions of Blu-ray software dominance, In-Stat has taken a break from the tea leaves to mention it expects Blu-ray player sales to near 80 million by 2013.

In its vision of the near-future that’s not enough to overtake DVD player sales of 90 million, but with a higher average selling price Blu-ray players will own most of the dollars being spent.

Naturally, Blu-ray recorders (and, we’d expect Blu-ray/VHS combos) are most popular in Japan, while Europe produces the most revenue for players. We’re not ready to lay down $3,495 to find out more detailed forecasts, but we’ll put a pin in the calendar and ask Jeremy Toeman to save the date for our 2013 podcast about whether or not Blu-ray sales have lived up to expectations.

blu ray disc DVD

Electronista: Toshiba today introduced its first products incorporating Blu-ray drives in Japan, including two HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray drives, three models of Blu-ray recorders and one Blu-ray player.

The TVs include the 26-inch 26R1BDP and 32-inch 32R1BDP; each has a side-mounted, slot-loading Blu-ray drive that lets them play HD movies at the sets’ native 720p resolutions.

While the new TVs have no built-in hard drives, they do support recording onto an external hard drive over their integrated USB connections.

The TVs also have support for BD-Live for Internet-based special features. Standard definition video gets a boost through Toshiba’s usual emphasis on upscaling to near HD levels.

The VARDIA HDD recorders, the D-B305K, D-B1005K, and D-BW1005K, record HDTV to Blu-ray and their hard disks. The entry D-B305K has a 320GB hard drive, while the middle gets a larger 1TB drive and the top model gets both a 1TB drive and a VHS tape deck to record to the aging analog standard.

The three recorders have HDMI-CEC support, or what Toshiba calls REGZA-LINK, allowing one remote to control both them and a compatible HDTV. All products are scheduled to ship in Japan in mid-February, though prices have not been revealed.

North American releases aren’t as likely for the recorders as few Japanese companies export those devices; it’s just as unclear as to whether the Blu-ray equipped TVs will reach other cou

Toshiba

Engadget: While 3D is all the rage at CES this year, we learned today from the BDA that one of the biggest sources of 3D content isn’t what it could be.

The first thing that could, should, be better is the limited support for frame rates. Movies have been recorded at 24 frames per second for longer than our parents have been alive, and for about the same amount of time we’ve had to endure frame rate interpolation to make movies play back on our 30Hz TVs — you know, like 3:2 pull-down.

That changed recently with 120hz LCDs and 72Hz plasmas because those numbers share a common denominator with 24 (so the same frame is just shown three or four times).

When choosing an 3D HDTV it is important to understand how the TV displays 24 fps 3D content, don’t just asume it does it without 3:2 pull down. But honestly the worst part is that some 3D cameras can capture 3D at higher frame rates and even if the director wanted to, the new 3D Blu-ray spec doesn’t support it.

The other issue we take with the new spec is that contrary to early reports, it is possible to create a 3D Blu-ray Disc that won’t play on 2D only players. This next one isn’t a big deal, but still disappointing is that even if the creator goes through the trouble to encode the movie in both formats, depending on the HDTV, you may have no choice but to watch it in 3D — say if you lost your glasses or whatever.

Now don’t get us wrong we’re pretty excited about the new 3D technology, but the way we see it is that anything worth doing, is worth doing right the first time.

blu ray 3d

CNet: Here at CES 2010, Samsung has announced it will be creating its own app store, but unlike its rivals, who offer applications on mobile phones, the Korean giant intends to supply apps that work across phones, computers, Blu-ray players, home-cinema systems and even TVs.

The Samsung Apps feature — essentially an evolution of the company’s Internet@TV concept — will ship on the vast majority of Samsung tellies with screens 40 inches and above, starting with the 55-inch LED 9000 series.

With these, users will be able to search and download applications even while watching TV. Some apps wil be bundled with the sets, some will become available for download over the sets’ integrated Wi-Fi free of charge from this spring, while paid-for apps will start to arrive in the summer.

Currently, Samsung says the style of applications will be pretty diverse. Some will provide basic information like up-to-date weather, sports fixtures and results, picture viewing through the likes of Picasa, plus services such as BBC iPlayer and Twitter.

Several apps will allow interaction betwen your Samsung mobile phone and your Samsung TV. In one example, the company said consumers would be able to play virtual poker using the television as the table, and their handsets to view cards and control the game.

Crucially, Samsung is making its app store an open platform, which should encourage third-party developers to create a decent number of apps and help ensure the system doesn’t become a relic any time soon. Keep your eyes on CNET UK over the coming weeks when we’ll bring you a more in-depth look at the best of these apps and the TVs they’ll feature on.

app store applications Samsung