Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, HDTV
Once the realm of mighty giants with huge pocketbooks, burning a dual-layer Blu-ray (or HD DVD) disc might be yours at ten times normal speed starting in 2008, when Japanese firm Nichia Corp. will start production on a higher-powered laser diode for use in recorders. The diode emits pulsed light at a higher output than current diodes, and is stable enough for 1,000 hours of operation, which we estimate should net you around 5,000 two-hour burns... of data, of course! It will also allow for 2x burning of up to four layers. We're still waiting for word on how fast it will burn those ten-layered discs. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

As reported this week, the DCA (Doug Carson & Associates) have announced they have successfully mastered the first 3X DVD ROM for HD DVD commercial use. What does that mean for the avid HD DVD fan? Well it basically means that there is a lower cost alternative to the HD DVD disc already in production, [...]

Filed under: Gaming

One of the chief copy protection mechanisms employed by Blu-ray discs that is unemployed by HD DVD is called ROM-Mark, which basically uses unique identifiers that can only be hard coded on discs by authorized duplicators -- in other words, it's that per-disc physical watermarking that makes copying (although not necessarily ripping) Blu-ray movies just that much harder, Which is partly why we're a little dubious about this new app, BRDGen, which claims to be able to make and edit (and export for recording) PlayStation 3 compliant disc images. Anyone with a Blu-ray recorder, PS3, and a healthy bit of patience care to see what this thing is capable of?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games ...

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Media Centers are so in now and that you have to really do something to make your black box stand out, and S1Digital's new lineup of media centers and servers does just that. Actually there are two series, the ProLine for professional installers and home automation companies and the Home Series for the rest of us. The Home Series includes the Platinum, Gold and Mighty editions, all running Core 2 Duo processors and Vista Home Premium. The Mighty is the size of a book and includes built in WiFi and DVD burner. Up next is the Gold, which is a more traditional size and adds up to 1TB of storage, HDMI, 2 ATSC and 2 NTSC tuners (sorry no CableCARD here), 7.1 audio and Viiv. The Platinum tops the Home Series, adding a quiet design an internal scaler and optional HD DVD or Blu-ray drive. But they don't stop there and are trying to join Niveus in the high end market with the ProLine Series, which of course does everything the Home series doe...

The Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle seems as old as time itself. Being tech savvy consumers, we've heard the two formats are, to the end user, pretty identical. Both are capable of equal resolution, equal sound output and equal mass flopping.
But are tech specs the only way to judge DVDs? Of course not. Technology is only step one. How studios utilize the technology is equally as important. Besides, the gods gave us eyes and ears for a reason.
For this week's topic, we dug through the entire archive from the DVD critics at High-Def Digest (about 300 total reviews), averaging every rating they've given yet to HD DVD and Blu-Ray titles. And you know what?
Not all was equal.
Our preliminary average results graph is above. It gives a slight edge to HD DVD in video and all extra disc content. But we ran these results by a statistics-savvy friend who further analyzed the data in terms of actual statistical significance (through one-way ANOVA, stats geeks). She deemed ...

We just got word that Warner Home Video will release HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions of A Scanner Darkly and Dog Day Afternoon in April. Set in a not-too-distant future where America has lost its ...

Filed under: HDTV, Laptops

If you've been looking for a laptop big enough to hide behind then check this, the Samsung M55. Yeah, we've seen it before, only this time it comes packing Blu-ray not HD DVD. Otherwise, it's still the same ol' 17-inch laptop with 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, up to 120GB of disk and 2GB memory, 256MB of GeForce Go 7600 graphics, Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11a/b/g WiFi, and HDMI out for sharing the HD love with your XXL flat panel at home. Only this time, it's Blu-ray discs you'll be spinning to the bemusement of Toshiba. Yeah, "into the blue" Sammy... yuk yuk, we get it. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Sure, Washington had his dentures, Lincoln his ironclads and Jefferson his swivel chair, but what kind of kit would they be messing around with in 2007? In search of answers based on broad and most likely mis-guided and / or offensive stereotypes, we bring you the following list. Feel free to rip it to shreds in the comments, just make sure to keep it patriotic -- Big Brother is watching. Happy Presidents Day!#vistachart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #vistachart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; } #vistachart th { font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #vistachart th.mainth { border-bottom: 1px solid #333; font-size: 1.2em; } #vistachart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #vistachart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4;


Washington
(rebel)Lincoln
(uniter)Jeff...