Because its official date is less than a week away, I've been thinking a lot about the Xbox 360 Elite. By and large, the gaming press doesn't really get it, but that's because its not for them. An alternative name for it could have been Xbox 360 Home Theater Nut Edition.
There's a lot of good to it. The HDMI cable allows for HD-DVD at 1080p over a single cable. Good because those of us with low-end TVs don't have to depend on the TV for deinterlacing. The HDD upgrade is welcome for storing more HD movies. But those are rentals that expire. And DIY hacks as well as an official upgrade for the regular 360 will be around, it's questionable how much value that drive has.
So it comes down to HDMI and black paint.
Still, as someone who's taken an intense liking to the Xbox video marketplace and the HD-DVD player, I still want one. (Pay for one is a different story.) But what I really dream about is a version that commits the console to the living room in a much great...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
The Blu-ray vs HD DVD format war reaches another milestone, with sales of Blu-ray Discs reaching more than one million sold since the format launched less than a year ago. According to Home Media Research, Blu-ray locked up 70% of high-definition movies sales in the first quarter of 2007 (832,530 to 359,300), and account for seven of the top ten best-selling high-def movies. Even on those few titles available in both formats, like The Departed, consumers are buying more Blu-ray than HD DVD versions. HD DVD owners and fans can still point to sales of their format of choice reaching number one at Amazon recently -- as well as early release dates like The Matrix and exclusives like Smokin' Aces -- but with Blu-ray-only Disney releasing big titles like Cars and both Pirates movies in the coming months, the Blu-ray Disc Association won't be stopping the press releases anytime soon.

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The argument continues to rage, with no end in sight. HD DVD was winning last week, with rumors of cheap HD DVD players flooding the market via Wal-Mart (who else?). Augmenting that was a sales spike in HD DVD discs, though one that was caused by an artificial (or at least, unsustainable) sales spike caused by fervent fanboys.
This week, the Blu-ray camp is reclaiming some lost ground on the battlefield of public opinion.
Reporters are citing research by Home Media Magazine that says Blu-ray movies outsold HD DVD movies 70% to 30% in the first quarter of this year. (The research was apparently backed up by Nielsen VideoScan data.)
In addition, Wired's Gadget Lab ran an article with this fairly jingoistic headline: "Let the Price War Begin: Pioneer Announces $300 Blu-Ray Player". It turns out, the "player" is actually a BD read-only PC drive that's available in China and, they suggest, assorted gray-market vendors.
Highlighting the ambiguity was last ...

If you're looking for a model of the quintessential home theater, Star Wars creator George Lucas's theater he calls "The Stag," located at his Skywalker Ranch in California, would probably be a good place to start. That's what home theater installer Johann Peters did, spending $100,000 to build a 16-seat demo theater with a dozen speakers, 12,740 watts of amplification, a high-end JVC 1080p projector and even a mixing console.
After visiting Lucas's Skywalker Ranch theater seven years ago, Peters decided to pick and choose some of its best ideas for his own theater, and while he toned down the color scheme a bit and didn't quite need the 300 seats of The Stag, his still manages to kick some serious ass. Check out the gallery below and take the jump for a full spec list of this dream theater.
galleryPost('thestag', 4, 'The Stag Theater');

Theater Stats
* 18W x 13H x 30L
* Runs about 12,740 watts
* 16 seats
Eq...

As Q1 of the fiscal year starts letting the reports roll in, it looks like Blu-ray is a good way ahead of HD-DVD. Of the high definition sales in the first three months of 2007, 70% of the discs ...

Filed under: Laptops

Considering that Zepto isn't exactly "the name" in full-blown gaming laptops, we certainly hope this one won't turn out like ones prior, but the Znote 6625WD purportedly packs a plethora of lavish innards if it proves legitimate. The 15.4-inch machine is based around Intel's Santa Rosa, er, Centrino Pro platform, and sports a WSXGA resolution, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce Go 8600 graphics card, DirectX 10 support, an optional HD DVD writer, 802.11a/b/g/n, HSDPA compatibility, and to top things off, an HDMI output. The company will supposedly be taking customized orders in May to satisfy your wildest dreams, and while the bottom-end of the bunch could land at around "$1,100 to $1,200," we imagine that some of the aforementioned luxuries will ratchet that right on up.

[Via Laptopical] 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part...

Nvidia has yet to officially introduce a mobile GPU that can handle DirectX 10, but the folks at Laptopical claim that Zepto's forthcoming ZNote 6625WD will be one of the first lappies to carry the GeForce Go 8600 with DirectX 10 support. The 15.4-inch machine will also have an HD DVD RW drive, HDMI and Intel's 4th-gen Santa Rosa. The laptop is coming out mid-May for a supposed $1,100, which seems a little too good to be true if you ask me. – Louis Ramirez
Zepto's 6625WD ZNote [Laptopical]

Wal-Mart is about to bring HD DVD to the masses. The retail giant we all love to hate just bought 2 million HD DVD units from Taiwanese electronics corp Fuh Yuan, who along with TDK recently built a massive factory to handle HD DVD cores.
So basically Wal-Mart has a crapload of HD DVD players heading its way. (Can anyone say discount?) Sadly, this probably won't put an end to the format wars, but it'll definitely come as a blow to the Blu-ray camp, especially since their cheapest machine is nowhere near $300. You can expect to see Wal-Mart's players sometime in 2008. – Louis Ramirez
Fuh Yuan Will Make Two Million HD DVD Players for Wal-Mart [AVS Forums]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/The_Wal_Mart_299_HD_DVD_player_on_the_way'; Get ready to get your cheap HD on kids. Wal-Mart just threw down some serious green for a batch of Chinese-made HD DVD players. Just as they brought DVD players down to near-disposable status, their deal for 2 million HD DVD players produced by China's Great Wall corporation will ultimately do the same for hi-def optical. The guts are developed by Taiwan's Fuh Yuan with a touch of help from Japan's TDK. How much? A magical $299, that's how much -- $100 less than the cheapest available HD DVD rig (Toshiba's A2) and half of Sony's $600 BDP-S300. It's not clear when we'll see the first units on Wal-Mart shelves, only that the final shipment from the order is expected before 2008 is over.

[Via Akihabara News] 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation...

Warner Home Video has just unveiled their plans to release The Fountain on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in May. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Past, present, future. Through time and space, one man embarks ...