Filed under: HDTV, Laptops, Media PCs
Intel's Santa Rosa mobile platform will get a high definition upgrade in the second half of this year when it integrates dedicated hardware decoding from Broadcom to support HD DVD and Blu-ray playback. The extra processing power will let notebooks keep running their Windows Vista Aero experience -- which currently takes a major hit -- while playing high-def discs without relying on more expensive GPUs from NVIDIA or ATI. We know Toshiba is going all HD DVD in its laptops later this year, and we won't be surprised to see more manufacturers throwing in blue laser options across the line. The manufacturer told Ars Technica that future upgrades to the Santa Rosa chipset should include driver updates later this year, and DirectX10 support in 2008. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Multitaskers rejoice, Intel is going to start using seperate decoders for HD DVD and Blu-ray playback in certain versions of their Santa Rosa chips. Now your pewny graphics card won't have put up with your love of High-Def on its own.
That means no more computer slow down when you're watching Planet Earth on Blu-ray (or HD DVD) and checking out Gizmodo at the same time. That's a win for us, and a win for you-thanks Intel. – Ben Longo

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Okoro Media Systems has been Blu-ray savvy for some time now, but apparently it's looking to bring the peace with a dual-format combo drive in its BX series of HTPCs. The BX100 resides in a fairly slim 4.13-inch tall enclosure and includes an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 350-watt power supply, optional seven-inch touchscreen, your choice of operating system and media center software, 500GB of hard drive space, NVIDIA's 256MB 8500 GT graphics card, a total of three TV tuners, and a smorgasbord of ports including PS/2, FireWire, serial, optical / coaxial digital audio outputs, two DVI ports, VGA, component, S-Video, composite, Ethernet, and four USB 2.0 connectors. The beefier BX300 steps up to a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU, 1TB of storage spanning two 500GB drives, NVIDIA's 256MB GeForce 8600 GTS graphics card, and a 7.1-channel sound card. Both systems look to be available as we speak with a built-in HD DV...

If you're gonna get a PC for your living room, you might as well go all out and get one that supports the new high-def DVDs. Starting at $2,995, Okoro's BX100 and BX300 can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs from a single drive. And that's not all, they're packing some serious tech inside too.

They're built around a Intel Core 2 Duo (T7200 or E6600), come with 2GB of RAM standard, up to 1TB of storage, and HDCP output via Nvidia's GeForce 8600 GTS video card. My one complaint is they're a little boxy on the eyes, but solid buys otherwise. – Louis Ramirez
Okoro BX100 and BX300 HTPCs Read HD and Blu-ray [PC Joint]

The thought of bringing a DVD disc to the store as you're out shopping for a new telly may sound silly, but if you're dropping over $2k on a new TV, you deserve the best. HQV's Benchmark discs (which now come in Blu-ray and HD DVD flavors) let you check out a TV's performance before you buy it. They test for jaggies, visual noise, and other things you don't want on your shiny new set. They go for $20 a pop, we've used them before. So should you. – Louis Ramirez
Product Page

Even though they've openly said they support both of the new high-def formats, Onkyo is putting its final touches on its first HD DVD player, the DV-HD805. It'll be based off Toshiba's HD-XA2, but Onkyo is saying it'll have some tweaks in the audio and standard def video side. It's expected out this fall, but no word on pricing yet. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a universal player from Onkyo a la LG. – Louis Ramirez
Behind the Scenes at Onkyo [What Hi-Fi via Format War Central]

Filed under: Laptops

We've definitely seen some shady reports of a quad-core laptop make the rounds, and it looks like geographically misnamed Canadian laptop outfit Eurocom is going to be first off the line with a Intel Core 2 Quad notebook. A Eurocom spokesperson apparently confirmed to Laptoping that the company is prepping a quad-core Phantom D900C -- which probably means that monster-laptop Clevo (or whichever company is their ODM) is working on a quad-core D900C, since the Phantom is yet another rebrand. Laptoping says the 17-inch machine will feature a 2.4GHz Q6600 "Kentsfield" Core 2 Quad and dual SLI-capable GeForce Go 8700 or Quadro FX3500 graphics, an HD DVD drive, and up to three drives that can be run as a RAID 0/1/5 array -- all of which means battery life on this 11.9-pound monster will probably run down faster than a 6-minute mile. Still, the idea of stuffing four cores into a laptop gets us all excited, but the current $3,200 pric...

I've been using early versions of the Silicon Optix high definition discs to test HDTVs, Blu-ray and HD-DVD gear the last few weeks. The final version is out.
They're good for testing how a video processor handles jaggies, noise, and other factors.
The discs aren't complete testing suites, though. You aren't going to give you any way of quantifying brightness, shadow detail, contrast and other things you can watch by seeing sets side by side, or by watching movies you know like the back of your hand cough*ChenAndHowardTheDuck*cough. And the standard def version of this disc not only has more tests, but is useful for checking out the standard dvd video performance of a piece of HD gear.
And like I said earlier, these test discs can be used for HDTVs or HD disc players. By switching your disc player to output in a 1080i pattern, you can test your TV; putting it into 1080p tests the video processor in your player. Here's the full scorecard and instruction manual for...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

While Onkyo has been a part of the HD DVD promotions group as long as we can remember, Onkyo really hasn't done much. We have heard rumors about a HD DVD player from Onkyo for some time, and there was even a mention of it at CES this year. Our friends over at FormatWarCentral have discovered a few details in an otherwise obscure Onkyo post on a UK site that we find very interesting. Apparently Onkyo expects to launch the DV-HD805 this autumn, and it will be based on the Toshiba HD-XA2 player -- with a few yet to be mentioned tweaks. We are excited to see another HD DVD player on the market, but we hope it's not just a re-badge of the HD-AX2. Before any format fanboys get too rabid; the Onkyo rep also mentioned that officially Onkyo supports both formats. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Blades of Glory, the ice skating farce, is coming to a slew of disc releases in August from Dreamworks. Widescreen and fullscreen DVDs, a Blu-Ray and an HD-DVD version will all hit in August. The ...