Filed under: Storage
Inventing the dual layer DVD-RW standard may seem like an extreme example of too little too late in the days of 15GB+ HD DVD and 25GB+ Blu-ray, but JVC has gone ahead and done it anyway. Hitting up the same 8.5GB capacity as regular double layer DVD-RWs and dual layer DVD-RWs, the JVC discs come with a specially hardened coating which is apparently "150 times" more effective than the coating on plain old DVDs. Unfortunately, the new format requires entirely new burners, is only available at 2x write speeds, and no shipping dates or details are available. Sounds like JVC's got a winner on its hands ... yeah. 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

After yesterday's Blu-ray press conference, Toshiba fired back...over the course of two very, very long hours. And by "fired back," we really mean gave a bunch of presentations that were too long. So we're giving you a fast forward version of the conference...that still feels a bit like slow-mo.
The show opens with Yoshihide Fujii introducing a video. It's a CGI wonderfest, best transcribed from my notes:
"A rotating metal globe shoots a laser. Stuff lights up. It's a submarine! It's a, wait, pirate ship! WITH JETS ON THE BACK. Now it's flying. Best video ever. Weird galaxy thingies now. Lots of floating metal balls. Pink elephants fly past the screen. Pigs. The word you were looking for was "pigs."
That was the video. "It's true, it cost very much," Fujii said.
Running through Toshiba's game plan, Fujii went through the 3-pronged strategy of HDD, HD DVD and SD in Toshiba's multimedia approach. He also mentioned, "I'm sure withing three years the price of ...

At yesterday's Blu-ray keynote, the BDA promised the press that Hitachi would be making a major Blu-ray announcement today. It got a few of us excited. After all, this is the company who is releasing the world's first Blu-ray camcorder—whatever this device could be, it would be a potential milestone.
The announcement? It WAS the Blu-ray camcorder. The same one we've talked about for months, is on posters around Berlin and isn't new. Blu-ray, I didn't have a dog in this fight. But now I hope HD DVD rises from lousy sales ratios and destroys you, Blu-ray. I hope they burn out your eyes with inferior laser technology until you cry and then realize you can't cry without them. (This, of course, won't stop a hands-on with the camcorder we have planned for later today).

Filed under: Laptops

Shortly after loosing a slew of AMD-based desktops, HP and Compaq have now unleashed a trio of Pavilion and Presario laptops powered by Advanced Micro Devices. The 17-inch Pavilion dv9500z series offers up a nice selection of AMD Turion 64 X2 processors, Windows Vista, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (or optional 8400M GS), WiFi / Bluetooth, a built-in webcam and microphone, an optional Verizon Wireless V740 ExpressCard, up to 500GB of HDD storage, a dual-layer DVD writer (or a HD DVD reading drive), and an eight-cell Li-ion to boot. The slightly smaller (that's 15.4-inches, for those keeping count) Pavilion dv6500z series offers up a fairly similar array of specs in a more compact chassis, while the lower-end 15.4-inch Compaq Presario V6500Z series steps down to an AMD Sempron and offers up less upgrades. All three units can be ordered right now through HP's website, and while the Compaq unit starts at $499, the dv6500z and dv9500z ge...

Most of this season's Blu-ray players, including the BDP7100, have the same general upgrades:
•1080/24 frame support for movies
•HDMI 1.3
•Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD audio.
So, I wouldn't call this segment of the industry "competive". What extras should these guys include to make us choose their player over another? I'd say LG and Samsung are on track with their dual format players. And Toshiba has made good news out of the fact that they have quality upscalers in their HD DVD boxes.
What else?
[yahoo!]

According to the HD DVD fan-site campaignhd, the state of Blu-ray (the format in general) is anything but good. Keep in mind that this is an HD DVD site—which may or may not be sponsored by the HD DVD camp—so their complaints might be a little "off." However, they do provide ample links for the statements they make, which makes us take pause and wonder if Blu-ray really is this deep in shit.
Among the observations culled together from separate news stories and "insider intelligence":
• The manufacturing yield rates on BD50 (the 50GB discs) are only 40% from Sony manufacturers and down to 10% yields on non-Sony manufacturers. That means only one in 10 discs made by a non-Sony plant works as a BD50 disc. This in turn leads to higher costs.
• BD1.1 player spec is hard to develop for, leading the only BD1.1 player to be delayed until Q2 2008.
• BD-J, the language they use for special features on discs, is horrible to program for, ...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Straight from IFA 2007 in Berlin comes Daewoo's surprise entry into the Blu-ray camp with the company's first player, the DBP-1000. Interestingly, even though Daewoo is probably more well-known for their Trutech ODM devices -- or even their autos -- this player supposedly supports the full 2.0 Profile for Blu-ray Disc, including BD Live internet functionality, picture-in-picture, and local storage. Pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but it won't be soon enough for Blu-ray fans to see players with that interactive functionality built-in like competing HD DVD players have. Another picture after the jump.Continue reading Daewoo shows off Blu-ray Profile 2 player at IFA
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Today at IFA press day, the BDA gave a presentation running through the status of operations along with studio bigshots from Disney, Warner Bros and Fox. Here's the rundown on what they said:


Announcements
- Hitachi will be making a major Blu-ray announcement tomorrow
- Acer is now a member of BDA
- China's HuaLu Group has joined BDA (major disc manufacturer)
Butt Kickings
- Blu-ray holds 90% market share in Japan for both movies and hardware
- In US Blu-ray has 63% standalone unit market share and over 66% of hi-def disc sales
- 70% of hi-def sales in Europe are Blu-ray with 3:1 ratio over HD DVD
Other Notables
- Sleeping Beauty will be Disney's first "platinum" (classic) movie on Blu-ray.
- Warner Home Entertainment will release as many titles in Q4 of 07 as Q1-Q3 combined. Including Kubrick.
- Spiderman 3 will be released on Blu-ray. I know! Also, Vaio owners who register online will ...

newVideoPlayer("beehype_gawker.flv", 475, 376);The Pitch Everyone who's been wondering what Jerry Seinfeld's been up to—other than cashing syndication checks the size of Tonga's GDP—need wonder no more: Judging by this promo, he's voicing the protagonist in DreamWorks Animation's forthcoming Bee Movie. (And how nice of him to find work for Patrick "Puddy" Warburton, who plays the audio engineer.) In this 30-second snippet, Jerry's bee mightily flaps his wings into a studio microphone, blasting Puddy through a concrete wall and into the ladies loo. How can such a tiny insect achieve such mighty volume? Why, thanks to Dolbee—er, Dolby—Digital technology, as the kick-out logo informs us. Cute, but why is the already ubiquitous Dolby Labs straining to reach the grade-school demographic?
Rip-Off Of Given the kiddie target audience, the first connection I made was with that great The Muppet Movie scene in which Animal fries everyone ears with his roa...

Venturer Electronics has announced the SHD7000 HD DVD player, which should be released before the 2007 holiday season and be the cheapest HD DVD player to date.