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Tag: blu-ray

  • Is Netflix Price Rise A Set-Back For Blu-ray?


    The price for Netflix’s Blu-ray subscribers is going up again on April 27th.

    The increase translates into an extra USD $4 a month for BD users opting for standard three-at-a-time plans.

    While Netflix is arguably justified in charging more to finance its rapidly expanded – and more costly to buy – Blu-ray stock of over 1,300 titles, it doesn’t help the high-def format’s image.

    Already seen as an expensive option compared to DVDs and other media, its goal of mainstream adoption is still bumping along.

    Around 10 per cent of Netflix’s renters currently opt for Blu-ray, so the appetite is there.

    Whether those consumers – and future ones too – will be put off by the price rises of around 20 per cent by the movies-by-mail company remains to be seen.

  • Europe's HDTVs "Starved of HD Content"


    FutureSource Consulting has produced an interesting chart (see below) that highlights the gulf between HDTV ownership and the penetration of Blu-ray disc players in Europe.

    It shows that there are 69 million HD-ready TV sets but just 8 million Blu-ray players,including PS3 consoles – prompting the title: "61 million TVs starved of HD content".

    While HD content is obviously available from other sources – such as VOD and HD broadcasting TV stations – the chart clearly shows how much work remains for backers of Blu-ray to get the high-def format into the mainstream.

    The UK tops the chart with 42 per cent of households owning a HDTV and 9 per cent a Blu-ray player.

    Germany comes bottom with 24 per cent with HDTVs and 3 per cent with a Blu-ray player.

    FutureSource is bullish that the numbers of HDTVs seemingly devoid of HD content will soon be reduced.

    It forecasts a strong rise in Blu-ray Player sales – up to 19 million in Western Europe for 2009 and 45 million players by the end of 2011.

  • Sony Not Cutting PS3 Price – or Planning Non Blu-ray Version


    Sony has no intention of releasing a PS3 without a Blu-ray drive.

    The suggestion that the Japanese company would ditch the high-def format was scotched by Sony’s marketing manager Kim Nguyen.

    "That would pretty much destroy the PS3’s backbone, our games were built on Blu-ray." Kim told Silicon Alley Insider. "Quote that: Blu-ray will always be part of PS3."

    Speculation about the console’s Blu-ray drive and a possible price cut began a few weeks ago.

    However, the Sony executive told SAI there were no immediate plans to reduce the price tag.

    This is despite renewed pressure from industry figures, including Electronic Arts exececuties.

    They say only 3 per cent of the PS1’s sales were at its launch price of USD $299 – and it only began selling when the price dropped.

    They also point to the Xbox 360’s growing market share, suggesting it is largely as a result of a price drop.

  • Panasonic's VHS/Blu-ray Combo Upconverts SD Video to 1080p


    The world’s first Blu-ray-VHS dual player is to go on sale in the US from next month.

    Made by Panasonic, the DMP-BD70V has a multi-format playback that allows users to play VHS, CD, DVD and 1080p high definition Blu-ray Discs.

    It also allows standard DVDs and VHS tapes to be up-converted to 1080p resolution.

    While the picture quality of VHS tapes obviously doesn’t rival Blu-ray, it does produce an impressive picture – something certain to appeal to the many households with stacks of VHS tapes lying around.

    The DMP-BD70V has been available in Japan since last year.

    The combo VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/SD Card Player is to be priced at USD $399.

  • 1080p Video Possible With Intel's New Atom Chipset


    Poor video acceleration – stuttering and frame rate drops – is something of a blight for netbooks when it comes to playing HD video.

    Now Intel has confirmed that the GN40 chipset for Atom chips, when paired with the Atom N280 processor, is capable of playing 1080p video.

    That doesn’t, however, stretch to Blu-ray HD footage.

    An Intel product manager has told Fudzilla that the GN40 is "designed to do 1080p HD playback for typical broadband internet content".

    The semiconductor firm says the more advanced graphics acceleration in GN40 can decode most common bitrates of the full HD resolution without the problems of poor video acceleration encountered with the 945 chipsets used with most Atom-based netbooks.

    It is likely that Microsoft’s own compressed HD format, 1080p WMV, will be playable through the GN40.

    The same may not be true for H.264 and VC1 decoding.

    This will be encouraging for NVIDIA, which has its Ion platform – capable of bringing Full HD-capabilities to the netbook.

    However, Intel says the chipset wasn’t engineered to enable full Blu-ray capability "where the bitrates and demands of multi-layer content are significantly higher than that of internet HD content" – as high as 24Mbps for the video as well as extra layers like picture-in-picture commentary.

    So when are we likely to see a successor to GN40 that is capable of Blu-ray video?

  • Downloading Will Be The Death of Blu-Ray













    Predicting the demise of Blu-ray is a popular sport – and it has just gained another fan.

    Consumer review specialist Reevoo has come out with a report saying that the high-def format is fighting a losing battle against HD download services and hard drives.

    It suggest consumers continue to favor DVD players – despite the price of Blu-ray players falling significantly in the past few months.

    But the Reevoo report says that when customers have to upgrade, they are happy to skip Blu-ray altogether and go straight to a combination of downloads and hard drives.






    According to its data and reviews, consumes favor the "convenience" of digital downloads and digital hard drive recorders.

    Whether Blu-ray’s demise will be quite as swift as Reevoo are suggesting remains to be seen.

    There’s no doubt, though, that the format really needs to start making waves soon.






    Reevoo summarises the three main factors it identifies as impeding the uptake of Blu-ray as:






    – Improved DVD players – DVD players are still outselling Blu-ray players by a factor of 10:1 according to Reevoo data. Newer high-end DVD players capable of ‘upscaling’ a standard definition image to near-HD, the gap between DVD and Blu-ray has shrunk to the point that shoppers see no reason to upgrade
     


    – Blu-ray pricing and inflated disc prices




    – Households are downloading – The window for Blu-ray to become the leading video format is closing rapidly. The format is also competing with downloads through services such as Apple’s iTunes store which offers HD content for rental or purchase at a lower price than Blu-ray discs.Hard-drive based personal video recorders (PVRs) sold twice as many units as Blu-ray in the UK over Christmas according to Reevoo data








  • OWC Doubles Speed of Mercury Pro Blu-Ray Drives to 8X


    Other World Computing (OWC) has upgraded the speed of its Mercury Pro Blu-ray/SuperDrive just four months after launching it as the world’s first external Blu-ray drive with a quad interface.

    Now twice as fast, the Mac and PC technology company device boasts 8X Blu-ray write speeds of up to 2GB per minute, blank DVDs at 16x and writable CDs at up to 32x.

    It offers FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces for Plug & Play compatibility with both Windows and Macintosh systems.

    The Mercury Pro Blu-ray External Drive is available immediately priced starting at USD $399.99.

  • Panasonic To Release Freesat PVR HDD Blu-Ray Recorder


    Panasonic has unveiled what it claims are the world’s first Blu-ray recorders with two integrated Freesat receivers and an internal hard drive.

    Freesat is a UK free-to-air digital satellite television service that is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV.

    Making the announcement at its European press launch in Amsterdam this week, Panasonic said the DMR-BS850 will feature a 500GB hard drive along with a Blu-ray player and recorder.

    The company will also be releasing a smaller version, the 250GB BS750.

    Both will offer support for Panasonic’s new Internet content delivery service, Viera Cast.

    Since the players are equipped with twin HD tuners, users will be able to record content from one channel while watching another one.

    Both machines are Freesat+ compatible, so pausing and rewinding on-demand will also be possible.

    The two models have integrated SD memory card slots and, although Panasonic didn’t confirm it, it will also be possible to record Freesat-recorded content onto a Blu-ray Disc.

    The new recorders will launch in May but no price details have been released.

  • Broadcast International and Fixstars Develop Software-based H.264 Real-time Encoder


    A PC-based H.264 software encoder that offers advanced encoding solutions has been developed by Broadcast International and Fixstars Corporation.

    The CodecSys CE-100/200 has been designed to improve the productivity of IPTV content creation in areas like Blu-ray disk authoring, digitization of video archives and large scale surveillance camera networks.

    Rod Tiede, president and CEO of Broadcast International, said the availability of the CE-100/200 is significant because it fills a "huge void" in terms of solving the global bandwidth crisis.

    "We’ve seen over and over that the biggest technology problem the world will face in the coming years with regards to video content is video compression and making more bandwidth available to accommodate the popularity and demand for more online video," he said.

    CodecSys CE-100/200 is comprised of Broadcast International’s ultra-high speed video compression software running on IBM’s BladeCenter QS21 server, powered by the Cell/B.E. processor.

    It was originally developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba to provide the computing power for cutting-edge gaming applications.

    Tiede said the the Cell/B.E. processor on the QS21 helps CodecSys AVC set a new standard for H.264 encoders.

    He said it gave the broadcast industry the ability to handle a high volume of premium quality video and a large number of video channels.

    The CE-100/200 is available immediately.

  • Deal With Broadcom Brings Chumby's Widgets To HDTVs


    Widget company chumby’s media Internet platform is to start appearing on HDTVs, set-top-boxes and Blu-ray players thanks to a deal struck with Broadcom Corporation.

    The tie-up will see chumby’s interactive multimedia widgets integrated into Broadcom’s latest system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions.

    For consumers, the companies say the collaboration will deliver "cost effective, high quality and personalized user experiences to Internet-connected TVs".

    Effectively, it will enable viewers to use widgets to access chumby’s vast library of Internet content, as well as its offering of Internet radio streams and podcasts.

    Users will be able to customize channels of streaming Internet and view their own digital content on devices enabled by Broadcom solutions – across multiple connected screens in the home.

    Chumby’s content currently consists of over 1,000 widgets in 30 different categories ranging from news and entertainment to videos, music, and sports.

    Media partners include CBS, MTV Networks, The New York Times, Pandora, The Weather Channel Interactive, AOL’s SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.

    The two companies say the move is to satisfy increasing demand for Internet-based streaming video, music and other media content on household televisions.

    For consumer electronics manufacturers deploying chumby platform support on Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray Disc players shouldn’t involve additional cost, external components or expensive PC hardware, according to chumby.