blu-ray

Sony's Blu-ray lineup gets much-needed user interface redesign, much-unneeded 4K upscaling

LAS VEGAS--The first bullet point in Sony's Blu-ray press release is the one I wanted to see the most: the new Blu-ray players will feature a redesigned user interface.

That might not sound like much, but Sony's Blu-ray players have been consistently hamstrung by a subpar user interface (both at the and within apps), despite having one of the most complete suite of apps on the market. Sony's information mentions its new Blu-ray players will feature "Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Hulu Plus, and more," and we're guessing they'll also include services that were available … Read more

Hardware makers ally with BitTorrent for European, Asian invasions

LAS VEGAS--A phalanx of deals involving the commanding general of torrent protocols, BitTorrent, and next-generation hardware marched into CES 2012 today, the unofficial Day Zero of the show. BitTorrent also announced that more than 150 million people used sibling programs BitTorrent and uTorrent last month, making them by far the most popular torrent clients around.

Following up on the announcement from CES 2011 that it would partner with hardware manufacturers to ship their devices with torrent support built in, BitTorrent revealed four companies based in Europe, Russia, and Asia that have prepared new hardware that automatically works with the current BitTorrent program. BitTorrent-certified devices from these companies will carry the BitTorrent logo. … Read more

LG's 2012 Blu-ray lineup looks a lot like 2011 lineup

LAS VEGAS--If you had the feeling that Blu-ray players have "peaked" as a product type, LG would tend to agree with you.

At least that's the feeling I get looking at LG's newly announced line of Blu-ray players at CES 2012. Not much has changed from last year's line, except that built-in Wi-Fi is no longer a premium feature, appearing on the nearly entry-level BP320. The chart above has most of the important details summarized, but the breakdown is essentially:

LG BP220: Smart TV (Ethernet-only) LG BP320: Smart TV + Wi-Fi LG BP520: Smart TV + 3D + … Read more

LG's Blu-ray home theater systems bet big on wireless rear speakers

LAS VEGAS--LG's latest batch of home theater systems will make it tough for other manufacturers to treat wireless rear speakers as a premium feature.

LG announced four new home Blu-ray theater systems this morning at CES 2012, with all but the entry-level BH6720S featuring wireless rear speakers. That's a big shift from years past, when wireless rear speakers were typically only available on the flagship model.

The major features break down like this:

LG BH6720S: Smart TV + Wi-Fi + 3D LG BH6820SW: Smart TV + Wi-Fi + 3D + wireless rear speakers LG BH9220BW: Smart TV + Wi-Fi + 3D + wireless rear speakers + Bluetooth + &… Read more

Getting a new Blu-ray player? Ignore these apps

If you're getting a new Blu-ray player this holiday season, chances are it's loaded with apps. And a lot of them aren't worth trying.

A broad selection of apps is theoretically great, but in reality there are entire genres of apps worth skipping on Blu-ray players. Sure, you could find that out the hard way by trial-and-error, but that's particularly frustrating on Blu-ray players where you often have to tediously enter in a log-in and password using an onscreen keyboard and a remote.

The big-screen experience just doesn't lend itself to all types of apps, … Read more

Pioneer intros smallest, lightest Blu-ray burner

Pioneer's new BDR-XD04J contains a mind-numbing array of disc burning and playback options that should cover you for the next several years.

Perhaps the biggest highlight is support for BDXL BD-R discs, which means you can burn those fancy triple-layer 100GB and quad-layer 128GB Blu-ray discs in a tiny package. This is supposed to be the world's smallest BDXL-compatible portable drive. … Read more

Awesome-sounding under-$100 audio gift ideas

Audio gifts are always a great idea for anyone who likes music or home theater. Here's a quick round up of affordable goodies, priced from $100 or less!

Logitech Mini Boombox First thing, the "Boombox" name might be a little misleading; this tiny thing can't boom, but the Logitech Mini Boombox does sound better than I could have imagined for its size, and price, $100. I'm not of fan micro speakers, but this one ain't bad.

The Zoom H1 Handy Portable Digital Recorder The Zoom H1 Handy Portable Digital Recorder ($100) is exactly what … Read more

Do all Blu-ray (and DVD) players sound the same?

I get this question a lot, "Steve, what's the best-sounding Blu-ray player." Sometimes the questioner is more specific, "I have an Oppo BDP-83, but is the Oppo BDP- 95 better? What are you using at home?"

I have an Oppo BDP-95 ($999), which has a lot in common with the company's BDP-93 ($499) 3D universal Blu-ray, SACD, DVD-Audio player, but the BDP-95 is the potentially better sounding player. I say potentially because that player's upgraded digital-to-analog converter and audio circuitry won't make a nit of difference if you're using the player'… Read more

New Yamaha app gives greater AV, media control

Yamaha has unveiled its AV Controller App 2.0 for Android and iOS devices. The app is designed to let users not only control Yamaha receivers and Blu-ray players wirelessly but also stream music to them via DLNA and from a mobile device.

The new app also offers multizone functionality, enabling users to control music in any zone, in addition to system functions such as power, source selection, zones, DSP, and volume.

The app lets users select computers and/or NAS devices from a source list, browse the media contained on them, and stream that media to a receiver. Yamaha … Read more