Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

dvd

Toshiba laptops will soon write to HD

In the maddening crush of gadgets and humanity that is CES, we walked right past the Qosmio sitting in Toshiba's booth--after all, we'd seen that laptop before, and R2-D2 was in the house. But there was something different about that Qosmio; Toshiba was using it to show off its laptop-size HD-DVD-R optical drive, which reportedly will let users burn as much as 30GB of data on a single HD-DVD disc. The company's been mum on other key deets, such as release date and price, though they have promised more info by the end of this quarter. If … Read more

LG: No HD DVD logo on combo player

The LG BH100, the combination Blu-ray and HD DVD player selected by CNET as the best product of CES 2007, is definitely coming out on time, according to LG spokesman John Taylor, but it won't have the official HD DVD logo. The logo pictured on the CES demo unit will not be printed on the shipping player because the BH100 did not gain approval by the DVD Forum, the body responsible for HD DVD licensing. The reason is that the BH100 cannot support HDi (formerly known as iHD), the interactive layer of HD DVD discs.

I've read reports … Read more

Guided tour of Netflix Watch Now service

Netflix has fleshed out some details of its newly announced movie download service. The Watch Now instant viewing service is scheduled to become available to all Netflix subscribers by June. It will launch with just 1,000 titles (movies and TV shows), but the selection will expand thereafter--slowly but surely--to encompass as many of the 70,000-plus titles in the Netflix database as possible. The online viewing feature will be a free addition to existing accounts, with subscribers getting a monthly allotment of online viewing time based on their subscription level. For instance, an $18-per-month plan (three DVDs out at … Read more

Play your iPod on Philips' DVD portables

Instead of having to choose between a portable DVD player and an iPod, now you can tote both using one of two Philips portable DVD players. Both the DCP750 ($149), equipped with a 7-inch screen, and the 8.5-inch DCP850 ($199) have a well that accommodates a remote control that, when ejected, can now handle an iPod.

In addition to playing from an iPod, you can bring media in via the players' SD card slots. Both decks can translate a variety of MPEG-4 video formats including DivX, and most CD and DVD rewritable formats including SVCD. The players' most distinctive … Read more

Warner details combo HD DVD/Blu-ray disc

As reported last week, Warner Brothers announced yesterday at CES its introduction of a new disc format that will contain both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of the same movie, so it would work with either type of player. Warner calls the new format Total HD.

The studio fleshed out a few more details at the press conference. It announced that major retailers Best Buy and Circuit City, along with online retailer Amazon, will stock the discs when they appear in the second half of this year. It also specified, according to Reuters, that the discs could be either single- … Read more

Catch ya on the flip-side

Warner Bros. will be making some of its films available on "Total Hi Def" DVDs, which are, ingeniously, HD DVD on one side and Blu-ray on the other.

The combo discs are the same size as always but contain both single and dual layers for both formats. A Total Hi Def DVD can have 15GB or 30GB on the HD DVD side and 25GB or 50GB on the Blu-ray side.

The Total Hi Def DVDs (THD DVDs? THDs?) will begin appearing some time after July, in conjunction with normal movie-to-DVD release schedules, Warner Bros. said at CES.

The … Read more

DVD recorders get digital ATSC tuners

DVD recorders are old news, but they've been given a little shot in the arm at CES 2007. Because of federal mandates that require any product with an analog tuner to also include a digital tuner, we've seen several DVD recorders with built-in ATSC tuners. That means you should be able to pull in free, over-the-air HDTV with these new DVD recorders and an antenna. The bottom line is that these recorders should be able to burn downconverted high-definition programs from the digital HD tuner in the correct wide-screen aspect ratio. Of course these burned discs won't … Read more

DVD players go 1080p for less

In 2006, we saw a few DVD players that could upscale to 1080p, but you had to pay a little extra for the cutting-edge technology. At CES 2007, several manufacturers have announced 1080p-upscaling DVD players, with most of the prices hovering right around $100. And while the LG Super Multi Blue Player is certainly the biggest video disc player of the show, we're betting plenty of people will be jumping on these 1080p players as a relatively cheap way to make their DVD collection look a little better.

Pioneer so far has the cheapest 1080p-upscaling DVD player we've … Read more

Toshiba preps three portable DVD players

They lack the sizzle of Philips' new portable DVD players, which include iPod docks and displays that swivel 180 degrees. But Toshiba's new line of "premium" portable DVD players offer larger screen sizes, an updated design and, the company claims, longer battery life.

The top-of-the-line SD-P2900 has a 10.2-inch wide-screen LCD screen, four-in-one (SD, MMC, MS, and xD) memory card slot and component-video output. Battery life is rated at six hours. The SD-P2900 will be available in March for $300.

The midrange SD-P1900 has a 9-inch wide-screen LCD screen with a new black acrylic top, dual … Read more