blu

LG debuts a combination Blu-ray and HD DVD player

At a press conference today at CES 2007, LG introduced the first player capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. The words on the drawer of the player read "Super Multi Blue Player," but the model number is simply BH100. The player will be available as early as the first week of February at Best Buy and Circuit City among other outlets, according to the company, and will cost $1,199. At least for now, this announcement appears to be the most significant news at the show.

In case there was any doubt of the unit'… Read more

LG talks Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player

Last night LG said it would release a combination Blu-ray/HD DVD player in early 2007. The news comes with no other details, but I expect the company to divulge a bit more information, perhaps including a mocked-up image or even a physical box of some kind, at the company's press conference, scheduled for 8 a.m. PT this Sunday at CES. Until then we're in the dark as regarding questions such as "When exactly?" "How much?" and "Is this for real?"

LG has made a similar announcement before, so I'll … Read more

Dell offers Blu-ray with the XPS M1710

As more and more manufacturers get accustomed to working with Blu-ray technology, prices will eventually drop for the everyday consumer. Until then, prices will remain on the premium side. Dell became the second manufacturer, after Sony, to offer a Blu-ray optical drive option in a laptop by now offering it with their XPS M1710 system. This model is available in red or black and is sure to be popular with users.

All Blu-ray players bow to the PlayStation 3?

After a long wait, we're finally starting to get in a new wave of first-generation Blu-ray players. CNET will be posting full reviews for both the Panasonic DMP-BD10 and the Philips BDP9000 shortly, but I've already taken some long looks at each in terms of picture quality, and they've got a lot to be worried about. Not because they look worse than HD DVD; in fact, the picture-quality gap is almost gone between the two formats. And not because they're bad players; both of them put out a pristine Blu-ray image that blows DVD out of … Read more

HDMI 1.3: The 1080p of 2007?

In a conference call this year with an exec at HDMI, we heard someone at the other end of the line describe HDMI 1.3, the new standard for the highest-quality digital A/V connection, as "the 1080p of 2007." In other words, he's hoping that HDMI 1.3 becomes the new buzzword in HDTV that everybody wants to know about, that high-end buyers will plunk down lots of cash to get, and that makes everything that came before it seem obsolete.

On Monday, I attended a 3-hour press event where HDMI Licensing LLC, the company behind … Read more

Blu-Ray comes to Dell laptop

Traveling movie buffs can now watch the slate of Blu-Ray high-definition movies on a Dell laptop, for a pretty penny.

Dell announced the availability of a Blu-Ray drive for its M1710 laptop Monday. The most expensive version of that laptop--checking in at $3,699--is the only one that features the drive, which allows users to watch HD movies or burn discs with up to 50GBs of data.

Dell's horse in the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD standards battle is clear, as the company is a founding member of the Blu-Ray Association, along with companies like Sony, Apple, Disney and Panasonic. Some … Read more

Roxio goes Blu

Remember Roxio? You most likely used its Easy CD Creator to burn CDs from your PC before iTunes came out. (Ah, the Napster days.) Well, Roxio makes a lot of other software, too, and now it seems to be getting into the Blu-ray/HD DVD wars.

Roxio released new software on Wednesday that will allow people to organize and burn movies to both DVD and Blu-ray recordable discs. The Roxio DVDit Pro HD is available at Roxio.com for about $500. It does DVD DLT and Blu-ray Disc CMF mastering with the ability to add CSS or AACS protection from … Read more

Xbox 360 to PC: The $200 HD-DVD drive

Two Franklins might seem like a lot for an ordinary optical drive, but when that drive is a blue diode-using, next-generation disc reader, then a $200 price tag is a bargain. Most HD-DVD drives currently cost at least $400, but the enterprising nerds at tech site UNEASYsilence figured out how to get the $200 Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive to work with a PC. It was originally intended just to work with the Xbox 360, but a hacked device driver means the USB drive can read HD-DVDs for any PC. Granted, there isn't much HD-DVD material out on the shelves … Read more

PS3 launch list: 21 games, 4 accessories, and 1 average movie

With just under a month before the long-awaited PlayStation 3 video game console releases, we finally have firm information about what will join the system on store shelves during the holiday season. Courtesy of GameSpot, here are the 21 games (likely selling for $60 each) that will be available on or soon after the PS3's November 17 release:

Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII (Ubisoft) Call of Duty 3 (Activision) EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks) F.E.A.R. (Vivendi Universal Games) Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Sega) Genji: Days of … Read more