Crave

Is this the future of Blu-ray?

(Credit: Amazon)

Brace yourselves. Less than two weeks after you open your gifts on Christmas morning, the consumer electronics industry will be reminding you that all those new gadgets--touted as lustworthy just days earlier--are already obsolete.

OK, maybe that's a tad cynical. But it's certainly true that the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (January 5-10) codifies the trends and sets the bar for what you can expect to see on store shelves for the following 12 months. That's especially true in the home theater category. But before we look forward to the upcoming show, let's take a look back at what we saw in 2009.

As the 2009 show came to an end, we chose the Samsung HT-BD7200 home theater system and the EchoStar "SlingLoaded" HD DVR 922 as the most promising products in the home audio and video realms. The latter product, to date, has yet to make an appearance in the real world (an all too common trend for many high-profile CES

"9" will be one of the new Blu-ray titles to feature iPhone interactivity.

(Credit: Amazon)

Excluding the recent Netflix PS3 disc, BD-Live has been a bust. Still, we give the movie studios credit for not completely abandoning the technology yet, and according to a recent Video Business story, Universal will feature iPhone interactivity on many several releases, "including Bruno, Public Enemies, 9, and Inglourious Basterds."

While it's easy to write it off as a gimmick, the iPhone functionality (called "Pocket Blu") is aimed at overcoming one of the biggest hurdles to interactive content, which is the painful process of entering text using a standard Blu-ray remote. While iPhone functionality won't solve that problem for Blu-ray owners that don't own iPhones, it's probably the easiest workaround at this stage. (We would have loved if Blu-ray players included a remote with a built-in keyboard, similar to Vizio's bluetooth remote.)

Universal is also planning to offer some exclusive content for iPhone users. We've complained about this before, but there's ... Read more

(Credit: LG)

Netflix has been on a roll in 2009, adding its Internet streaming video-on-demand service to an ever expanding list of devices. In just the past few weeks, the big news has been the imminent arrival of Netflix streaming on the PlayStation 3, along with more rumors that it will be coming to the Wii as well. Best Buy's Insignia brand has debuted a Netflix-capable Blu-ray player that lists for $149 (and has already been seen on sale for as little as $99). And Roku has delivered two new versions of its mini set-top box, lowering the entry-level price to just $80 for the non-HD version. That's in addition to Netflix's availability on the Xbox 360, TiVo DVRs, and Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and an increasing number of TVs.

With those notable changes in the Netflix landscape, we thought it was a good time to update our overview on Netflix streaming. (A recap follows, for the uninitiated; the Netflix-savvy can jump straight to the list of Netflix-compatible products.)

Netflix offers a library of 12,000-plus streaming titles over the Internet, available on an "all you can eat" basis for any customer on the $9 per month (one DVD movie by mail at a time) or higher plan. So, in addition to getting DVD (or, for an additional premium, Blu-ray) discs by mail, Netflix subscribers also get unlimited access to thousands of hours of on-demand programming. Just add the titles to the "Instant Queue" in your Netflix account, and they'll be available on any compatible device once you pair it. (The setup procedure, as outlined by CNET's Molly Wood, is quick and easy.)

There are a few downsides. Almost none of the available movie content would be classified in the "new release" category--the newest titles are usually at least a few years old. Also, the availability of titles ebbs and flows--many are available for a window of 60 to 90 days, after which they may or may not return a few months later. And many of the videos aren't available in their native wide-screen format. Also, you have to manipulate your queue from a PC browser. Aside from a list of new and notable titles, you can't search the available offerings and pick new selections that aren't already in your queue.

That said, we think the advantages are palpable. ... Read more

(Credit: Sony)

With its new $300 price tag, the PS3 Slim has been selling like crazy, and the fact that it's an excellent Blu-ray player is at least part of the reason.

Since Blu-ray's inception, the PS3 has been our reference Blu-ray player, only recently getting edged out of the top spot by the Oppo BDP-83. Now that the new 3.00 firmware has been released, we've had some time to put the PS3 Slim through our Blu-ray testing suite.

Editors' note: This story has been updated since publication to reflect that the PS3 Slim can now stream Netflix.

The good

Blu-ray performance

Testing the image quality of the PlayStation 3 has always been a challenge, mainly because it does not deinterlace native 1080i content to 1080p at 60 frames per second. That means test discs specifically designed to assess Blu-ray image quality--like HQV, Spears and Munsil, and Qdeo--aren't helpful; they all feature 1080i content and the PS3 just passes it along without processing. The PS3 Slim is no different in this regard. Not much Blu-ray content is available in 1080i, however, so this quirk of the PS3 isn't a huge problem in real-world scenarios.

Without the comfort of our reliable test discs, we switched to our favorite challenging passages from actual program content. The kitchen scenes during chapter 2 of "Sunshine" are often difficult for lesser players, but the PS3 Slim had no problem rendering the ridged cups or striped shirts. It also handled the end of chapter 6 on "Ghost Rider," where we sometimes see moire in the grille of the RV on players with faulty 1080i deinterlacing. A couple of select scenes from "Spider-Man 3" looked flawless as well.

Ever since we realized the PS3 didn't have an IR receiver, we've expected Logitech to release a Harmony remote with built-in Bluetooth support. Somewhat surprisingly, that day still hasn't come, with the company opting to release the Logitech Harmony Adapter for PlayStation 3 instead.

The recently released SMK Blu-Link universal remote offers what we've been waiting for since 2006: a single remote that controls all your gear, without a dongle. It's capable of controlling six devices and it uses a library of IR codes, similar to the cheap universal remotes you might pick up in a drug store. If the code isn't in the book, the Blu-Link can also "learn" it by pointing the device's original remote at the Blu-Link. We can't say how well the remote will work in practice, but from the image, it looks as if Blu-Link took some smart design cues from the TiVo "peanut" remote, with convenient DVR controls and a large directional pad up top.

The Blu-Link lacks many of the ... Read more

(Credit: Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)

We've covered just about everything you need to know about the PS3 Slim, but the sleuths over at Engadget HD (via a translated version of AV Watch) found a chart that indicates the PS3 Slim can bit stream both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. That change actually isn't that surprising, since the original limitation on the "old" PS3s was due to an older HDMI chipset; newer HDMI outputs have no problem bit streaming the high-resolution soundtrack formats.

(Credit: AV Watch)

We have a PS3 Slim review sample onhand, so it was easy to confirm the rumor. We had the PS3 Slim connected to the Sony STR-DN1000 receiver via HDMI, and we loaded up "Appaloosa," which as a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. After making a few tweaks in the XMB, were able to make the STR-DN1000's display say "Dolby TrueHD"--confirmation that the Slim was sending the soundtrack in encoded bit stream format. Next, we loaded up "Master and Commander," which has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and that ... Read more

Four seasons of "Lost" are already available.

(Credit: Netflix/screenshot by John P. Falcone)

Several of ABC's top shows will soon be available to watch via Netflix's "Watch Instantly" online streaming service. The first four seasons of "Lost" are already available, and they'll be joined in September by "Desperate Housewives" (seasons four and five), "Grey's Anatomy" (season five), and "Legend of the Seeker" (seasons one and two). The deal builds on an earlier agreement to make Disney Channel content available on Netflix (ABC is a division of Disney.)

While most of these programs are already available for viewing online on ABC's Web site, the Netflix deal allows them to be watched on TV screens via a large and growing number of Netflix-compatible home video devices, including many Blu-ray players and home theater systems, some Internet-enabled TVs, the Xbox 360, and the $99 Roku Digital Media Player. The ABC content joins programs from rival networks, including Fox, NBC, and CBS, that have long been available on Netflix. (Disclosure: CNET ... Read more

Here at CNET, we've taken a skeptical eye toward the high-end market for Blu-ray players. When videophile experts like the Criterion Collection and Joe Kane extol the image quality of the PlayStation 3, it's hard to see why anybody would spend more than $1,000 on a player. That being said, there's still a market for high-end Blu-ray players and that's exactly where Marantz's latest line of Blu-ray players is aimed at, with prices from $6,000 to $500.

Marantz Blu-ray players: from $6,000 to $550--photos

To be fair, the $6,000 Marantz UD9004 is loaded with features. It's a true universal player (Blu-ray, DVD, CD, SACD, DVD-Audio) and it takes AV fidelity so seriously it offers up two HDMI outputs (one for audio, one for video) to further reduce the chance of either signal becoming degraded in any way. Other high-end touches include stereo XLR outputs, a RS-232, and Silicon Optix's REALTA HQV processor to handle video chores. Of course, the $500 Oppo BDP-83 is also ... Read more

Onkyo is best known for its home theater systems and AV receivers, but the company also produces both Blu-ray and DVD players. Today, Onkyo announced the latest Blu-ray player in its line, the DV-BD507.

The DV-BD507 is the company's first Profile 2.0 player, which means it can play back BD-Live features available on some discs, although you'll need to have an SD card in the slot to download the content. (There's no onboard memory.) Like virtually all the Blu-ray players this year, it has onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, so you only need an HDMI-compatible receiver to take advantage of those formats. There's also for support Deep Color and x.v. Color, but since we haven't seen any Blu-ray content that supports either format, you're unlikely to get any benefit out of this.

The DV-BD507 is available today with a list price for $450, but it's hard to see how its basic feature set will be competitive at that price. LG's BD390 ... Read more