Items tagged with Blu-ray
Nettops are not nearly as popular as their mobile contemporaries, i.e. netbooks, arguably due to the lack of any significant horsepower within the tiny machines. Up until now, most nettops have been good for little more than basic Office duties, Web surfing, and occasional 720p (max) movie playback. There's a fine line that has to...
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The world keeps spinning, PCs keep getting quicker, and optical disc drives keep getting faster. It's just how the planet works. Not too long ago, simply having a Blu-ray burner at all was a luxury. Today, Blu-ray burners need speed to be special, and Sony Optiarc America's latest drive is Mr. Speedy indeed. It's a portable, external unit...
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Remember BDXL? That's the format that the Blu-ray Disc Association was trumpeting during this year's Computex trade show, though 3D Blu-ray seems to have stolen the spotlight since. We doubt that it'll remain that way for too long, though. With multi-media swelling larger and 1080p content become more pervasive, there's a growing need for...
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ZOTAC has made a living from producing graphics cards and PCs that are smaller than your average mid-tower, but their latest round of Mini PCs may be their nicest yet. For years, HTPC owners have wondered why so many HTPCs were shipping without Blu-ray support. Now, the times are finally catching up. ZOTAC has stepped...
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Toshiba is adding to the Satellite A665 laptop's 3D capabilities by providing a software update that will add 2D to 3D conversion, support for Blu-ray 3D discs, and the ability to stream 3D content to 3D-ready televisions. The Toshiba Video Player 3D software will now enable the Satellite A665 to take 2D content and upconvert it to 3D. In...
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It's coming, Star Wars fans. The question is: are you ready? For the first time ever, the Star Wars saga in its entirety will be available on Blu-ray, the highest resolution home film format yet. It's an announcement that fans have been waiting for, but the painful part is waiting from now until this time next year. That's right, this amazing...
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It's pretty much official at this point: 3D is here to stay, at least for a while. With Sony being one of the major backers of the technology we wondered how long (if ever) the others guys would wait before hopping on the bandwagon. Today, Samsung let out a slew of news surrounding 3D, and we can't imagine that the...
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It's one thing to support 3D in the home, but it's another to devote time, resources and shelf space to in-home 3D products. It's clear at this point that Samsung is fully behind the technology, and they're ramping up impressively as the holiday shopping season draws near. Aside from picking up some exclusive 3D Blu-ray content, the company...
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Thanks to high definition video, pictures, and other digital files, we need increased amounts of storage. Soon, the storage capacity of Blu-ray discs could double. In fact, companies such as Sharp, TDK, and Verbatim are already making plans to launch new discs that can store up to 100GB of data. According to a statement, Sharp will start selling...
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Redbox. Just saying the name brings a smile to most faces, particularly those movie lovers with a box or two nearby. We have heard in the past that the company is planning to compete with Netflix and is still in a "beta phase" when it comes to pricing, but now we're learning that Redbox is going Blue. Or, we should...
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Right from the start, Sony has been one of Blu-ray's largest fans, and also one of the company's pouring the most money into marketing the format. Many people assumed that Blu-ray was a format created by Sony at first, but it's actually not. Nevertheless, Sony is now helping to advance Blu-ray into the next level, teaming with Tohoku University...
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Thanks to the invention of the netbook and the tablet PC, it's safe to say that not everyone's main mobile machine has an optical drive. And in a lot of cases, that's perfectly fine. Not everyone needs an optical drive, and the added space, cost and power usage is sometimes not even favored. But that's why there are external optical drives,...
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We've sure come a long way since the days of 1.44MB floppy disks and the like. Beginning July 30, 2010, Sharp will beginning selling its VR-100BR1 triple-layer Blu-ray disc media, a write-once disc capable of storing up to 100GB of data. "This disc media product conforms to the new BDXL format specification that extends the storage capacity...
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It's hard to say which company really sparked the 3D revolution, but it's safe to say that Sony will go down as one of the pioneers. They have been pushing the technology from the beginning, and they've been willing to spend serious bucks in order to make sure that 3D is available on their televisions, game consoles and even Blu-ray players....
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It's true: Blu-ray is outgrowing itself, but thankfully, there's room for expansion on the current format. There have been rumors for years that larger optical discs were on the horizon, and even hints that Blu-ray itself may grow. But now it's official, and those who always assumed that a single 50GB dual-layer disc would one day be too small...
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Is this week laptop week, or what? New notebooks usually roll out rather quickly, but we've seen Toshiba introduce an entire new family, MSI issue a new netbook, and now Acer coming out with a few new machines of their own. All within the past 72 hours, no less. The Acer Aspire AS8943G is the real show-stopper here, with some fairly slick...
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Just a couple days ago, we learned about a few new apps from Samsung that will bring social networking and location based services to compatible Blu-ray Players, Blu-ray Home Theater systems, and TVs. While that sounds cool and all, we can't help but appreciate Philips new technology that doesn't require any widgets...
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Samsung is bringing social networking and location based services to your TV and entertainment system with the addition of Facebook and Google Maps to Samsung Apps. Samsung Apps is an HDTV-based application store that provides users with downloadable apps for their 2010 Samsung Blu-ray Players, Blu-ray Home Theater...
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And the 3D bandwagon continues to grow. First it was the 3D cinema, and next came 3D HDTVs. Now we've got 3D PCs, and 3D Blu-ray movies are on the way. But what if those last two could be combined? Oh, wait, they have been. Toshiba's Japanese branch has just announced the first notebook to have the capabilities to...
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Most of us don't back up our data as often as we should. In an effort to help make data backups less of a chore, EZPnP Technologies recently announced the new EZDigiMagic DM110 series of portable backup burners. These burners are designed to give you one-touch backup from flash memory cards or a PC to optical discs...
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Yesterday, Google's biggest reveal at Google I/O was Google TV. It's still sort of a fuzzy product, and it's hard to aptly describe in just a few words. It's definitely aiming to be the "next big thing" in television, and the only way it will ever have a huge impact is to join up with known names in the industry in order to get into more homes....
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Best Buy is launching a new digital video service called CinemaNow that will provide customers with same-day, instant access to new release movies and TV shows. Initially, the service will be accessible through select connected Blu-ray Disc players and HDTVs. It will also be available on most PCs via...
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