NewsToshiba Goes With Upscaling DVD Player, Another Dis For Blu-ray
Posted 08/18/08 at 09:05:40 AM by Chris Moody
Since Blu-ray won out on the high-definition format war over Toshiba’s HD DVD, high definition on disc has just languished. Blu-ray’s victory has been a hollow one with few people rushing out to replace their trusty old DVD players and DVD collections. The initial assumption that it was the format war that kept adoption of the new standard slow. It turned out to be customers being perfectly happy with standard DVD quality.
Toshiba has been considering it’s next move and has decided DVD is good enough and is jumping on the "upconverting" DVD player bandwagon. They are releasing the XD-E500 DVD player that they says does more than previous models to improve the look of DVDs on high-definition TVs. At a MSRP of $149.99 it is twice as much as regular "upconverting" players, but it is less than half the price of a Blu-ray player.
An Associated Press report said that the XDE player produced a noticeable sharpening of the image over a standard, $70 up-scaling model on side-by-side LCD HDTVs. Toshiba didn't demonstrate the XDE against a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, however. Toshiba did stress that it's not meant to compete with Blu-ray.
Toshiba is playing up to Blu-ray’s marketing weakness, they can’t seem to convince users that there is enough of a difference in between regular Blu-ray and Standard DVD to warrant the expense of upgrading. The appearance of “upconverting” DVD players is only going to further hinder Blu-ray adoption. It might be an inevitability that someday we will have to upgrade. The big question is who will hold out the longest, Blu-ray’s high prices or consumers not wanting to pay those high prices and holding on to standard DVD? Who do you think will win out? My money is on the consumers.
NewsConsumers Still Shy on Blu-Ray; Missing Out on Glorious High Defintion Cinema
Posted 08/13/08 at 11:09:10 AM by Paul Lilly
What good is winning the war if there's no one to celebrate with afterward? That's the dilemma the Blu-ray camp has found itself in after having whipped HD-DVD out of contention in the high definition DVD market. According to a new consumer survey from ABI Research, there exists a widespread reluctance among consumers to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon, with over half of the 1,000 respondents saying they have no plans to purchase one citing "other priorities."
So why the reluctance? Hit the jump to find out!
NewsDVD Copying Is On The Rise
Posted 07/13/08 at 12:36:40 AM by Justin Kerr
Making copies of protected DVD media is complicated process conducted over dark fiber and only by the hacker elite, or is it? A new survey conducted by Futuresource Consulting shows that in reality, more than one in three US & UK residents have owned up to making copies of content they didn’t own. These numbers are up sharply from the one in four self proclaimed pirates surveyed during the previous year. The results tell the true story of what keeps Hollywood executives up at night. Is the movie industry doomed to suffer the same collapse facing music labels?
Click the jump to find out.
NewsSpeculation: Toshiba Thumbs Nose at Blu-ray, Toys with Internet Enabled DVD Player Instead
Posted 07/02/08 at 11:04:32 AM by Paul Lilly
Now that Blu-ray rules the high definition roost, many are left wondering what Toshiba's next move be in the wake of HD-DVD's death, and a new logo has kicked speculation into high gear. The Toshiba-chaired DVD Forum recently approved the DVD Download/DL logo, a new spec likely to show up in Toshiba's next batch of super upscaling DVD players. But what exactly is this new feature? According to wireless consumer advocate Christopher Rice, DVD Download/DL equipped players will enable transmissions of HD-quality video from the web, so not only will your standard videos look better when upscaled, but you'll have the option to download the DVD in HD.
If true, one has to wonder why Toshiba would go down this road again and wage another war with Blu-ray, but is it really such a big gamble? Despite winning the high definition format war, Blu-ray sales have been a bust among consumers, and buyers are realizing that upscaled DVDs look pretty darn good on a HDTV. And because the new players won't introduce a new optical format, movie studios won't be able to render the player obsolete as easily as they did with HD-DVD. Sounds promising in theory, but let's see how it shakes out in practice.
NewsNetflix Listens to Customers, Keeps Profiles Feature
Posted 06/30/08 at 05:54:40 PM by Paul Lilly
Stable and affordable subscription plans; unlimited streaming downloads; large DVD catalog; optional living room set-top player. With all Netflix has going for it, the announcement that it would disable user Profiles came as a curious one. In between carpooling to class and eating Ramen noodles, college roommates would suddenly have to share a queue, and parents would no longer be able to configure a separate profile with parental controls for the kids. The surprise announcement sparked an outrage from hundreds of angry subscribers who left comments on Netflix's blog, and while not quite on par with the backlash inflicted upon Creative over Daniel_K and his now infamous modified soundcard drivers, one had to wonder why Netflix would risk agitating a content customer base. After some reflection of their own, and undoubtedly a few angry letters, Netflix sent out a letter to subscribers today reversing its decision to kill user Profiles:
"You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping user Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are." - Netflix
Whether you care about Profiles or not, isn't it nice knowing the customer can sometimes still be right?
NewsNetflix Nukes User Profiles, Kicks Roommate Off Queue
Posted 06/21/08 at 01:43:45 AM by Paul Lilly
A scant six months ago, we all wondered which camp would prevail in the high-definition format war. But as fate (and the studios) would have it, Sony's Blu-ray format emerged as the victor, leaving movie buffs with yet another question: Where will we get our flicks from? The days of renting movies in a brick and mortar store are slowly coming to an end, and this new war for your movie-renting dollar is being waged online. Both blockbuster and Netflix offer video rentals delivered straight to your mailbox, and while Netflix seems poised to emerge as a fan favorite, not all changes have subscribers jumping for joy. Click through to learn what's changing with Netflix, and what you can do about it.
Image Credit: Netflix
FROM THE ARCHIVEDaily News Brief: Apple Considers Unlimited iTunes Plan
Posted 03/20/08 at 04:53:32 PM by Paul "One4yu2c" Lilly
Apple may shake up iTunes business, Best Buy eases pain for HD-DVD adopters, YouTube lands man in jail, a new Futurama movie, and more!
ReviewsLG GGW-H10NI Super Multi Blue
Posted 09/24/07 at 01:00:02 PM by Katherine Stevenson
Before you get too excited about LG’s combo optical drive, bear in mind that while the GGW-H10NI Super Multi Blue can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, it can write to only the former format. Still, this drive offers a degree of flexibility that no other next-gen drive we’ve tested has. You won’t be shut out of watching movies from studios that have allied themselves with just one of the high-def formats. Not surprisingly, this luxury doesn’t come cheap. At $1,200, the Super Multi Blue costs more than your average Blu-ray burner—by as much as $600.
Click Read More for more.
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