Word of LG's hybrid player first trickled down last week, but I got a chance to glance at it and talk to an LG rep last night. He answered one of my burning questions: what happens if you put one of Warner's hybrid Blu-Ray/HD DVD discs into the hybrid player? Turns out the hybrid discs have HD DVD on one side, Blu-Ray on the other, so it'll play whatever you put in.
The player, dubbed the "BH100 LG Super Multi Blue Player" (not an ounce of hyperbole, I'm sure), not only boasts compatibility with both HD formats, but also plays standard DVDs. All the features you'd expect to find on an a high def optical player are present: HDMI out, composite and component, optical and 5.1 channel audio, et cetera.
The real question is how this will affect the format war? With a list price of around $1200, the player is significantly more expensive than HD-DVD players, and slightly more expensive than Blu-Ray players (while still being much less expensive than buying one of each). Where LG has gone, others will likely follow, but hovering over this entire war is the dark cloud of downloadable HD video. Could the HD optical formats be DOA? Expect to see the hybrid player in this quarter, though the fallout might take years.
I just walked out of the Samsung press conference, having had so much information pushed down my throat that I'm actually suffering from indigestion. Sammy's president and CEO Gee Sung Choi (pictured) dragged out the pom-poms to cheer on Samsung's #1 position in the worldwide TV market, and then ran down what to expect from these guys this year.
The bottom line: a lot. Most of the time, unsurprisingly, was spent on Samsung's TV lines, but mentions was given to their music player line, Blu-Ray, and IT products (monitors, printers, etc.). New versions of pretty much everything abound, so let's do a quick rundown.
Continue reading "CES '07: Samsung gives it the full court press"
I'm not sure if I should be rechristening "Format War '06" to "Format War '07" or something more specific, like "High-Def Disc Format War." It just doesn't have the same ring to it. How about "Wars fought by big companies in which the loser in the average Consumer"?
Two companies have thrown up white flags in an attempt to quell the rising hostilities. Electronics maker LG has announced a hybrid Blu-Ray/HD DVD player that will appear at CES next week, and will be widely available in early 2007. Both LG and Samsung had toyed last year with the idea of a hybrid player, though reports went back and forth as to whether such a device would appear. The question now is its price: will it be in the range of HD DVD players (~$500), Blu-Ray players (~$1000), or perhaps somewhere in the price range of the two combined? We'll find out soon.
Meanwhile, as we reported last year (admittedly, it feels funny to say "last year" when this year is only four years old, but I digress), Time Warner will unveil their hybrid disc that would contain both Blu-Ray and HD DVD content (and, at some undefined point in the future, standard def DVD content) also at CES.
Hybrid players or hybrid discs? Sounds like we have a new format war on our hands. Can they coexist peacefully?
[via Gizmodo]
There has not yet been invented the copy protection system that dedicated hackers cannot break. The major reason for this, of course, is that you need to be able to decode the content to watch the video, and to do that you need the key. If you have the key, you can decode the content. It's that simple.
So it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) of HD DVD and Blu-Ray has already been cracked. AACS was supposed to be far tougher than CSS, the system used on conventional DVDs (the cracking code for which was once famously printed on a t-shirt).
A tool called BackupHDDVD has been released which ought to allow you to pull content off an HDDVD (for your own personal use, of course). Engadget is testing it out, and though they haven't gotten it to work yet, that's largely a restriction of the DVD playing software. I fully expect this to be GUIfied and perfected within a couple of weeks.
We bought my grandmother a small LCD screen for her kitchen for Christmas, a Sharp Aquos 13". It's a pretty nice TV, marred only by the fact that it's still relying on analog over-the-air reception. My parents confided that they've been eyeing an update to their TV as well (a 27" Sony CRT), but the eternal question reared its head: LCD or plasma?
Three of my buddies from college all own 50" plasma screens now, which they appear to be pretty happy with. I'd always heard that plasma was superior to LCD at larger sizes, but this New York Times article has me wondering again. Reputedly, Panasonic has been pumping plasmas over LCDs for their large screens, focusing on better contrast, viewing angle, etc. Then again, the fact that profit margins on LCDs have been falling due to increased competition couldn't have anything to do with it, hm?
So, I ask you, Gadgetboxers, when it comes to the home television set—the center of your home theater—do you prefer plasma or LCD? And, more importantly, why?
[via Slashdot]
Congratulations, Sony! You finally got the BDP-S1 out the door. This calls for some sort of party. After all, you're the architect of the Blu-Ray format, and this should be your flagship player. It plays all formats of Blu-Ray discs, plus your ratty old DVDs—but how can you be bothered to watch those when you have all 125 titles of Blu-Ray-ey goodness at your fingertips?
You'll also find HDMI with output of up to 1080p, analog output of up to 1080i, upscaling of old DVDs to 1080p, digital audio out, 5.1 decoding, and, most importantly, "rigid beam chassis construction, drive brackets and off-center insulator feet." Got to have those off-center insulator feet, son. The price for the latest and greatest in high definition? A cool grand. You could always go for a Blu-Ray playing PS3 for around half—oh, I'm sorry. I just can't keep a straight face for that one.
[via SCI FI Tech]
I've yet to make the HD jump. The center of my home "theater" is a 27" Sony Trinitron that I inherited from my parents (which would make me exempt from the MPAA's home theater registration fee). It's a pretty nice screen for its age (close to ten years) and it came at a hard to beat price (free). But seeing as all three of my closest friends from college own 50" plasma screens, I'm feeling a bit left out in the cold. To be fair, I'm not entirely certain my tiny fake wood media center from Target can support one of these huge screens anyway.
Even though there's no pricing announced yet, somehow I doubt I'll be able to afford either model of Samsung's 50" Plasma with built-in Multi Media Center. Besides the shiny panels with upped contrast ratios, the units feature internal hard drives for storing recorded video. Very snazzy. I'm prepared to drool all over this sucker at CES, which will no doubt get me kicked off the premises. I do it for you, readers. For you.
Update: And, of course, like many things that seem too ridiculous to be true, this is actually satire. My apologies for misleading you, but honestly, anybody out there think the MPAA is really too crazy to try this?
Motion Picture Asses of America, unite. If the MPAA gets its way, you might soon be shoveling money directly into their pockets. Concerned about the proliferation of home theaters in living rooms across America, the MPAA is trying to convince our esteemed Congress to pass a bill which would require home theater owners to pay a registration fee of $50 or risk fines of up to $500,000. For what offense? For showing DVDs, of course. Here's MPAA chief Dan Glickman (above), whose brain has clearly had its insanity dial cranked:
"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. "Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn't always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise."You have got to be fracking kidding me.
If you're wondering what constitutes a home theater, the MPAA would like the definition to include any setup with a screen larger than 29", stereo sound, "at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon." You know what, MPAA? Bite me. I would sooner remove all comfortable furniture in my house than pay you any sort of fee. This law gets passed and I swear I will never buy another DVD ever again. Even though my TV's only 27". Solidarity, baby.
[via Slashdot]
