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Sony will introduce a sub-$200 Blu-ray disc reader for the PC aftermarket in early 2008.Sony is also considering an external version of the drive. However, a final decision has not been made. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The device will have no burning capabilities for any type of media, said Bob DeMoulin, Sony’s marketing manager, branded optical storage. This will be Sony’s first foray into the BD reader arena.
“A Blu-ray player at a sub-$200 price point becomes real attractive to the consumer. This is how it was done with DVD-ROM,” he said.
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With today's release of AnyDVD 6.1.8.4, SlySoft has once again delighted its customers with the delivery of another masterpiece in the never-ending battle with manufacturers of DVD copy protection systems. The new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scanner analyzes the entire DVD within just a few seconds and through the utilization of voluminous rules and exceptions "decides" dynamically exactly how to circumvent the copy protection on this particular DVD.If you want to check out the latest version of AnyDVD, it can be downloaded here. Otherwise, more information can be found on SlySoft's website. Add a comment
Giancarlo Bettini, SlySoft CEO, enthusiastically sums up the achievement this way: "The AI Scanner in AnyDVD is a new, pro-active copy protection circumvention method. It allows the user to make safety backups of his DVD movies even if the newest anti-piracy technology is used. It is our belief that the AI Scanner will even work on protections yet to be released, so we see this as a future-proof technology. This is indeed a hard nut to crack for the copy protection industry."
6.1.8.4 2007 10 11
- New (DVD): New "AI Scanner(tm)" copy protection removal
- New (DVD): Added support for new copy protections
- New (DVD): CSS brute force cracking (region code mismatch) works now much better with Arccos/RipGuard/ProtectDVD/FluxDVD ... protected discs
- New (DVD): UDF remastering of .IFO and .BUP files
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Support for new titles
- New: Automatic creation of .zip files containing IFO files and other useful debug information in the user's "My Documents" folder, if "Enable Logging" is enabled in AnyDVD program's settings.
- Fix (DVD) AnyDVD ripper could complain, that the destination directory has insufficient space
- Fix (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Large I/O requests could cause the "Magic File Replacement(tm)" to malfunction
- Fix: Integrity check could issue a false alarm
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages
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Samsung today has issued a firmware update to its BD-P1000 and BD-P1200 Blu-ray players. The firmware is in response to these reported issues, but it also makes some other performance tweaks, according to Samsung.It's good to Samsung responding this quickly. Hopefully, we'll see an update from LG in the near future as well. If you're having trouble finding the firmware updates, they can be downloaded here (BD-1000P) and here (BD-1200P). Add a comment
The BD-P1000 firmware update may be downloaded from Samsung's site and burned to disc. The firmware fixes the freeze-up issue reported with Fox's BD+ titles.
The BD-P1200 firmware update, which may downloaded via Samsung's site or installed via the player's ethernet connection, improves playback compatibility in some movies, fixes the BD+ issue, enhances performance of in-movie games, and fixes audio noise in some movies.
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If you'd like to read more, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, starts sample shipment of a new-generation UniPhier system LSI (PH1-ProII = nickname, MN2WS0038) from October 2007, in which next-generation AV data compression/decompression (codec) technology is applied to UniPhier, Panasonic's original digital consumer electronics integration platform.
The new-generation UniPhier uses the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, a next-generation codec. It can compress full-HD large image data down to one third to half that of the conventional methods while keeping high level definition. It also extends the recordable time significantly for the same media, and can realize smooth image data communication.
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ASUS P5K Motherboard @TweakTown
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This HROM technology is still far from being perfected. Hitachi Maxell still needs to find a way to handle vibrations and extend the operating temperature range before it can be put in production. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Hitachi Maxell Ltd. demonstrated playback of music data read from HROM, a read-only medium based on the holographic recording technology at its booth at CEATEC Japan 2007.
Hitachi Maxell is focused on the development of holographic medium in collaboration with InPhase Technologies Inc., a US venture company. The HROM medium was also developed based on InPhase's proprietary holographic technology.
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If you'd like to read more, Verbatim's entire press release can be found here. Add a commentVerbatim, the storage media specialist, introduces recordable and rewritable Mini Blu-ray media (BD-R/BD-RE) to the European market. The 8 cm Blu-ray media will be available in specialist stores from November and will cost between €12,99 and €17,99 (RRP).
Measuring 8 cm in diameter, the new 7.5 GB discs provide approximately one hour of continuous video capture time on a single side when high definition (1920×1080) is used, and approximately two hours of video capture time with images recorded at 1440×1080. The new Mini BD media have been launched in Japan simultaneously with the new Hitachi BD-compatible camcorder in August. In Europe, the Verbatim Mini Blu-ray media will be available at the beginning of November. The recordable Mini BD-R costs €12.99, the rewritable Mini BD-R costs €17.99 (recommended retail prices).
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HD DVD set-tops have reclaimed their dominance over Blu-ray standalone players, according to weekly NPD Group unit sales figures cited by Toshiba.Video Business also reports that Toshiba expects to sell 5 million PC-based HD DVD drives in 2008. By putting the drives in desktop and notebook computers, Toshiba hopes to make the format competitive with the Playstation 3. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
HD DVD players began outselling Blu-ray models starting in mid-September and regained a year-to-date lead of a little over 50% through the rest of the month, said Jodi Sally, Toshiba VP of marketing of digital A/V products.
Year to date, according to NPD figures she cited, HD DVD players command 53% of sales; Blu-ray players, 44%; dual format players, 3%.
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Acer AL2002W 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor @ThinkComputers.org
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The BWU-200S will be available directly from Sony at sonystyle.com next month for about $600. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
Sony Electronics today announced its second generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer drive for the computer aftermarket, which boasts 4X BD-R and 16X DVD+R recording speeds.
The new BWU-200S model cuts BD-R burning time by half compared to the first generation model, allowing for a full 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in about 45 minutes. It also features improved DVD burning speeds, making it a multi-format combo burner that eliminates the need for more than one drive in a system.
The drive comes with CyberLink BD Solution software that provides a comprehensive application for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content captured in the native HDV 1080i format from an HDV camcorder. In addition, the software supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format.
