Recently Filed in HD DVD

Have you picked up a Blu-ray player yet? Are you buying Blu-ray discs or just renting them? Or do you just download movies from iTunes when you want to see something new? Word from the Redhill Group (via Hollywood In Hi-Def) is that Blu-ray sales are steadily increasing, and the numbers for 2008 seem pretty positive. An average of 1.14 million Blu-ray disc sales per month is about 2 1/2 times more than how business was going last year, and about 1 1/2 times that… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Enhancements • Product News

As if I need to remind, the recent Blu-ray / HD DVD battle was not only bloody but also very, very expensive for all involved. Both Sony and Toshiba burned through their budgets (and then some) on aggressive promotions, sly marketing and hyper-rapid product development. In the end, BD won and Toshiba announced that rather than join the party, they would instead focus on improving the standard DVD technologies. Many assumed this meant enhancing the image scaling capabilities via their SpursEngine 1000 processor, a pint-sized… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Manufacturers • Home Theater • Product News

Blu-ray may have won the war, but it’s still in the fight—to get sales. Research firm NPD Group says (via USA Today) that the demise of HD DVD hasn’t really helped Blu-ray sales much. In fact, the report says that Blu-ray hardware sales dropped 40 percent from January to February. Also, sales only grew 2 percent from February to March. However, that number excludes the number of PlayStation consoles, so the real number of players involved is a mystery. However, Sony says they sold 257,120… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Home Theater • Product News

Q. I have a 4-year-old, 50-in. 720p Fujitsu plasma, which still gets a great picture. It does not have an HDMI connection, but it does have DVI. How can I hook up an HD DVD or Blu-ray player? - Chase, Tacoma, WA You can connect HD DVD or Blu-Ray players to your 720p plasma in a few different ways. Due to the ever-changing state of technology, manufacturers make “hybrid” or crossover cables. These cables have one type of connection on one end and a completely… View this story
Cables, Wires and Tools • Plasma • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Home Theater • Ask a Pro

As I see it, surround sound should provide an ambiance mimicking real life, strong enough to suck you into the movie you are watching. At its most basic, the sounds you hear shouldn’t be limited to the space in front of you. Let’s say you’re on a baseball mound uncorking a pitch; you’d hear the crack of the bat from the front, but you’d also hear the ball whizzing down the first base line. Not to mention the crowd’s cheers or boos, as well as… View this story
Speakers • Surround Sound • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Movies and Music • Audio • Info and Answers

Not to be showed up by the Best Buys and Wal-Marts of the world, Amazon wants to offer condolences to the HD DVD crowd too. Amidst the hundreds of spammy offers I get everyday, I found a nice little surprise in my email yesterday: $50 back from Amazon. If you purchased your player from them, the e-tailer has offered credit off a future purchase—and you don’t even have to return the player. “New technologies don’t always work out as planned,” the email says. “We at… View this story
HD DVD • Retailers • Home Theater • Product News

Wal-Mart doesn’t just roll back prices—they are rolling back the clock, so you can think twice about that HD DVD purchase. The mega-retailer is joining in the HD DVD return frenzy, offering customers money back for any HD DVD purchase made after November 1. In case you don’t remember, Wal-Mart was pretty instrumental in pushing the defunct format, offering Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player for $99. That magical day was November 2—so those players qualify for the refund as well. The Wall Street Journal says… View this story
HD DVD • Retailers • Home Theater • Product News

Perhaps Okoro Media Systems considers itself to be the sports car of media servers. One of the flairs to its latest high-end server, the ZX series, is the ability for purchasers to customize the chassis by ordering it in any automotive color. The OMS-ZX100, the first model available in the “Extreme” line of Okoro’s digital entertainment systems, has plenty going on under the hood as well. For high-performance video and gaming there’s an Intel Core2 Extreme Quad Core Processor QX68750 3.0GHz, Nvidia Pure Video HD… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • Digital Media Servers • Digital Recorders • HD DVD • Home Theater • Product News

Q. I’ve noticed some retailers have reduced the price of the Xbox360 HD DVD player to approximately $49. This seem to be a great deal but given the fact that HD DVDs will no longer be produced, I’m wondering if it will be a good idea to purchase the Xbox360 HD DVD player to use for upconverting purposes only. Is there really a noticeable difference between a standard DVD signal and an upconverted DVD signal? - Don, Bowie, MD Yes, you should see a noticeable… View this story
DVD Players • HD DVD • Home Theater • Ask a Pro

Everyone involved in Blu-ray is enjoying a pretty nice 2008 so far, and it’s only through just about three months. The latest numbers from HMR Research show that sales of the high-def DVDs in the United States recently passed the 9 million mark, and that a third of those sales have come this year alone. The great pace puts Blu-ray on track for over 15 million sales this year, the research estimates. It’s been a little more than a month since the HD DVD camp… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • HD DVD • Miscellaneous • Movies and Music • Home Theater • Product News

The format war may be over, but Plextor still has some love for those that have amassed a decent HD DVD collection. Two of the company’s new internal Blu-ray drives will also read HD DVD. “According to Home Media, more than 1.5 million HD DVD movies have been sold in the United States to date,” said Amber Wang, director of new business development and marketing at Plextor. “Our new drives give customers the ability to play HD DVD movies as well as Blu-ray discs.” According… View this story
Blu-ray • HD DVD • Computer Accessories • Home Theater • Networking • Product News

Best Buy is doing its part to stimulate the economy. At least, if you bought an HD DVD player from the company. The retail giant has “exciting news” for you in that case-- it is sending out $50 gift cards to those who purchased HD DVD players or HD DVD attachments from Best Buy before February 23, 2008. The company says most people will automatically receive the gift cards in the mail over the next few weeks. If you haven’t received anything by May 1,… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • DVD Players • HD DVD • Industry • Retailers • Home Theater • Product News