Blu-ray

March 5, 2007--Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment (BVWHE) today announced their slate of Blu-ray Disc® releases for April 2007, all of which are presented on the newest high definition 50 GB disc. Titles will include King Arthur and G.I. Jane, which will be in stores on April 3, and Déjà vu and The Queen, available on April 24. Most Blu-ray™ titles from BVWHE will be available for $34.99 SRP. Read more

Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony today unveiled its second Blu-ray Disc (BD) player, bringing the movie theater experience home for videophiles and movie buffs alike.

Following the success of the company's first player, the newest unit is expected to broaden the market with a price of around $600, a new design, advanced audio codecs, BRAVIA Theater Sync, and CD playback.

"We plan to continue leading the Blu-ray Disc charge with products for the home that exceed consumer expectations and fulfill Sony's vision for an HD world," said Jeff Goldstein, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. Read more

January 25, 2007--Pioneer today confirms the availability of its new ‘BDC-202’ Blu-ray Disc Combo Drive. With BD-ROM compatibility, the drive enables professionals and consumers to watch pristine quality high-definition (HD) movies on PCs. It also includes read support for single and dual-layer Blu-ray disc formats together with high-speed read/write compatibility with a range of DVD and CD media. With Pioneer reliability and a competitive price point, the BDC-202 meets the growing demand for a versatile HD entertainment experience complemented by practical general-purpose back-up capabilities.

Awareness of the stunning quality of HD content is growing among end-users; knowledge that’s gathering steam as the increasing numbers of high-profile movie titles are published and promoted in the Blu-ray format. At the same time, unit costs of powerful graphics processors, high-specification sound cards and attractive flat-screen displays are falling and, in combination with Blu-ray drives, provide the option of offering an exceptional PC-based movie experience. Read more

Jan 9th, 2007—Silicon Optix, the leader in programmable video processors, just announced that the Reon-VX HQV video processor will be featured in Samsung’s BD-P1200 Blu-ray player. The player will be available in March 2007.

HQV’s true 1080i to 1080p HD deinterlacing delivers the sharpest, most detailed HD images possible by employing per-pixel motion adaptive algorithms and a sophisticated multi-directional diagonal filter that ensures video free from jagged edges. The powerful HQV processing engine also provides per-pixel motion adaptive noise-reduction, detail enhancement and advanced scaling delivering premium quality up-converted SD material. Read more

January 8, 2007 – Philips, a pioneer in high-definition (HD) technology, delivers the ultimate HD experience to consumers with its Blu-ray Disc player (BDP9000). Shown today at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Blu-ray Disc player pairs stylish design with unbeatable sound and picture quality.

Philips’ Blu-ray Disc player is loaded with features that provide the most stunning pictures available, including 1080p resolution and a component video output that provides brilliant imagery. Rich surround sound is heightened with multichannel audio decoding and digital audio optical outputs. Fully backward compatible, the player not only plays consumers’ existing DVDs, but it also enhances the picture quality, upscaling it to 1080p. Read more

Jan. 8, 2007 -- Sony today introduced a high-definition living room PC with integrated Blu-ray Disc™ technology.

With the Digital Living System™ you can watch movies in stunning HD clarity, as well as record, store and playback personal content on high-capacity BD media. A built-in NTSC and an ATSC television tuner, in addition to a unidirectional digital CableCARD™, allows the VAIO® XL3 Digital Living System to replace an HD digital video recorder so you can watch and record TV without the need for a separate set-top box. Read more

Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Movie lovers can now build a PC to enjoy a spectacular HD DVD or Blu-ray experience with the release of new NVIDIA ForceWare drivers featuring NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology. PureVideo HD technology combines high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing to deliver extraordinary picture clarity, smooth video, brilliant color, and precise image scaling for high definition movies(1). The drivers are available now from NVIDIA.com.

"This is a milestone in PC entertainment," said Scott Vouri, general manager of multimedia at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA is proud to be the first graphics processing company in the world to make it possible for consumers to build or upgrade a PC to play HD DVD and Blu-ray movies." Read more

Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 50 million high-definition televisions (HDTVs) will be installed in U.S. households by the end of the year. With satellite and cable broadcasts now feeding high-definition (HD) content to millions of households, consumers are gearing up for the next step -- the ability to record HD programming onto high-definition optical media. Anticipation for HD-capable, set-top DVD recorders has been growing, and optical media manufacturers are ramping up to make HD recordable and rewritable media commercially available. Read more

Unlike standard DVD media that uses red laser technology, high-definition DVD media uses state-of-the-art, blue-violet laser technology to support crystal-clear HD broadcast and video recording, as well as high-capacity data storage. Imation Corp, the only company in the Americas capable of manufacturing blue laser recording media, depicts the unique manufacturing process, technology and consumer uses of high-definition media in a new video titled, "Imation: Into the Blue."

October 25, 2006--Furthering its unwavering commitment to the Blu-ray Disc (BD) format, the only high-definition packaged media platform broadly supported by the film, music, gaming, computing and consumer electronics industries, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced five additional titles scheduled for release in December including the $120 million box office smash and one of the most buzzed about films of the year THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA as its second BD/DVD day-and-date release on December 12. Like the Studio’s first day-and-date BD/DVD release, ICE AGE THE MELTDOWN on November 21, the release of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA on the BD format will benefit from a multi-million dollar promotional marketing campaign. Each of Fox’s BD releases is available for the suggested retail price of US$39.98/C$49.98. Read more

August 14, 2006 – LiteOn IT announces the LH-2B1S, the company’s first Blu-ray Disc (BD) triple writer. The LH-2B1S uses the revolutionary blue laser technology instead of red laser existing in today’s optical drives. The new technology provides an extremely precise laser focus and greatly increases storage capacity. LH-2B1S can store up to 50GB of data on a double-layer BD disc, equivalent to 9 hours High-Definition (HD) video or 23 hours of standard definition content or 72 CDs on a single disc. The new LH-2B1S triple writer will be available in September 2006. Read more