Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The whole Profile 1.0 thing kind of put a damper on Sharp’s latest Blu-ray players, but since they were showcased at the company’s CEDIA booth, we figured it prudent to take a few snapshots and pass ‘em along. Design wise, the two are exceptionally similar, and we can’t say with good faith that the HP50U is really worth the extra coin. Hit the gallery over at Engadget HD and see if you can pick the two apart… and, go!

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Home Entertainment

If you’ve seen the BD-HP21H Blu-ray player, you’ve seen the BD-HP21U. Sharp is presumably getting official with the US version of said player here at CEDIA, and while the price tag is comparatively nice, the specifications are so last year. We’re talking Profile 1.1, AQUOS LINK, a Quick Start feature to get flicks rolling in under ten seconds and an HDMI 1.3 output. Granted, the glossy black player is mighty thin, but it’s still overpriced at $349.99 in our opinion. Full release after the jump.

Continue reading Sharp rolls out AQUOS BD-HP21U Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

It’s right around the midway point between last CES and the one to come, and for Philips, that means it’s time to dump a few new HDTVs onto the unsuspecting public. Announced today from atop a New York City hotel, the outfit got official with its 5000, 7000 and Eco series of LCD HDTVs. The 5000 FlatTV lineup includes 32- ($799), 42- ($1,799), 47- ($2,099) and 52-inch ($2,899) flavors, all of which are bathed in glossy black and feature HDMI 1.3a inputs. The Eco sets tout “several power-saving features such as a proprietary dimming technology” and arrive in 42-, 47- and 52-inch sizes ($1,099 to $2,299). Lastly, the 7000 Series ($1,699 to $2,699) — or Ultimate TVs, as Philips likes to say — offers up 120Hz ClearLCD / Perfect Pixel HD technology, an “invisible” speaker system and four HDMI-CEC connectors. For what it’s worth, Philips is also re-introducing its Profile 1.1-compliant BDP7200 Blu-ray player, which has already been reviewed and brushed aside in anticipation of fresher Profile 2.0 decks.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Philips has announced the second generation in its line of Blu-ray players with the BDP7200, sporting 1080p/24 and Deep Color support, and BonusView (aka Profile 1.1) picture-in-picture capability. The player can also upscale DVDs to 1080p, and control connected devices using the EasyLink HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) protocols. Philips will release the BDP7200 in April for a $349 price, putting it towards the low end on the Blu-ray player price list, but the one thing we wish Philips had let us know was the level of audio codec support, with no mention at all of DTS or Dolby’s high-end audio formats.

Click on for a couple more photos

Continue reading Philips launches BDP7200 BonusView-enabled Blu-ray player

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

You knew they were coming, now PSP 3.80 and PS3 2.10 are out and ready to dance on your Sony console. That’s DivX and WMV video support with Blu-ray profile 1.1 now ready for your PS3 in addition to Internet radio and a few other goodies for your PSP. Now get to it Sony boy, you might want to call in sick to do it up right.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

That’s it, you’re looking at a screenshot from the world’s first Blu-ray profile 1.1 disc. The title is Neues vom Wixxer, available in Germany on December 10th. Ok, not exactly a global blockbuster but a first’s a first. As such, it supports the “Bonus View” profile which adds decoders for secondary PiP video and audio. This disc in particular, takes advantage of the profile by integrating video commentary from the film’s makers and actors. Unfortunately for our dear German readers, Michael Becker, CEO of Imagion AG authoring studio laments that, “no Profile 1.1 players will be available on the [German] market” when it’s released. Conversely, the US has a profile 1.1 player (and whispers of another) and no 1.1 media. Sigh. That tittering you hear is the sound of HD DVD fanboys who’ve had this functionality since day one.

[thanks Tim W. and Michael B.]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Sony is said to have yet another PlayStation 3 firmware update ready for download before Christmas, with the gift for movie-loving gamers being Profile 1.1 compatibility for Blu-ray Discs. Competing format HD DVD has had support for Profile 1.1 features such as picture-in-picture, secondary audio, and local storage since its inception, while in the Blu-ray spec they were optional. There aren’t any Profile 1.1 Blu-ray titles on the market yet, and only a single 1.1-compatible player for sale from Panasonic, so this is really about having one more bullet point on a box for fanboys to argue about. The only major HD DVD feature that becomes required in Profile 2.0 is Internet connectivity, so downloadable content will still be optional for some 1.1-compatible BD players — but not the PS3 with its built-in Ethernet jack. Considering the PS3 is still one of the cheapest and most widely-owned Blu-ray players, and Sony continues to improve its capabilities via firmware updates, PS3 fans and Blu-ray Disc aficionados have that much more ammo to use in the never-ending format war.

[Thanks, ag23]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The folks over at CNET aren’t wasting a moment getting to know Panasonic’s latest Blu-ray player, so why should you? Reviewers started off by praising Panny for getting a Profile 1.1-compliant player out before the actual deadline, and minor gripes about the DMP-BD10A (namely, the remote and the fold-down door) have been addressed satisfactorily. Additionally, it was noted that audiophiles would find lots to love courtesy of its ability to output DTS-HD Master Audio / Dolby TrueHD soundtracks in bitstream format, and sticklers for image quality are likely to be equally impressed. Put simply, this unit “performed excellently by properly deinterlacing 1080i signals to 1080p without artifacts or jaggies,” and it managed to measure up quite well with other highly-regarded BD players when playing back films. All in all, the BD30 was awarded a 7.4 out of 10 rating, and we’re pretty certain that adding an Ethernet jack and built-in decoders for high-resolution audio formats would’ve made this thing even more attractive.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Details are admittedly scant on this one, but after Don Eklund, executive VP of advanced technologies for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, got done praising the growth of high-definition movies at HDTV DisplaySearch, he also mentioned that the PlayStation 3 was due a firmware update. More specifically, he noted that the PS3 “is expected to soon offer a firmware upgrade to boost its Blu-ray interactivity functionality,” but unfortunately, he failed to elaborate. One could hope that the update would bring along at least some of the niceties waiting in Profile 1.1, but until we get clarification (or are surprised by the actual release), we’ll leave the speculating to you.

[Via HighDefDigest]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!