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Archive for the 'HD DVD' Tag

Toshiba becomes very last company to offer Blu-ray player

September 3rd, 2009, 2:55 pm by

After killing off its beloved but unpopular HD DVD technology last year, Toshiba has finally come out with its first Blu-ray Disc player.

The company announced the BDX2000 today making Toshiba the very last company to jump into Blu-ray camp. Well, Toshiba at least has got to be the last major consumer electronics company to support the technology.

Toshiba's first Blu-ray player, BDX2000.

Toshiba, which has its computer division in Irvine, made a major push for the HD DVD format in 2006 and 2007 before giving up in February 2008. At the time, the company said it had no plans to support the competing Blu-ray technology or offer it in its computers.

But after 18 months, Blu-ray is apparently unavoidable. Blu-ray players are sold everywhere, including Wal-Mart. Every new movie is offered in this format. And even companies like low-priced TV maker Vizio sell a Blu-ray player.

How could Toshiba not support Blu-ray? Well, it does now.

The company’s new Blu-ray player has many of the usual features, including BD Live, which allows viewers to do stuff like chat about the same movie with others online. There’s also an SD card slot to share music and photos. Also, if you are using this with a Toshiba REGZA TV, the two can use the same remote control. The BDX2000 will be available in November for $249.99.

The press release announcing the new player manages to avoid any mention of its HD DVD interlude. But it does mention the technology: “This product does not play HD DVD discs.” Darn!

While there are reports that Toshiba is bringing Blu-ray to its laptops, the technology is still snubbed on the company’s web site. No laptops include the drive and it’s not offered as an add-on accessory. In fact, the site doesn’t even appear to mention Blu-ray at all:

Blu-ray still MIA on Toshiba's PC web site.

At least for now. We’ll probably hear from the computer folks any day now.

Earlier on Blu-ray:

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Vizio Blu-ray player shows up in Walmart for $178

August 10th, 2009, 4:19 pm by

Vizio's first Blu-ray DVD player shows up in Walmart stores.Vizio’s long-awaited sub-$200 Blu-ray player is beginning to show up at Walmart stores nationwide — the Huntington Beach store added the high-definition DVD player to shelves last night, according to a sales clerk.

Irvine’s Vizio first announced its entry into Blu-ray players in January during the Consumer Electronics Show. The timing in stores is well off the initial April 2009 launch date, but hey, at least the price is $22 cheaper. 

The VBR100 Blu-ray player, which is listed as “coming soon” for $199.99 on Vizio’s Web site, has HDMI output and plays BD-Live content (so you can chat with friends watching the same movie). It also plays DVDs, CDs, MP3s and JPEG images. There’s no built-in memory card reader but on the back, there’s a USB port, which can read JPEGs, MP3s and BD Live storage. Nothing fancy, but it is thinner than some of the competitor boxes on the same shelves.

Vizio's first Blu-ray disc player shows up in Walmart stores.

Vizio's straightforward Blu-ray disc player is nothing fancy, but it's smaller, thinner than some competitor's.Now, I didn’t rush to the store to buy one, but I did stop by a local store to verify Walmart had them in stock (two left, by the way).  Photos are from my hunt.

The guys over at FormatWarCentral.com did. Here’s the link to their unboxing of the VBR100 (as spotted on EngadgetHD.com): LINK.

The new Vizio Blu-ray player isn’t the only one Walmart offers in the sub-$200 market. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing $100 Blu-ray players at Christmas. Here’s a list from Walmart’s Web site:

Blu-ray player Price Store
Magnavox Blu-ray Disc Player, NB530MGX $129 Walmart
Sylvania Blu-ray Disc Player (NB500SL9) $177 Walmart
Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player, BD-1500/XAA $198 Walmart
Sharp AQUOS 1080p HD Blu-ray Disc Player, BD-HP21U $199 Walmart

Earlier Vizio news:


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Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Toshiba XD-E500 claims to enhance plain DVDs during upconversion

August 18th, 2008, 9:33 am by

So, the whole HD DVD format didn’t work, but Toshiba America Consumer Products is unwilling to admit high-definition defeat and align itself with Blu-ray disc, the winning high-def format developed by rival Sony.

Toshiba’s XD-E500Today, the company announced it is enhancing regular DVD technology with XD-E500, or eXtended Detail Enhancement. It’s more than just upconversion, says the company. XDE takes the regular DVD format (that’s 480i or 480p) and adds more details so it looks like 1080p (the high-definition format of Blu-ray or defunct HD DVD).

How does it make a standard DVD look high def? Think of it as Photoshop for video. Edges are sharpened because XDE “analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it’s needed” — unlike traditional sharpness control. Also, colors are richer and contrast mode makes darker scenes more visible. I didn’t test this out myself so I’m curious to see how high-def this non-high-def DVD player is.

Check it out yourself at http://www.toshibaxde.com.

Launching today, the XD-E500 is $149.99.

Related:

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