Panasonic just introduced their new Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD50. Like we heard at the press conference, BD-Live is getting rolled out across the lineup and this unit has all the other goodies you’d expect in the latest from Panasonic: Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, PIP functionality and the Viera-link functionality for control of multiple components through a single remote. Video processing goes through the Unipher processor, a combination of chroma and deinterlacing developed by Panasonic Hollywood Laboratories. Last but not least, this player gets treated to playback of SD-based media.
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Samsung introducing the new Blu-ray home theater System, the HT-BD2S, which resembles its predecessor but has smaller satellite speakers and is available for over 30 percent less than its older cousin the BD2T’s retail price of $1500 USD. The “s” stand for “smaller speakers”.

According to the source article, the head unit (the combination receiver/Blu-ray player/amplifier) is identical to its more expensive cousin’s, and therefore will see the same flaws that the BD2T suffered from. The included Blu-ray player is slow loading and is limited to the old Profile 1.0 specification. The system also has subpar connectivity options.
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“Home” is a real-time interactive online world much like Linden Lab’s “Second Life” and other so-called “metaverse,” or a virtual world in computer graphics on a personal computer that allows people to walk around and interact with each other.

The product had been initially promised for last year. But in September, Sony delayed its debut until early this year to spend more time to create a better product.

Sony is delaying the start of its “Home” virtual world for its PlayStation 3 video game machine until the latter half of this year — the second time the Japanese electronics and entertainment company has postponed the online interactive service.

Sony has had previous delay problems with PlayStation3. The machine went on sale in the U.S. and Japan late 2006, but its European launch was postponed for several months due to production problems.

The version of “Home” promised for later this year is called an “open beta,” which means it isn’t officially finished and will keep evolving with new services and features being added later.

Kaz Hira, head of the Sony game business, said in a statement that the company needs to deliver a more focused gaming service than what Home can deliver today.

“A spokeswoman said the company plans to launch Home almost simultaneously world-wide in the fall. The virtual worlds will look the same in all of the regions, but they won’t be connected to one another because of language and billing considerations.” [ WSJ ]

There’re some places where you could find related topics about Blu-ray. Technorati is one of the best place to look for. Just go to Technorati and then search posts related to Blu-ray, with just entering a keyword blu-ray. You ‘d find 65,216 results for blu-ray.

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What is firmware?

Just as computers require software to run, a Blu-ray player requires firmware to run. Firmware is a type of computer program that resides inside the hardware device and makes it possible to play movies and access other features.

Purpose of firmware

The great thing about firmware is that it can be easily updated, so even though a Blu-ray player might not support a feature when it is released that feature might be added later as long as the hardware can support it. Firmware updates can also fix problems with existing features and offer other improvements.

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Will Blu-ray replace previous DVDs? Its manufacturers hope so. In the meantime, JVC has developed a Blu-ray/DVD combo disc with an approximate 33.5-GB capacity, allowing for the release of video in both formats on a single disc. But Blu-ray is not alone in the marketplace. A few other formats are competing for a share of the DVD market.

The other big player is HD-DVD, also called AOD (Advanced Optical Disc), which was developed by electronics giants Toshiba and NEC. HD-DVD was actually in the works before regular DVD, but it didn’t begin real development until 2003.
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Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

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