Oh! Gizmo

By Shane McGlaun

There are gobs of Blu-ray players on the market today. I still think one of the better players is the PS3. I like that it has all the features you want from a Blu-ray player, can be updated with new features and plays great video games all for less than many other high-end Blu-ray players.

If you don’t want a PS3 there are certainly enough options available in the Blu-ray market and now there is one more brand to consider. Harman Kardon has announced its first Blu-ray player called the BDP1. You may recognize the Harman Kardon brand from the line of speakers the company has sold for years.

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By Shane McGlaun

Every now and again, someone I know will ask me what Blu-ray player they should buy to go along with their new TV. I always tell them to get the PS3 because I think it’s one of the best Blu-ray players out there. I had a guy tell me he didn’t want video games in his house the other day and preferred a stand-alone Blu-ray player to the PS3.

For people who feel the same way Pioneer has launched a trio of new Blu-ray players including the Elite BDP-23FD, the BDP-120, and the BDP-320 models. The 23FD is aimed at the professional integrator looking for a player with full control capability for integrating into high-end home theaters. It includes a special KURO Link Picture Mode and a precision quartz lock system that helps prevent playback jitters. The 23FD sells for $599. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

At just 20 inches in size, you wouldn’t expect this new AQUOS DX LCD TV from Sharp to be brimming with features, and to be honest it’s not. It’s got a 1366×768 HD resolution with a 1500:1 contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 brightness, but what makes it unique is the fact that it will include both a DVD and Blu-ray burner built-in, allowing you to record over the air digital broadcasts to the medium of your choice.

Of course there’s no ETA on when the AQUOS DX will be hitting North America, but Japan will be privy to it come June for about $1,580.

[ Akihabara News - Sharp's New AQUOS DX, World's First 20” LCD TV with Blu-ray Recorder ]

By Andrew Liszewski

According to Akihabara News, LG Korea announced this new Blu-ray home theater combo this morning that includes a pop-out iPod dock on the player that will apparently accept all iPod models (I assume that means the iPhone too) allowing you to listen to music stored on the devices. There’s no word on whether or not it can access video content on the iPods, but details are a bit vague at the moment. What is known though is that the HB954TBW will be sold in Korea for just over $1,000.

[ Akihabara News - LG latest Blu-Ray Home-Theater combo iPod friendly ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Are you one of the people that was convinced that HD-DVD was going to win in the epic HD format war? I really thought that it had a chance there for a while, but alas, Blu-ray won out. Sure, you can still watch those movies in all of their HD glory, but you still need to keep around an HD-DVD player for it. Well thanks to a new initiative by Warner Bros. you can trade in a few of those obsolete discs for shiny new Blu-ray versions.

That’s right, gather up all of those Warner Bros. HD-DVDs and head over to the Red2Blu site and get yourself all set up. They’re going to ask for shipping and handling, as well as a small fee of $4.95 per disc. I really have to commend Warner Bros. on this. They don’t have any obligation whatsoever to provide an exchange program, but for the sake of their customers they are doing it anyway. I’d definitely get on this while it lasts. That reminds me, I need to hit up the cheap HD-DVD bin at Fry’s next time I’m out that way.

[ Red2Blu ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Ultimate Matrix Collection managed to set a new standard in DVD over-packaging by including a 2-foot detailed model of the Nebuchadnezzar, but the T2 Complete Collector’s Set still manages to one-up it in my eyes. Not only because Terminator 2 didn’t suck, but also because the Complete Collector’s Set comes with a 14-inch T-800 Endoskull with light-up eyes and sound effects from the movie.

It also includes the Skynet Edition Blu-ray copy of the movie, the Extreme and Ultimate Editions on DVD (yep, that’s a lot of editions) and digital copies that are compatible with Windows Media and iTunes. So why settle for just the $29.99 Blu-ray Skynet Edition when you can get the T2 Complete Collector’s Set for just $145 more?

[ DVDActive - T2 Complete Collector's Set ] VIA [ The Awesomer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and while I’m not 100% sure what inspired Rog8811 to cram a Blu-ray laser diode into a Zippo housing, the results are well worth the effort that went into this mod. He’s provided a pretty detailed step-by-step explanation of how the whole thing was put together on his site, but I’ll warn you, it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. I threw in the towel before I even got below-the-fold. But if you manage to pull it off you’ll have a laser-powered Zippo that can not only light a cigar in just a few seconds, but is also capable of providing severe retinal damage if you don’t wear safety glasses whenever you use it. Awesome!

[ Blu-ray Zippo - It can be done ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s probably pretty silly to try and stuff an optical drive (even a small optical drive) into a netbook. But, that doesn’t mean that sometimes, perhaps even frequently, it can be nice to have the option of playing a CD or a DVD. The most convenient way to do it is a slim drive about the size of a disc that operates off of USB bus power so that you only need the one cable. There are quite a few reasonably priced options out there, but this drive from FastMac manages to stuff CD-R/W, DVD±R/W DL, and a Blu-ray reader into one small USB drive for under $100. For $299, you can add a 1x Blu-ray burner, and $399 bumps that up to 4x.

Considering that an external slim USB DVD burner will probably cost you at least $60 or $70, the extra 20 bucks isn’t much at all to throw the additional option of Blu-ray into the mix.

[ FastMac ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Well, a portable Blu-ray player was inevitable, and it looks like Panasonic will be the first company to get one to the market. But there’s plenty of room for improvement. First of all, the LCD display only has WSVGA or 1024×600 resolution. I know you can argue that cramming a resolution of 1920×1080 into an 8.9-inch display is kind of pointless, but I still want it. The player also isn’t exactly what I’d call tiny, so this isn’t the type of thing you’ll be bringing with you on an airplane (at least this first model) particularly since the built-in rechargeable battery is only good for about 3 hours.

Panasonic did manage to include BD-live functionality, but the player doesn’t come with wi-fi (probably to max out the battery life) so you’ll need to tether it to a network cable. But it does have an HDMI connection so you can at least hook it up to your home theater and use it as a regular Blu-ray player. The DMP-B15 will be available in late May if you’re the type who has to have everything first, but I would definitely suggest holding off until version 2.

And the full press release is available after the jump.

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