November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Blu-ray Players/Home Theater Systems

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 9:21 pm

Categories: Blu-ray, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Home Theater, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Blu-ray, Home Entertainment, Consumer Electronics, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy

With prices for both players and discs plunging, this may be the holiday season for Blu-ray. Already online movie streaming is making inroads—even on Blu-ray players themselves. Some of these picks are integrating on-demand video services into their feature sets, hoping to keep themselves relevant in the disc-less future.

Splurge: Oppo BDP-83

You don’t drop $500 on an Oppo Blu-ray player like the BDP-83 because you want to watch Netflix’s streaming service through it. You get one because of its superlative video quality and speed, along with its ability to play PAL-encoded discs and even niche products like DVD-Audio and SACD discs. If you don’t care about networking features, but value high-quality image quality most of all, the BDP-83 is worth the price.

[read the review] [check prices]

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January 21st, 2009

New Blu-ray players from Panasonic, Pioneer include first portable unit

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 5:26 pm

Categories: Blu-ray

Tags: Panasonic, Player, Video, Blu-ray, BD-Live, Corporate Communications, Home Entertainment, Marketing, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy

I’ll still wading through all the CES news, and didn’t want to forget mentioning the new Blu-ray players from Panasonic and Pioneer, including the world’s first portable Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMP-B15 (pictured above). It includes an 8.9-inch screen, an HDMI port to connect it to an HDTV, an SD card slot, and even BD-Live (Profile 2.0) support. Pricing wasn’t announced, but Panasonic says it’s coming in May.

The company also has three component-sized players in the works for this year, including a nod to the not-so-old days with the DMP-BD70V Blu-ray/VHS combo unit. It promises upconversion for those VHS tapes as well as standard DVDs, though it will be interesting to see just how well that taped video quality can be improved. The main differences between the DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80 are that the latter has analog out for 7.1 surround sound audio, along with a playback information window that displays image info during video playback. These three players also support BD-Live technology and Panasonic’s Viera Cast Internet-based services like streaming content from Amazon Video on Demand. No pricing or availability dates have been disclosed.

Sadly, Pioneer wasn’t introducing any new plasmas in Vegas, having released its latest ones at CEDIA last fall. It did announce three new Blu-ray players, however, all of which will support BD-Live interactive features. Closer to the value end of the spectrum, the BDP-120 (pictured above) comes with a 1GB flash drive that you can connect to the player’s USB port for BD-Live-related storage, while the step-up BDP-320 has its gigabyte of storage built in. It also comes 48-bit deep color support, a suite of video adjustment options, and advanced noise reduction circuitry. For those looking for an even higher-end unit, the Elite BDP-23FD has an RS-232C interface to make it easier to link with home automation systems often used with custom home theater installations as well as precision quartz lock system (PQLS) that reduce jitter from high-definition audio transmission. All come with a built-in Ethernet port, which is necessary for any Web-based BD-Live features. The good news is you won’t have to break the bank for the BDP-120—it’s being reported to be priced at $249 when it arrives in April. According to CE Pro, the BDP-320 will cost $399, and the Elite BDP-23FD is priced at $599.

October 19th, 2008

Sharp to introduce LCD HDTV/Blu-ray combo units in the U.S.

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 8:48 pm

Categories: Blu-ray, HDTV

Tags: Sharp Corp., LCD, Blu-Ray, Monitors & Displays, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, DVD, Home Entertainment, Hardware

LCD TVs with built-in DVD players generally come in smaller screen sizes and are often budget-priced. That may change if you add Blu-ray to the equation, which Sharp is apparently planning to do this December with the U.S. release of HDTVs that sport Blu-ray drives.

Sharp has just released the Aquos DX series in Japan, which consists of LCDs in a wide range of sizes that come with built-in Blu-ray recorders. The good news is that Sharp is planning to jump-start that trend in the States, but the bad news is that most of the sets released here will just have Blu-ray players instead of recorders.

No doubt copyright issues have something to do with that decision, but you can imagine that HD addicts would love to dump hours of high-def content onto disc. Even so, if the price of the Blu-ray drive is mixed in with the cost of the TV, it could entice customers who aren’t willing to pay $300 for a standalone player. I’ll keep you posted when Sharp decides to officially announce more details about the U.S. release.

[Via Reuters]