Fillion - Home theater and TVs

CES 2009: Sharp announces LCD televisions with integrated Blu-Ray players

Stéphane Dion — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:49:51 +0000

Not ready yet to purchase a Blu-ray player to replace your old DVD player? Don’t worry about it! Your next HD television set might well have one integrated in it already. Sharp has just effectively unveiled a new series of Aquos televisions with an integrated Blu-ray player on the side of the unit. The new televisions will be available in February and will come in 32″, 37″, 42″, 46″ and 52″ models.

The screens have a wide 176 degree viewing angle, 1080p resolution, and the 46″ and 52″ models are 120Hz. The suggested retail price for the smallest model is $1100USD. Check out the video and pictures below to find out more.

Panasonic announces the DMP-B15, the first portable Blu-ray player

Stéphane Dion — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:45:58 +0000

Portable DVD players have been popular for many years now, but until now no manufacturer has come up with a portable Blu-ray player. So Panasonic gets the ball rolling this year with the DMP-B15, a portable player equipped with an 8.9 inch screen and a resolution of 1024×600.

An HDMI port allows the device to be easily used with an HD television. Panasonic guarantees a battery life of about three hours.

The device will be available in May and there has been no word yet on the price.

CES 2009: Sharp announces two new Blu-ray players

Stéphane Dion — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:45:40 +0000

Sharp announced two new Blu-ray players at the CES 2009. The BD-HP22U and BD-HP16U are third-generation players and have a retail price of $300 and $280 respectively.

Both players feature full HD 1080p digital output and are BD-Live capable. The BD-Live feature delivers additional content such as scenes not available on the disc, as well as other types of interactive content and even games, through an Ethernet-enabled Internet connection.

The new players support HDMI 1.3 and are practically identical, except for the HP22U which boasts 2GB of memory to store downloaded BD-Live content.

The BD-HP22U will be available in May and the BD-HP16U in March.

NAD announces the T-587, a high-end Blu-ray player

Stéphane Dion — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:33:51 +0000

NAD enters the Blu-ray player market with the launch of the T-587, a Blu-ray player that’s compatible with BD-Live and BD-Java standards. The unit can of course support 1080p/24 resolution and is equipped with a converter that upscales lower resolution signals allowing them to be playable at high resolution. The unit also supports Deep Color and xvYCC Extended Color Space.

The T-587 is compatible with the most recent Dolby format as well as DTS. And has no problems reading DVDs or CDs.

The Ethernet connection allows you to connect to the Internet in order to download software updates for the T-587. In addition, the BD-Java standard promises to deliver certain kinds of interactive content by communicating with remote servers through the Internet connection, or by even allowing connections to other users of Blu-ray players.

You’ll also find connections for composite and component video output, an HDMI 1.3 port, analog audio and video outputs, as well as digital coaxial and optical outputs for audio.

A USB port is also conveniently located in the front of the unit.

The NAD T-587 will be available over the course of the month of December and the list price will be $1500 USD.

Denon announces the DVD-2500BT

Stéphane Dion — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:39:45 +0000

Denon has just launched a new high-end Blu-Ray player, the DVD-2500BT. The player is equipped with an HDMI 1.3a port and supports 1080/24p resolution.

The unit is, of course, capable of decoding Dolby Digital as well as DTS-HD. The DVD-2500BT is also equipped with a high-grade I/P conversion technology for HD.

The DVD-2500BT will be available in three colours: black, silver and premium silver. The suggested market price in the UK is 900 £.