Well, Sony is a little late to the party on this one, two days behind Panasonic announcing six new BDXL-writing DVRs. But, the company is definitely still on the BDXL bleeding edge, announcing its own suite of six devices, ranging from 320GB to 2TB of internal storage and all but one offering dual tuners. When those tuners have filled that storage they can all write to 100GB BDXL discs, which we'll remind you one more time are not backwards compatible with current Blu-ray players. Finally, all six of them support 3D playback, because if you're already jumping on the BDXL bandwagon you surely have your 3D HDTV well and truly dialed in by now. Sony isn't saying just how much these six will cost, but the premium model with 2TB of storage ships in Japan on September 25. For the rest you'll have to wait until October 22.

Sony launches six new DVRs, all write to BDXL and play back in 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mitsubishi Japan has announced three brand new, full HD tvs for your home theater-loving pleasure. Much like the Panasonics recently unleashed, all three boast the ability to record to their hard drives or Blu-ray. Spec-wise, they've got full HD, backlit LCDs, 1TB HDDs, a ten speaker Diatone system, USB and SD slots, and HDMI. The sets, which come in 40, 46, and 55-inches, also come with a pair of 3D glasses. They'll be available in Japan in October for roughly $3,500, $4,700 and $5,900, respectively.

Mitsubishi debuts three full HD 3D televisions... coming to a sweet home theater near you originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As annoying as continuous Blu-ray player updates are, usually having the latest one is the best way to play more movies. Unfortunately the opposite was the case for Samsung (again) with the v2.09 update posted recently for its 2009 BD-Px600 line of players. Forum posters on CNET and AVSForum report the upgrade blocked them from playing Universal and Warner Bros. movies, which conveniently lock up after displaying the title image. Samsung's rolled back to an an older firmware version (v2.07) on its support site that should fix things for now, but with some users still having problems downgrading, all they can do is wait for the next update, whenever that arrives. Some help line reps have said the new version should arrive "in a couple of weeks," but it's not like you really wanted to watch Clash of the Titans or Book of Eli right now anyway, right?

[Thanks, CJ Robinson]

Samsung Blu-ray players won't play Warner, Universal movies after firmware update, require a rollback originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung wants to beat everyone else to the punch when it comes to 3D entertainment products. Their latest, the BD-C8000 is the world’s first 3D capable Blu-ray player. The player sports a portable shell design with a 10.3″ screen. It also features Samsung Apps. Samsung claims that there are now over 100 Samsung Apps available. The BD-C8000 portable 3D Blu-ray player will retail for $499.95. And yes, that is kind of expensive, but considering it can also connect to your TV to work as a 3D Blu-ray player, it isn’t all that bad. That said, it is kind of disappointing that the 3D aspect of the player will only work when actually hooked up to a 3D TV.

Why, it seems like only yesterday that 50GB was an awful lot of capacity. Now, not so much. BDXL discs are here to rescue your data, and TDK is the latest to roll out triple-decker discs with 100GB of capacity. As with the others, these discs will only work in BDXL-compatible readers and writers, meaning yet another early round of devices is in the process of being obsoleted. (Remember Profile 2.0?) These discs are set to ship in Japan in September, and sometime later will come the quadruple-decker BDXL discs with 128GB. We wonder, though: can a retail offering really be considered a "pack" if it only contains one disc?

TDK inflates to BDXL, bringing 100GB writable Blu-ray discs in September originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don't be surprised to see a couple of new Samsung Blu-ray players on the shelf at local or online retailers while shopping, as it's rolling out new 3D capable models in the BD-C5900, BD-C6800 and BD-C7900. The $399 (MSRP) BD-C7900 updates the older BD-C6900 with two HDMI outs, useful for those with an older receiver that isn't HDMI 1.4 compatible, while the $279 BD-C6800 seems to have all the features of the BD-C6900 except for that porthole on top, and comes in at a lower price. Last up is the BD-C5900 with an MSRP of $229 which puts it within reach of two bills at retail, but means losing the 1GB of internal storage featured by the other two players. The product pages aren't all fully updated on Samsung's site yet, but the BD-C5900 has already arrived at Amazon and Best Buy and the others shouldn't be far behind. Of course, if 3D's not your thing, we'd still keep an eye out for their arrival -- a price break on the older 2D-only models that were released earlier this year shouldn't be too far behind.

Samsung quietly expands its 3D Blu-ray player lineup with a few updated models originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in case you weren't really sure how deep into this 3DTV thing Sony is, senior director of Sony Europe Mick Hocking announced the PS3's update for Blu-ray 3D movie playback will be released in September -- but it won't stop there. Expect future firmware upgrades that give the PS3 3D rendering for photos (.mpo files), any broadcasts it can pick up on PlayTV, and even YouTube videos. Not running out the door to buy one yet? CVG reports the rest of the presentation was devoted to extolling the virtues of 3D to hardcore gamers in racing games, God of War, or LittleBigPlanet. Demos so far haven't completely convinced us the PS3 is capable of rendering games in high enough resolution to satisfy, but if Fat Princess 2 features a good 3D implementation, someone hide our credit cards, please.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

PlayStation Blu-ray 3D update arrives in September; 3D photo, PlayTV and YouTube support to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you want to play high-definition video on a Mac... better make it yourself. A new email from the head of Apple points to no shift in its opposition to Sony's format

The Simpsons once had an episode which, in passing, showed newscaster Kent Brockman announcing "And now here is a list of celebrities that have been arrested", with a zip-fast list scrolling up the screen.

So, rather in that vein, here are things that Steve Jobs has revealed via his email replies - an output system that ought to be making his PR people look to their laurels.

First, Blu-ray: don't hold your breath. In fact, let your breath out, because Jobs, who in October 2008 called the Sony-controlled enhanced-DVD format "a bag of hurt" (quote: "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."), is now suggesting that Blu-ray is just passé.

Responding to a reader at Mac Rumors who asked him how soon Blu-ray drives (even for reading discs) would be coming to the Apple Mac, Jobs responded:

"Bluray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD - like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats."

Certainly it's true that Super Audio CD (SACD) and DVD-Audio died a thorough death, especially compared to MP3, despite offering higher quality audio.

The reader, Siva, demurred: the medium-term benefits of Blu-ray, he pointed out, include being able to do high-density backups (you can get Blu-ray writers and discs for backup), plus the video is higher-quality than you can get online, and MP3 took off because of its lack of DRM. (He might have pointed out: the short-term benefits include watching Blu-ray films.) So come on, Steve, how about it?

No moving Jobs:

"No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue.

"I think you may be wrong - we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over."

The strange thing about Blu-ray and Apple is how completely mulish Apple is being about incorporating it. You can now get Blu-ray DVD playback on dozens of manufacturers' machines, because it's seen as a benefit. Not though for Apple owners, who can't even buy an add-on drive to read Blu-ray discs because the OS won't control them.

And another Mac Rumors reader emailed Jobs earlier in the week about those "reception issues" with the iPhone 4. Jobs's response?

"There are no reception issues. Stay tuned."

Any more? Really he should have a Twitter account all of his own. Most of the replies could fit into 140 characters.

Then again, bad things might happen.

Oh, and since you wanted to know who was on the celebrities list, here it is. And to quote Kent: "Remember, if you see any celebrities, consider them dangerous."

It's early days yet, but NPD claims that revenue from US sales of 3D TVs and standalone 3D-capable Blu-ray players has exceeded $55 million in the first three months of availability. Mind you, this steady growth comes despite the absence of some major players. While that number might sound big, it's tiny in comparison to the total number of TVs sold each month in the US and, according to our friend Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD, sales are expected to remain small throughout 2010. Regarding those much maligned 3D glasses, only 10% of those surveyed by NPD cited "looking silly" as a main concern. Instead, the biggest concern was not having enough glasses on hand for everyone looking at the set. A concern driven by cost, undoubtedly, and a dearth of survey participants from New York's trendy Lower East Side.

Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.

Continue reading US consumers purchase $55 million worth of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, despite the glasses

US consumers purchase $55 million worth of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, despite the glasses originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is there an HDMI 1.4-compatible Blu-ray player in your future? LG's BX580 wants to be your player of today. The device is now shipping, more or less falling in line with the "month or two" estimate we got back in May, but clocking in at $100 less than the $400 we'd expected it at. Sure it's listed on Amazon's page at $399, but add it to your shopping cart and (spoiler alert) it's actually just $299.86. That's a relative bargain -- though we'd still have a hard time choosing this over an equally 3D-ready PS3.

LG's BX580 network 3D Blu-ray player now shipping for $100 less than expected originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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