Sharp Electronics will be introducing a new standalone Blu-ray player this fall called the BD-HP20S. According to this posting on EngadgetHD.com, the BD-HP20S will feature support for HDMI 1.3 and Dolby TrueHD audio. It will also come with a “Quick Start” feature which will play newly inserted Blu-ray discs in a matter of seconds.

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Technorati Tags: Sharp, BD-HP20S

The History Channel in HD is now a part of Comcast’s HD On Demand Programming (and yes, I’m a wee bit jealous of that since I have Time Warner Cable here in LA). Comcast now has four programs from History Channel HD located under the “News and Info” section of the HD On Demand menu according to TVPredictions.com. The items include:

• Three six-minute previews of episodes of Dogfights
• A full length episode of Dogfights entitled “Jet vs. Jet”

Comcast also added previous episodes of TNT’s Closer in HD which starts Kyra Sedgwick. Comcasts expects to increase its HD On Demand lineup to 200 hours of programming by the year end - up from 100 hours of programming at the end of 2006.

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Technorati Tags: Comcast, HD On Demand, History Channel in HD, TNT HD

Rumors are circulating around the Internet that the retail price for the Sony PlayStation 3 will indeed be cut to $499 from $599. This all started when a Circuit City ad for July 15th was posted onto the net showing a price cut of $100 on the PS3. GameDaily BIZ then confirmed through their sources that the price cut was indeed retail wide and would begin on July 12th. Ads for the price cut should begin showing up on July 15th. No word from Sony as of yet but this is contradictory to what Sony President, Ryoji Chubachi, had stated on Friday - claiming that there would not be a PS3 price cut. It’ll be interesting to see Microsoft’s response should the price cut happen. Could we see a small next gen price war?

For those of you thinking about jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon, this price drop would certainly be a welcome sight to see. I’d much rather purchase a PS3 with Blu-ray for $499 than a Sony standalone Blu-ray player for $499.

[Check it out via Krunker]

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Home Theater Blog has posted an excellent look into the newly released HD HQV Benchmarks. They take both the Blu-ray and HD DVD discs for a test drive across several players and got the following summaries.

The Sony PS3 (couple with a JVC DLA-HD1) got a 100 out of 100 score.

The Toshiba HD-A2 received a 65 out of 100 score.

The Sony BDP-S300 received a 75 out of 100 score.

You can read more about the tests and the player scores here at Home Theater Blog.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HD HQV Benchmarks, Home Theater Blog

Samsung officials in Hamburg, Germany have announced that their new dual format BD-UP5000 high definition disc player will be coming out in October of this year for a price of approximately €550. Similar to the LG Electronics dual format player, the BD-UP5000 will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. However, Samsung claims that their player will fully support both formats including their interactive technologies - HDi, and BD-Java. The LG dual format player fully supports Blu-ray but will only play the movie portion of an HD DVD disc.

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Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 Elite console will be launching in Japan starting on October 11th of this year - months after its debut in North America. The Xbox 360 Elite features an HDMI port, a new 120 GB hard drive, and a new black finish. The one difference between the Japanese version and the U.S. version is the sale price. While the U.S. version of the Elite goes for $479, the Japanese version will go for approximately $390 when it launches (47,800 yen).

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Many have known since day one that the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD drive was usable on the PC platform. Back in the early days of the product rollout, you needed to get hacked drivers to make the product work on the XP platform but the drive worked just fine on the Vista platform - albeit with some memory unit question marks in the device manager. However, it turns out that somewhere along the way, Microsoft released full driver support for the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive on the Vista platform. Couple this drive with some HDCP/HDMI capable graphics hardware, HD DVD playback software, and an HDCP capable monitor, and you’ve got yourself an HD DVD capable system - potentially on the cheap (depending on whether you already had the graphics hardware to begin with)! The folks at Legit Reviews experimented with this proposition and wrote a good article about it here. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of adding an HD DVD drive to my home theater PC but I really need a processor upgrade to my system as Vista really chokes on the system - especially when I’m recording HD content. Anyhow, check out the article over at Legit Reviews. You can also read my old review of the Xbox 360 HD DVD player here.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Xbox 360, HD DVD player, Desktop PC, Legit Review

Ever wish you had a real home theater setup at home? Is your home theater simply a 15 inch black and white TV coupled with some rabbit ears? Then you need to enter “the MakeShifters Ultimate Home Theater Makeover” contest sponsored by Denon, Boston Acoustic, La-Z-Boy, and Circuit City. To enter, simply take a picture or make a video of your home theater city and submit it to the website here. You need to convince the world why you ‘re the best candidate for a home theater makeover. Make sure your entry is “creative, funny, and original to increase your chances of winning.” You can submit up to five videos and five photo essays.  The contest actually began on May 25th but will continue until July 20th so get your pictures and videos together. Voting began on June 8th so you can view the entries thus far here.

So you might be wondering what kind of “Ultimate Home Theater Makeover” you will be getting if you win? Well here’s the component breakdown:

• Boston Acoustics P430 Left, Center, Right Channel speakers
• Boston Acoustics XB6 Subwoofer
• Two Boston Acoustics Bravo II Rear Surround Speakers
• Denon DVD757 Disc Player
• Denon AVR987 Receiver
• Denon D-Dock for iPod
• Denon AH-D2000 Headphones
• La-Z-Boy Matinee seating for 4-6 people (subject to winner’s home space limitation)
• Rug
• Tables
• Circuit City firedog service, Circuit City Content (DVDs, CDs) - up to $500 dollar value
• Video display and remote control (up to 3000 dollars)

The second place winner gets the following:

• La-Z-Boy recliner (est. value: 1,000.00)
• Circuit City CD and DVD shopping spree ($500 gift card)
• Boston Acoustics/Denon DHT687 Home Theater System

The third place winner gets:

• Boston Acoustics MicroSystem CD
• Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio
• Denon AH-D2000 Headphones
• Denon AH-C700 In-ear headphones

[Check it out via Home Theater Blog]

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Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to sponsor the “One thousand HD DVD Indies Project” which is designed to make it easier for independent filmmakers to author and distribute their high definition works. At no charge to the filmmaker, 1000 selected entries will be authored to HD DVD format using Microsoft tools and then made available to Amazon.com customers via the CustomFlix Disc on Demand service. HD DVDs are produced as they are ordered so there are never any inventory issues to worry about. For independent filmmakers, this is a great way to distribute your high definition films on Amazon.com, a CustomFlix E-Store, and even on your own website (assuming of course you get selected). Filmmakers can set their own list price and earn royalties on all sales. They’re also free to pursue traditional distribution deals while participating in this project.

To submit your film to the 1000 HD DVD Indies Project, you need to go to this link and fill out the form. Chosen titles will be contacted by email or phone and you’ll have 30 days to send them a copy of your HD tape (film will not be accepted) and set up your title in their system.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HD DVD, Amazon, Microsoft, 1000 HD DVD Indies Project

Blu-ray is striking back at HD DVD with a new promotional campaign. Starting July 1st, customers who purchase a qualifying Blu-ray player (which includes the Sony PS3) will be eligible for five free Blu-ray titles. The movies come from five different categories and you can only get one movie per category (which is a bit limiting but hey - it’s free). The five categories of movies are as follows:

Category 1:

• The Guardian
• Pearl Harbor
• Invincible
• Chicken Little

Category 2:

• Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
• The Phantom of the Opera
• Blazing Saddles

Category 3:

• Stealth
• Resident Evil 2
• Underworld - Evolution
• Stir of Echoes

Category 4:

• The Italian Job
• Black Rain
• Babel
• The Devil’s Rejects

Category 5:

• Kiss of the Dragon
• The Omen
• Transporter 2
• Species
• Hart’s War
• The Last Waltz

This offer is good until September 30th, 2007.

Note - you can also combine this offer with existing offers from other manufacturers - e.g. Panasonic is giving away five free Blu-ray titles with the purchase of a new Panasonic DMP-BD10A player. Yup - that means one could potentially get up to 10 free Blu-ray titles depending on the manufacturer.

One final note from the Blu-ray.com website. Sony has a promotional offer going on for the PS3 that works as follows. If you purchase a PS3, two games, and an extra controller from now until July 8th through select Sony Style stores, you can get yourself a $50 dollar gift card.

All told - not a bad deal although I wish the movie selections were a bit better.

[Check it out via Ars Technica]

[Check out the savings]

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