Tribalwar

Blu-ray Sales Up Sharply in Q1

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 09:17 PM | Friday, April 17, 2009 | (url: http://www.homeme...)

Unit sales of Blu-ray Discs in the first three months of 2009 nearly doubled, compared to the same period last year, according to Adams Media Research.

Monterey, Calif.-based Adams said the high-definition format tallied about 9 million units through March, compared to 4.8 million units in 2008. There are about 10.5 million BD-enabled households, including about 7 million to 8 million dedicated BD players.

At least twice as many homes have a BD player, so it is very expectable that it would double or more, Adams said.

Despite Blu-rays strong start, Adams said the Blu-ray sales do not offset declines in DVD revenue.

He also said that due to the recession, the format is rolling out slower than DVD, although faster than VHS.

Netflix increases price of Blu-Ray disc

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 02:31 PM | Monday, March 30, 2009 | (url: http://www.pcmag....)

If you have enabled Blu-ray access on your account, the new charges will be reflected on your next bill on or after April 27. Members will also receive an e-mail about the changes. Don't want the extra charges? Just disable Blu-ray access under the "Your Account" section before April 27.

What type of charges can you expect? Subscribers who receive one disc at a time, with an unlimited number of rentals per month, will continue to pay an extra $1 per month, for a total of $10.99 per month.

Subscribers with three discs at a time, with unlimited access, with incur $4 per month in charges for a total of $20.99 per month. Have eight DVDs at a time? Get ready to pay $9 more per month - from $47.99 to $56.99.

Worlds First hybrid Blu-ray and DVD Disc Combo

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 08:06 PM | Sunday, December 21, 2008 | (url: http://antondrive...)

Great news for those who have both Blu-ray and DVDs in the house; Infinity Storage Media has released the first hybrid Blu-ray and DVD disc in Japan.

The new media has a total storage capacity of 33.5GB and is compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray players. The biggest advantage of the new media is backward compatibility - you can play it on your DVD or Blu-ray player.

Pioneer's 400GB Blu-Ray Disc

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 10:38 AM | Tuesday, December 2, 2008 | (url: http://digitimes....)

The technology of the super multi-layer read-only disc is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with a breakthrough in material of reflective layers, according to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan. The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players, the company said.

According to Pioneer's internal roadmap, its super multi-layer technology development is read-only (ROM) discs in 2008-2010, rewritable discs in 2010-2012 and 1TB (1,000GB) disc in 2013, the company indicated.

Sanyo Laser to Enable Faster, Higher Capacity Blu-ray Discs

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 11:31 AM | Monday, October 6, 2008 | (url: http://www.pcworl...)

Each recording layer on a Blu-ray Disc can store 25G bytes of data and the current highest capacity commercial discs have two recording layers. A four-layer disc would be able to hold 100G bytes of data, which translates to about eight hours of high-definition video, and at 12X speed all that data could be burned to the disc in just 10 minutes.

While the development of the laser is a step toward such systems, users shouldn't expect them anytime soon. With the development of a suitable laser, companies are now able to work on products supporting the higher speeds, but the length of the development cycle and the Blu-ray Disc standardization process means drives and recorders running at the higher speeds likely won't be available until one or two years later.

TeraDisc to outshine Blu-Ray by an order of magnitude

Submitted by: Dark Volcanic @ 06:13 PM | Monday, March 10, 2008 | (url: http://thetechdon...)

The company Mempile has developed a method of writing to and from discs with up to 200 layers, giving it a storage capacity of at least 10x the capacity of Blu-Ray, which stands at 50GB.

From TFA, "TeraDisk achieved the 1TB limit by using 200 layers, each storing 5GB of data. ...the write/read laser technology is completely new. They say its going to be cheap and it will be available for the public in 2010."

"...The reason nobody can add more layers on a regular CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk is because when the light passes through these layers it becomes distorted and by the time it reaches the final layers it becomes almost impossible to read/write on the disk..."

Toshiba Dropping HD DVD Prices

Submitted by: KnightMare @ 12:21 PM | Monday, January 14, 2008 | (url: http://www.prnews...)

HD DVD's response to being unceremoniously jilted by Warner going into CES was ... nothing. A canceled press conference, downtrodden Toshiba press conference and rumors of further losses left great doubt that red had anything left in 2008, but now HD DVD is firing back.

Universal ends HD-DVD support.

Submitted by: Darmok & Jalad @ 09:23 AM | Friday, January 11, 2008 | (url: http://www.variet...)

Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended.

this is the end

The State of Blu Ray

Submitted by: Yogi @ 02:40 PM | Friday, November 9, 2007 | (url: http://gizmodo.co...)

You thought there was fracturing between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Well, turns out the blu-ray camp consists of 3 different versions of the spec, and some hardware will never be able to take advantage of all blu-ray's features even with a firmware upgrade. In fact, there are zero players on the market that support the full spec.

The PS3 currently supports the most limited version of the Blu-ray spec, even after the 2.0 firmware.

Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player: $100, this Friday, Wal-Mart

Submitted by: OtakuMark @ 08:56 AM | Thursday, November 1, 2007 | (url: http://www.engadg...)

Still waiting to jump into the high def disc game? Or just wanted another weaker, cheaper player for the last-gen TV you phased out to your rumpus room? Well, whatever your reasons, some (not all!) Wal-Mart locations will be selling Toshiba HD-A2s for $100 -- down from $200 -- this Friday. Ridiculous, we know.