Panasonic preps for Beijing Olympics with three HD recorders

While digital video recorders are regular entries from Panasonic's extensive home consumer lineup, its DMR-XW320 and XW120 are the company's latest DVD offerings with HD recording capability. Using the latest MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 data compression technology, these sleek 244mm-deep recorders are capable of recording up to 3 hours of 1,920 x 1,080-pixel video footage on dual-layer (DL) DVDs. Simultaneous digital broadcast recording is also adequately covered, thanks to inbuilt dual multiformat TV tuners.

For those who prefer Blu-ray compatibility, its 250GB DMR-BR500 supports just about every disc format available on shelves (minus the defunct HD-DVD). These range from Blu-ray to DVD and CD recordables and rewriteables. On 50GB Blu-ray DL, the recording time can be extended up to 18 hours, though that can be further stretched to a whopping 94 hours 30 minutes on hard drive. However, there're two teeny-weeny problems. All three recorders output only 1080i via HDMI and are strictly meant for the Japanese market. Duh!

Via Akihabara news | Photo credit: Panasonic

New Sony Walkmans with Bluetooth

The Sony NW-A800 series of players are pretty well-regarded around here. They give great music quality and, though the screen is small, video playback is decent. That's why we are pretty excited about the NW-A820 series just announced in Japan. These new MP3 players come with Bluetooth so you can use an A2DP wireless headset instead of wired 'phones.

What's more, ever since the NW-A800, Sony players have ditched the evil SonicStage application for a drag-and-drop interface for music transfers. We'd expect that to be true for the A820 as well. This player will max out at 16GB and weigh a mere 59g. We understand that it will reach our region soon, though pricing and a more specific date are not available at the moment.

Via Akihabara News

What should I do with my HD-DVD laptop?

The domino effect is in full play here. When Warner declared that it was going Blu-ray all the way, hardware and entertainment companies started following suit. So though it may have lost the Betamax war decades ago, Sony can now celebrate with its Blu-ray win.

So does this mean laptops with HD-DVD drives have suddenly become obsolete overnight (desktops have it easy as their optical drives can easily be upgraded)? Yes and no. Unlike dedicated home theater players whose sole purpose is to pump out HD-DVD movies onto a big screen, there is more to notebooks than watching videos. Moreover, some models have swappable optical drives so you can always upgrade in the future.

On the other hand, expect to see fewer and fewer titles released in this format. Toshiba will be stopping production of this media, so getting you hands on blank HD-DVD discs will become more difficult in the future. When that happens, it's upgrade or die time.

So what do you think? Do you bemoan the loss of a rival standard that drove the price wars during the holiday season? Or do you celebrate the fact that worrying over which format to pick has become a thing of the past?

Spin cotton candy from candy

Could life get any sweeter? Well, yes, if you're in Japan where the spirit of innovation still lives on despite global warming issues, environmentalists whaling, erm wailing, about the country's conservation shortcomings and declining birth rates. Life goes on, and in this sweet instance, here's a home candy floss maker with a novel spin (US$159). It spins cotton candy not with sugar syrup, but from hard candies.

Just mix and match any confectionery candy and experiment away, from Gobstoppers to Glacier Mints. Better yet, go for the sugar-free variant and get away with this guilt-free. For a peek at how this works, check out the video on the Japan Trend Shop site.


Thanks to popgadget.net

Universal chooses Blu-ray

Clearly seeing the writing on the wall, Universal said today it will drop its support for HD-DVD and instead produce its high-definition films on Blu-ray Disc.

"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms, in a statement.

"The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate. While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray," he said.

The announcement from Universal comes only hours after Toshiba said it would no longer produce HD-DVD players. As Toshiba was the only hardware manufacturer producing standalone HD-DVD players, its exit leaves little choice for the remaining members of the HD-DVD Promotional Group.

The only other major studio still contracted to support HD-DVD is Paramount, which is widely expected by industry insiders to make a similar pledge of allegiance to Blu-ray by the end of the week.

But while Paramount used to support both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Universal has always been in the HD-DVD camp. That means it likely has much more work ahead of it to switch from HD-DVD and produce discs in the Blu-ray format for the very first time.

Via Crave CNET

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