New TV show: Temptation gadget island

You thought it was bad getting tossed aside for another woman? Try getting rejected for an MP3 player.

A new dating series based on the notion that "boys love their toys" will pit girls against gadgets in an attempt to answer that age-old question: Hottie or hot HDTV? In a twist on the reality TV staple For Love or Money, Playboy TV's Gadget or the Girl will make contestants choose between a weekend getaway with a girl of their choice or a surprise high-tech toy.

The gear will range from a 60-inch plasma TV to an arcade game machine, but the guy won't know what his prize is until he opts for either the gadget or the girl. Remember, boys: There's always the chance you'll just be landing a deodorant-emitting suit.

In each episode, a bachelor will be introduced to three women--presumably with some connection to Hugh Hefner--and must immediately pick two to continue the game.

The threesome will go on a date, and at the end, the guy will choose one girl to be his solo companion for the evening. After a few hours together, he must decide if he is going to enjoy an awkward exciting weekend getaway with the stranger, or give her up and leave with some potentially cool gear.

If the girl entices the guy to select her over the mystery gadget, she'll score a prize, which we hope will be higher-end than a cell phone hair dryer headset or a floppy-diskette bracelet. Iliza Shlesinger, currently one of the remaining finalists on NBC's reality TV series Last Comic Standing, will host the disaster show. Hopefully, she'll bring some irony to the proceedings.

The romp premieres on US' Playboy TV in the US on Monday, September 1, at 7.30pm.

Via CNET Crave

The ultimate Blu-ray database: Blu-ray Statistics

The number of people into Blu-ray may still be small, and the number of people who care about whether their favorite movie uses the AVC or MPEG-2 video codec may be even smaller, but if you are one of those nerdy videophiles, Blu-ray Statistics is a wish come true.
The site hosts a huge database containing all released Blu-ray titles, and includes detailed information like what codec was used, whether it's on a 50GB or 25GB Blu-ray disc, what kind of soundtrack is included, etc. Clicking on a title reveals even more information, like video bit rate, running time--even video and audio quality ratings by review sites such as High-Def Digest, Hi-Def Preview and High Def Disc News. Sure, maybe you already knew that 3:10 to Yuma features a 1080p VC-1 encode--but I bet you'd didn't know the average bit rate was 23.94 Mbps, or that it used 47.94GB of the Blu-ray disc.

Alright, so there might not be much of a practical application for some of the data--and we can't guarantee the accuracy of it, either--but it's still a great tool to pick out a new Blu-ray disc, as it includes ratings from IMDB and links to retailers like Amazon and Deep Discount DVD. If we were making a wishlist of features the site could add, we'd love to be able to select our own filters from the database, so, for example, we could rank movies by the highest video quality score at High-Def Digest.

After you get get done browsing the giant list to your heart's content, also be sure to check out the home page, which includes some interesting overall statistics for Blu-ray. For example, we were surprised to see that 54.6 percent of Blu-ray movies, so far, have used 50GB Blu-ray discs rather than the smaller 25GB discs. Maybe the extra storage capacity of Blu-ray over HD DVD really was important...

Check out the full Blu-ray Statistics database. If you have any other suggested features for the site, or know of similar resources, share them in the comments.

Via CNET Crave

Tiny LEDs power Olympics' supersized screens

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is supplying China with 25 LED Astrovision screens for the Beijing Olympics. Each of these giant screens comprises hundreds of LED units and offers three times higher luminance than the brightest plasma panels. This, when combined with its wide horizontal viewing angle, makes the Astrovision ideal for stadiums and open venues under normal ambient lighting with minimum color degradation.

According to EE Times, these 10 x 10m-sized mega screens have a 200m effective range, capable of delivering clear moving pictures, including fine print such as game results and athletes' names. Other examples of similar Astrovision deployments include New York's Madison Square Garden, Vatican City's St. Peter's Square and Orlando's Universal Studios Citywalk.

Via EE Times | Photo credit: EE Times

LED drumsticks illuminate your 'Rock Band' studliness

If you think you felt cool playing Rush on Rock Band before, try pounding out "Tom Sawyer" with The Ant Commandos' new illuminated drumsticks.

The body lights up in red or blue when you strike the sticks on any surface, providing a dramatic light show for the throngs attending the display in your bedroom or basement.

The LED-illuminated drumsticks have a comfortable and secure grip so you won't cause accidental harm when your drumming reaches a frenzy (you wouldn't want to take someone's eye out, now, would you?). A silicon-coated tip helps reduce the thumping noise, a feature your family/friends/roommates are sure to appreciate.

The drumsticks come with two standard AAA batteries, and The Ant Commandos says each battery set will last months under normal playing conditions (we're not sure how normal is being defined here, though). The sticks, which come two per package, are available at a suggested retail price of US$19.99, not including heavy-metal T-shirt.

Via CNET Crave

Pioneer ups the ante, says 500GB Blu-ray-like disc possible

A month after saying it had figured out how to squeeze 400GB of data onto a single optical disc, Pioneer says it can do better than that.

On Tuesday the company said that it is "feasible" to produce a Blu-ray-compatible disc with 20 layers. At 25GB per layer, that amounts to a 500GB disc. The previous claim of 400GB meant just 16 layers were on a single disc.

Blu-ray Discs are currently available in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) discs.

The company said that it was able to squeeze more layers in by stacking alternating layers of two different thicknesses.

The disc is still in the research phase, but Pioneer says its goal is to produce an actual product between 2010 and 2012. Of course, whether it will even be possible to make discs with that many layers compatible with a broad array of Blu-ray player models on the market now is unclear. But by its own goals, it's got a couple years to figure that out.

Via CNET Crave

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