Another Sony Blu-ray heads-up

Chotto matte! If you're about to commit yourself into a standalone Blu-ray player, perhaps it may be a good idea to wait a little longer. We've received news of an impending arrival for the Sony BDP-S550. This model offers every feature the S350 possesses, plus out-of-the-box Blu-ray Profile 2.0 compatibility, onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and companion 7.1-channel analog audio outputs. The latter two icings on the cake are particularly handy if you've a legacy A/V receiver that cannot handle the latest hi-res Dolby/DTS formats and lacks HDMI interface.

The Sony BDP-S550 should be available in Singapore soon, though the Japanese company is tight lipped on launch details for the rest of the region.

Photo credit: Sony

Sharp LCDs save energy, double Hz

Today at CEDIA, Sharp announced two new lines of flat-panel LCD HDTVs, one with a special energy-saver function and another with the company's first iteration of true 120Hz processing. Full details are available after the jump.

Sharp LC-D65U series

Models (availability, suggested retail price)
Sharp LC-42D65U (now, US$1,599)
Sharp LC-46D65U (October, US$1,899)
Sharp LC-52D65U (October, US$2,399)

Key features of the Sharp LC-D65U series

1080p native resolution
Energy saver mode
Five HDMI inputs
Read more »

Sony's home theater systems get built-in Blu-ray

Standalone Blu-ray players may still be expensive, but you know Blu-ray can't be too far from being a "commodity" feature when it starts getting bundled in with home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems. While we've already seen HTIBs with Blu-ray from Panasonic and Samsung, these are the first systems from Sony, and also the first that we've seen with Blu-ray players that are upgradeable to Blu-ray Profile 2.0. Here's the summary of the information Sony has released so far:

Sony BDV-IS1000
Key features of the Sony BDV-IS1000:

• 5.1-speaker system, with five tiny speakers
• Currently Profile 1.1, will be Profile 2.0 with a firmware update (coming this fall)
• Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• Compatible with Sony's S-AIR technology
• Two HDMI inputs
• XMB graphical user interface
• Available in October, with a list price of US$1,000

Read more »

Insert Ghostbusters song reference here: PNY offers movie on USB

Who's PNY gonna call? SONY!! LOL!!... Oh god, kill me. I tried to not make a "gonna call" reference, but the more I tried, the more inescapable it seemed.

Anyway, on Wednesday PNY Technologies announced with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that it would be releasing a 2GB USB flash drive with the original Ghostbusters movie on it. This is apparently the first time a full-length movie has been released via a USB flash drive. For me, though, this begs the question, "Why Ghostbusters?"

The drive is releasing now, but the 25th anniversary of the theatrical Ghostbusters release in 1984 isn't until next year. Seems like an odd choice. I mean, I love the original Ghostbusters. It's one of my favorite comedies ever, but I really don't need to be able to watch it anywhere at any time. Maybe that's just me, though. Maybe there's an upcoming Ghostbusters popularity renaissance that I'm just not privy to.

The 2GB drive is able to hold 12 hours of video play, 33 hours of music, and 1,080 pictures. Of course, this all depends on the size, quality, and type of files being used.

I don't know. I just can't stop thinking that they would have been much better served offering something more recent like Iron Man. PNY did not provide pricing for the drive or technical specs on the movie file.

Via Crave CNET

Sony doubles smoothness with 240Hz LCD

Catering to those sensitive souls for whom the smoothness imparted by 120Hz LCD HDTVs is still too rough, Sony will introduce the first HDTV with a 240Hz refresh rate this December. Dubbed the KDL-52XBR7 (price TBD), this 52-inch model is the only one in the XBR7 series to boast the faster refresh rate.
According to Sony's press release, the main advantage of 240Hz compared with 120Hz is the "exceptional motion detail in movies, sports, and video games". Whereas standard 120Hz TVs in Sony's lineup interpolate an extra frame between the real frames, the 240Hz model interpolates three.

In our tests 120Hz displays like Sony's own KDL-46Z4100 do clean up some blurring in motion compared with standard LCDs, although the difference is often difficult for us to spot in normal program material as opposed to special test footage and patterns. The effect of the smoothness introduced by the accompanying "de-judder" processing, however, is anything but subtle, and can make film look more like video. We tend to prefer leaving 120Hz de-judder processing, which Sony calls Smooth Motion, turned off for film-based sources.

Via Crave CNET

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