LG Ships Second Generation BH200 ‘Super Blu’ Dual-Format Player

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 by MegaZone

Announced in September, LG is now shipping their second generation Blu-ray Disc / HD DVD dual-format ‘Super Blu’ deck, the BH200. While their original BH100 was a full Blu-ray player, but not a full HD DVD deck – it could only play HD DVD movies, and had none of the menus or interactive features (no HDi support) – the BH200 is a full Blu-ray and HD DVD compatible unit. It also supports Blu-ray Profile 1.1, which means PIP support on coming titles. And it will reportedly be upgraded to Profile 2.0 aka BD-Live with an update. (It certainly has the hardware, as it supports HD DVD’s online features.) That’s the good news. The bad news is the price – $999.99, which is what you’ll find it selling for at retailers such as Amazon.

If you really want a combo player, the Samsung BD-UP5000 is $799.99 with the same basic feature set – fully HD DVD and Blu-ray support, with Profile 1.1. And Profile 2.0 expected in an update. (Again, it has the hardware required.)

LG’s press release:
Continue reading →

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Dave, Thank You

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 by MegaZone

Thank you for the TiVo Rewards donation, Dave. It is appreciated!

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High Quality Blu-Ray Player For Under $300 With Five Free Movies

Posted on Sunday, December 9, 2007 by MegaZone

One thing the format war is good at is driving down pricing. Now one of the better current Blu-ray players on the market is selling for less than $300 at Amazon. You can get the Samsung BD-P1400 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player for $297.95, over $200 off the $499.99 MSRP. And, like most players, it is eligible for five free movies via a mail-in offer.

While this is a good deal, I think I’d still recommend the 40GB PlayStation 3 for $399.99. You get a good BD player and a top notch gaming system. And the PS3 will reportedly be upgraded to BD Profile 1.1 this month, and BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live) next year. And the PS3 comes with the BD of Spider-man 3, and is eligible for the same five free movie offer.

Samsung news via EngadgetHD.

Posted in Blu-ray/HD DVD, Gaming | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

PlayTeeVee Adds New Game for TiVo

Posted on Sunday, December 9, 2007 by MegaZone

TiVo HME gaming developer PlayTeeVee has added another game, Elephant Antics, to their lineup. See their website for instructions on how to access the games from your broadband connected TiVo.

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OpenCable Platform vs. Digital Cable Ready Plus

Posted on Sunday, December 9, 2007 by MegaZone

Multichannel News has a good article on the disagreement between the NCTA, backing OCAP, and the CEA, backing DCR+. It doesn’t go into painful detail, but I think it serves as a decent overview for someone curious about the standoff. I’ve never been a fan of OCAP, since I’ve never seen a cable box UI that I liked, and I wouldn’t want to give up innovative UIs like TiVo’s. In principle I like the DCR+ proposal – standardized APIs, like web services. But I do realize it would probably take years for the cable industry to sort of the mess they’ve created over the years with the myriad of non-standard back-ends. So the OCAP compromise TiVo announced recently seems like the best option to me. Like all compromises it isn’t everything either party wants, but it provides access to advanced cable features via OCAP while preserving innovative UIs and product differentiation, while bringing products to market in the near term.

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