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Following in the path of Samsung, LG has officially announced they will be discontinuing their production of the HD DVD/Blu-ray combo players. The end of line from LG will come this fall with the LG BH200 that will retail for $587.

“Surely, it is a very tough decision for us to halt the production of the combos, however, we will stop manufacturing the Super Blu series from the second half of this year,” said a spokesman from LG Electronics.

Via [DVD Town]

The Blu-ray format is getting a new supporter in legendary musician Neil Young, as the singer has recently announced that he will be releasing his entire music archive on Blu-ray. Mr. Young, who was surprisingly among those who spoke during the Java Conference in San Francisco, will release the first installment of his music archives covering his hits from 1963 to 1972 in a ten disc Blu-ray set through Reprise/Warner Bros. Records.

Mr. Young is set to maximize the full capacity potential of Blu-ray discs with the release of his music archives. These BDs will contain not only his popular songs, but previously unreleased songs, videos, handwritten manuscripts and other memorabilia as well. Of course, this is just one part of Blu-ray’s goodness, as releasing his collection in this format would also give out better picture and sound quality. This is aside from the fact that Blu-ray discs can hold more content.

Although this is not the first time that the Blu-ray discs were utilized for such purposes, most of those who released their own BDs have just released their concert videos and were not as comprehensive as Mr. Young’s plan of releasing his full archive.

Read [Associated Press]

Even though Microsoft has “officially” stated that a Blu-ray drive would be sold for the Xbox 360, this rumor just does not want to die. The latest information is coming courtesy of the Chinese newspaper, Economic Daily News, and it seems to indicate that Microsoft is still interested in utilizing the apparent winner of the HD disc war for their game console.

The Economic Daily News is reporting that Pegatron Technology, a subsidiary of Asus, has orders, from Microsoft, to assemble Xbox 360 consoles that are equipped with a Blu-ray drive. This purported assembly is set to begin in the Q3 of this year. Microsoft has yet to comment on this latest chapter in the Blu-ray/Xbox rumor, so more as it happens.

Read [Digitimes]

Samsung is treating all you couch potatoes out there with their latest products that might make you burn your wallets—the HTS-AS720 Home Theater System and the BD-P1500 Blu-ray player. Samsung is really teasing us with these new products as you would certainly want to have not just one but both of them. Because how good is a home theater system if you don’t use a BD player with it, right?

So, first up we have the HTS-AS720 Home Theater System with its 5.1 channel receiver, subwoofer and six satellite speakers all boasting of 650 watts total power. Adding pleasure to the viewing experience is an amplifier that features Dolby True HD Support and DTS HD pass through. 

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While we have heard the rumors, it now looks like it will soon be official. During a recent conference call, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings announced that because Blu-ray discs cost more money to purchase, that they need to charge a higher rental rate for them. He also went on to state that “consumers are used to paying more for high-definition.”

Personally I think consumers are used to paying more to own high-definition, I am not so sure how eager they will be to pay more to rent it. Currently Netflix has a small amount of subscribers who choose Blu-ray over standard DVD’s and with a price increase it seems that small percentage will remain small.

While the statements from Hastings seemed pretty clear that the price increase was going to happen, there has not been any official statement as to just how much the increase will be. As for when it will take effect, customers can expect to see it “later this year.”

Via [Crave]

Universal Studios is preparing for its entry to the Blu-ray market with a plan to release 40 movies during the second half of 2008. The first Blu-ray titles from Universal will be available on July 22 and include “The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns” and “Scorpion King.” After which they plan to follow up with “The Incredible Hulk,” “Wanted,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”; “Mamma Mia” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” during the summer.

Along with the current and new releases, Universal will also release some of their back catalog on Blu-ray, which will include such titles as “American Gangster,” “Knocked Up,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Miami Vice,” “End of Days,” “U571” and “Land of the Dead.” Prior to the demise, Universal had been the biggest backer of the HD DVD format, they will of course continue to release titles on standard DVD as well.

Read [Reuters]

A while back, we showed you the Asus M70, a laptop with the ability to store up to 1 terabyte of data. Well, Asus has finally launched the M70 multimedia notebook.

The notebook features a 17-inch LCD display, which supports up to 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) resolution. Compounding this a ATI HD video card, which helps you view HD movies via the Blu-ray drive. Dolby Home Theater-powered audio is heard through the built-in Altec Lansing Speakers. When the touchpad is not being used as a default touchpad, it becomes a media button dock and has controls for volume, play, pause, stop, forward, back and more. A deft tap of your finger returns you to the normal touchpad functions of the special rectangular square.

The M70 also has two clever security technologies. First is the regular fingerprint scanner, which does just that; scans your fingerprints. However, the more innovative of the two is software that scans the face of the user, with the built in 1.3 megapixel webcam, to affirm identity. Nifty.

Via [PC Launches]

Sony Japan has introduced two new Blu-ray recorders, the Sony BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90. You got to give it to Sony for coming out with something new for every consumer product that they release. In the case of these two Blu-ray recorders, Sony has made their hard-drives compatible with Sony’s own portable devices, the Walkman and PSP.

Both the Sony BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90 boast of 2 terrestrial digital tuners and 2 digital BS 110 analog TV tuners. Both recorders can easily connect to a PSP, Walkman and some NTT Docomo FOMA mobile phones for transferring recorded videos. The Sony BDZ-A70 has a 320GB HDD while the Sony BDZ-T90 has 500GB HDD.

Set for release in Japan sometime during the last week of April, the two Sony Blu-ray recorders will retail for around $1,600. As always, it would take some time before these two BD recorders reach the US market.

Via [I4U] Via [Sony Japan]

Fans of pop phenomenon Hannah Montana would be glad to know that the August release of the Blu-ray Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour will be available in both 2D and 3D viewing modes, which makes this the first Blu-ray release to offer 3D. Both viewing modes will be in 1080p video and offer uncompressed PCM 7.1 surround audio. Disney is scheduled to release the Blu-ray version of the live concert film around August 19 while the regular CD/DVD version is set to hit the market next week. So, parents with Hannah Montana obsessed children may have to negotiate with their kids on whether they would rather have the CD/DVD version or wait a couple of months for the release of the Blu-ray version, or most likely end up purchasing both, thanks Disney. The Blu-ray concert release is expected to retail for $35.98.

Via [High-Def Digest]

Now that Blu-ray has won the format war over rival HD DVD, a lot of people are saying that it is indeed the next generation optical disc standard. That may be true, as long as a better format does not come out in the next few months or years.

Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices recently sent out a report that 30 million Blu-ray devices would be found in homes before the year 2008 ends, although not all devices will be used for movie playback. Global sales of Blu-ray players are expected to hit 18.8 million units this year. With thirteen million of those being consoles, four million stand-alone players and two million found in computers. After four years, the number is also expected to increase to 57.4 million units. I don’t know if this is just a guess or an estimate but the report says the market will be largest in Europe, then US, and Japan coming in at third.

Keep reading for a summary of the report:

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