Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Blu-ray has always been fighting against the tide, struggling against high prices, general reluctance to move on from DVDs, and now the “credit crunch” as well.  In fact, many people were beginning to think that the victory against HD-DVD may have been in vain due to the apparent lack of consumers, and that the aim of 5 million units to be sold this year was laughable.  However it would appear that both parties are in the process of being proved wrong with figures released by Sony showing some interesting truths.

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Remember HD DVD, the now-dead next-gen format?  Well it turns out that Netflix is getting ready to bring those rentals to an end.  The news comes as little surprise as Netlfix announced way back in February that they decided to support the Blu-ray format. 

The original announcement was that they would phase out HD DVD rentals “by the end of 2008” and well, that time is just about here and the rentals will officially come to an end on December 15.  Which means that at that time, if you have any HD DVD titles in your queue, they will be replaced with a standard DVD.

Via [EngadgetHD]

• Some Columbia Pictures movies return to NXE streams
• Panasonic makes a move for 3D Blu-ray
• Blockbuster to offer streaming set-top box

Netflix has recently announced they are planning to stop selling used DVDs on their website.  The last day for any subscribers to grab that used DVD will be November 30, 2008, after which all DVD sales will be passed off to a wholesaler in bulk.  Personally, I had no interest in purchasing those used DVDs, so this makes sense to me.  It will most likely save Netflix some time and money by getting rid of the movies in a large bunch, instead of shipping them out to customers a few at a time.

According to the Netflix Blog, this will allow the company to “spend the extra time focusing on continually improving our core rental business for you.“  They also made a nice point that “this is in no way an indicator of moving away from DVDs,“ claiming that they feel DVDs will be around for at least “the next five to ten years.“  Of course, it is hard to think that Netflix is not beginning to plan for that time when DVDs will no longer be a viable option, and for the time when the Watch Instantly feature will see more use than the USPS.

Read [Netflix Blog]

• Blockbuster to offer streaming set-top box
• Some Columbia Pictures movies return to NXE streams
• Blu-ray manages to not fail as badly as we thought

Anybody who is fed up with new formats of media and still has only vinyl switch off your monitor now.  Boosted by their success in the High Definition DVD war with Blu-ray they have decided to expand the Blu franchise with Blu-spec CD.

Details are sketchy regarding the actual advantages due to a poorly translated Japanese press release, but what we do know is that it aims to overthrow the CD.  Unsurprisingly, they are burned using the Blu Laser Diode (hence the Blu) and even more unsurprisingly they will cost around the $20-$35 mark.  Obviously, we don’t know what you are paying for but the general consensus is that it will be significantly better sound quality. 

There’s a strange twist to the Blu-spec CD—find out after the break.

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You may know of Dane-Elec has one of the main distributors of Meizu’s M6, which is a phone similar to the iPhone.  Now, they have decided to venture into the PMP market themselves and they recently introduced 4 of their first PMP’s - the Music Mediatouch, the Music Touch, Music Pix and the Music.  Definitely some interesting names for PMP’s, in my opinion.

First, let’s talk about the Music Mediatouch.  It comes with a 4.3-inch touch screen with 480 x 272 resolution, TV out, FM Tuner, and support for many audio and video formats including AVI, WAV, and MP3.  It also comes with support of WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, JPG, GIF, and BMP.  The Music Mediatouch will be available in 2 models, a 4GB and an 8GB.  The 8GB will sell for 150 Euros, or $202.  I imagine the 4GB to sell a bit less than that.

Plenty more details after the break.

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In much the same way Blu-ray hopes to eventually ‘kill’ the inferior DVD, DVD has finally buried VHS.  “Old news!“ I hear you cry, and yes, I appreciate that the VHS has been facing this impending doom for a while, but the day has finally come where we can officially say that it is a thing of the past.

Up until now JVC, the developers of VHS, have been the only major company to still make standalone VHS players, with companies like Panasonic blaming the obviously empty market for them stopping production.  The last film to be released on VHS, “A History of Violence,“ was released in 2006, completing 30 years of VHS dominated home visual entertainment, which started with “The Young Teacher.“  Continued after the break.

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Well, we all knew Steve Jobs’ view of Blu-ray (remember when he described it as a “bag of hurt?“), but it seems he is not the only one who thinks Blu-ray just may be drawing its last dying breaths.  Robin Harris proclaims “Blu-ray is dead” and makes some points that might just make some folks sit back and say hmmmmmm.

Granted, it took a while for DVD to make it into mainstream when it was first introduced, like 5 or 6 years, or so.  You still had diehards hanging on the their VHS.  Heck, I still also own a VHS player.  It’s practically a relic.  So, you have people arguing, give Blu-Ray a break—it’s only been out a year or so.  Continued after the break.

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Christmas is for the kids, right?  Better get them crossed off the shopping list first.  I checked out a few of the wish lists floating around and thought I would share them with you.  Wouldn’t you know, they are filled with electronics.  We have plenty of shopping days til the holidays.  That is, unless your kids want Elmo Live, which is already selling out.

What are your kids asking Santa for? Keep reading to see.

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A lower priced Blu-ray player is coming this November from Sherwood America for under $300.  Expect the usual BD features like 1080p video, upscales DVDs, and supports BD Profile 1.1.  With the holidays coming, expect more news like this.

I have never heard of this particular company, so I did some digging.  Don’t expect any exotic styling here.  Their other devices feature pretty conservative design.  Where can you expect to find this player?  We don’t know yet, but when we do, we’ll let you know.  More after the break.

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In a very RIAA-like move, the MPAA has sued RealNetworks for a program that they claim allows its users to steal DVDs.  The program is called RealDVD, which allows you to copy your DVD onto your computer or external hard drive for playback later.  However, Real says that RealDVD has encryption that doesn’t allow users to copy or distribute the DVD files.  Although, theoretically it is possible to get a DVD from Blockbuster, Netflix, or even a friend, copy it, and give it back.

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