224w ago - As Blu-ray market penetration increases, the entry price of Blu-ray Disc players will continue to decrease.

China's Economic Daily News reports that white-box vendors will offer Blu-ray players at approximately a $150 USD price point this year.

Lite-On IT, a prominent Taiwanese disc drive manufacturer, plans to offer a half-height Blu-ray drive for laptops for around $150 USD, according to the newspaper.

White-box vendors are obscure electronics manufacturers, so don't expect to see Sony or Samsung Blu-ray players reach that price point just yet.

226w ago - Last year, retail video games outsold DVD and Blu-ray discs worldwide for the first time, according to a 2008 report and 2009 forecast by Media Control GfK International.

Video game sales were up to 53 percent of the media market in 2008, thanks in no small part to Nintendo's Wii, which drove software sales up by 20 percent from 2007. GfK predicts that video games will take 59 percent of the market by the end of 2009.

In Italy and Spain, video games already reign in the home entertainment war, constituting for 67 percent of the market.

Meanwhile, DVD sales dropped by 4 percent, bringing overall DVD and Blu-ray sales down 6 percent from the previous year. The U.S. market played a major roll, with sales for these movie formats dropping by 8 percent.

All told, video game sales reached $32 billion and movie sales came out to $29 billion for DVD and Blu-ray. It should be noted that rentals are not included in the report.

GfK's findings weren't without precedent. Earlier this year, Verdict research predicted video game sales would be up 42 percent in the UK, and would surpass music, DVD, and Blu Ray disc sales.

Although they were almost correct, Steve Redmond of the Entertainment Retailer's...

227w ago - CNET reported on nine reasons why they feel the Blu-ray format will succeed as follows today:

1. Digital downloads will not eliminate the need for discs anytime soon.

2. Having one clear standard is a big advantage.

3. Blu-ray isn't going to be replaced by another disc format anytime soon.

4. Prices for large-screen HDTVs will continue to drop.

5. Prices for Blu-ray players will continue to drop.

6. Prices for Blu-ray discs will drop to near DVD price levels.

7. Sony will sell lots of PlayStation 3 game consoles.

8. Sony can't afford to have Blu-ray fail.

9. Sony and its partners will figure out a way to have Blu-ray resonate with the public.

As always, feel free to agree or disagree below and list your reasons you think Blu-ray will make it, fade away, or muddle about in a place between success and failure, forever eliciting praise and criticism.

229w ago - This guide is an addendum to Blu-ray to Apple TV guide. It explains how to use your PlayStation 3 Blu-ray drive to transfer BD movies onto a Mac or a PC for subsequent ripping & Apple TV encoding.

The primary purpose here is to avoid the expense of a computer-based Blu-ray drive for movies rips. Hardware/Software needed:

1. Sony PlayStation 3
2. USB keyboard & mouse for PS3
3. Windows XP/Vista PC or Mac with Parallels (100GB free space)
4. CD-RW or DVD-RW blank disk
5. Gigabit Wired Network
6. SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive (free PC app)
7. SlySoft AnyDVD HD (commercial PC app, ~$100, 21-day trial available)
8. Ubuntu 8.10 for PS3 (free open source)

Guide:

1. You have to install Ubuntu Linux onto your PS3. Those who are intimidated by this step or Linux in general - don't worry!

Installing other operating system on PS3 is fully supported by Sony, unlike say "patching" Apple TV. Also, installing Ubuntu is a very simple process even if you'd never touched...

230w ago - A company called Infinity Storage Media has released the first ever Hybrid and Blu-ray and DVD disc in Japan.

The new media has capacity of 33.5GB and is compatible with all existing DVD and Blu-ray players. Obviously, the major benefit of this is that you can play it on either your DVD or Blu-ray player.

To quote: Great news for those who have both Blu-ray and DVDs in the house; Infinity Storage Media has released the first hybrid Blu-ray and DVD disc in Japan.

The new media has a total storage capacity of 33.5GB and is compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray players. The biggest advantage of the new media is backward compatibility - you can play it on your DVD or Blu-ray player.

How does it work? Based on JVC's 2004 Blu-ray/DVD combo disc technology, Infinity has layered one format on top of the other on the same side of the disc, making it possible for the lasers to penetrate to the desired depth and read the required information.

The Blu-ray makes up the top layer (25GB) with two more layers beneath that make up the DVD layers (8.5GB). Separated by a semi reflective film, the blue laser accesses the top layer and bounces off the DVD layers, while the red laser penetrate the various layers to get to the DVD information...