Samsung’s flashy CES 2010 Blu-ray news may be the BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player and ultraslim BD-C7500, but the company also rolled out two mainstream models, the BD-C5500 and BD-C6500. Like most of Samsung’s CES 2010 home theater announcements, details are scarce, but here’s what we know so far.

Key features of the Samsung BD-C5500:

• Low power consumption (13 watts during playback; .1 watts in standby)
• Wi-Fi ready (requires USB dongle, sold separately)
• Supports Internet@TV/Samsung Apps, which will provide content from Netflix, Pandora, Vudu, Blockbuster, Picasa, and Twitter
• Meets Energy Star 4.0 guidelines
• No release date or pricing announced

Key step-up features of the Samsung BD-C6500:

• 15-second disc load; 15-second boot-up
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• Meets Energy Star 4.0 guidelines, but doesn’t have the same low power consumption as the BD-C5500
• No release date or pricing announced

Editors’s note: This section has been updated with more information about Samsung Apps

Internet@TV and Samsung Apps are Samsung’s new proprietary content portals for home theater products. As of now, it’s not perfectly clear exactly how it will work; Samsung says that the first free apps will launch in the spring, with premium apps following in the summer. When we talked to a Samsung rep at the booth, he said that standards services like Netflix, Pandora and Vudu would all be free; he used Tetris as an example of something that would be a premium app. We get the feeling that a lot of the particulars still have to be worked out.

Overall, there’s not much info released about these players, although we’re happy to see that the step-up BD-C6500 has built-in Wi-Fi, a step-up over last year’s BD-P3600. We’ll update this post as we get more information from Samsung.

Source: cnet.com

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LAS VEGAS–We covered all of LG’s major product announcements on Wednesday, but when we swung by the booth yesterday the LLB915 Blu-ray sound bar caught our eye. We’re not quite sure why LG didn’t mention it at the press conference, but the feature set is impressive. Here’s what the product card said.

Key features of the LG LLB915:

• Sound bar with built-in Blu-ray player
• 2 HDMI inputs, 1 output
• 430 watts of power
• Wireless subwoofer
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• LG’s NetCast suite of streaming media services, including Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora, Picasa, and AccuWeather
• DLNA-compliant
• No release date or pricing announced

The card at the booth also mentioned the LLB915 was “made for iPod”, which implies it has an iPod dock, but we couldn’t see one at the booth. Again, LG hasn’t released any info for this product beyond the product card at the CES 2010 booth, but we’ve requested more details.

From the first glance, the LLB915 appears to have stuffed the functionality of the BD390 standalone Blu-ray player into a sound bar, plus added two additional HDMI inputs for other devices. If it delivers passable sound quality, this could be a product to look for in 2010.

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When Panasonic released the first portable Blu-ray player at CES 2009, it received a lot of skepticism, but when we actually reviewed it, we found ourselves liking it a bit more than we expected. Yes, it was too bulky, too expensive, and you had to get really close to see the visual benefits of Blu-ray, but it did enable you to watch your new Blu-ray collection on-the-go. Plus Panasonic made it work as a fully-functional standalone unit too.

Panasonic has now announced its second-generation portable Blu-ray players, with two models this year: the DMP-B100 and DMP-B500. Here’s a quick look at the announced features.

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-B100:

• 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD display
• 3.5 hour battery life
• PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus video processor
• Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• SD card slot
• Adjustable position screen
• No release date or pricing announced

Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-B500:

• 10.1-inch WSVGA LCD display
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• Supports Panasonic’s VieraCast streaming content portal, which will feature content from Amazon Video On Demand, YouTube, Picasa, Netflix, Pandora, and Twitter
• No release date or pricing announced

Editors’ note: We’ve updated this section with new information on battery life.

Panasonic hasn’t released the most important information yet–pricing–but the new players are definitely upgrades over last year’s DMP-B15K. The sleeker design and built-in Wi-Fi on the B500 is nice, but to us the big new is that both players will now have a battery life of 3.5 hours, an hour more than last year’s player. Portable Blu-ray players will likely still a niche product, but we expect these models to be a little more popular than the DMP-B15 now that Blu-ray is more established.

Source: cnet.com

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Sony’s foray into the U.S. electronics market began more than 50 years ago when co-founder Akio Morita came to New York to sell a $30 miniature transistor radio. At the time, he attracted the interest of Bulova, a watchmaker with a vast retail network. Bulova offered to buy 100,000 units under one condition—Sony would have to original equipment manufacture (O.E.M.) the radios, and they would be branded and marketed under Bulova’s name. Amazingly, Morita went against his board of directors’ advice and turned down the deal. His 50-year goal was to make the Sony name as popular as Bulova’s. Through the strength of his vision, Sony is now one of the most recognized brands in the world.

Within Sony’s brand is the Elevated Standard (ES) line, the premium end of the company’s portfolio of products. Over the years, the ES line of equipment has included outstanding DVD players, AVRs, and early in 2009, two Blu-ray Disc players. Late in the third q

uarter, Sony filled a hole in the Blu-ray market by releasing its second multidisc changer, the $1,900 BDP-CX7000ES MegaChanger. (The first, Sony’s $3,500 HES-V1000 Home Entertainment server is no longer available.)

Sony is currently the only manufacturer of Blu-ray Disc changers on the market, so if you’re in need of one, your options are limited to the ES model or the lower-priced BDP-CX960 ($800). Compared with many current video server products, many of which start at $5,000 and go up dramatically from there, this MegaChanger is a bargain. And those other products can’t store Blu-ray Disc content on their hard drives—you have to put discs into the tray one at a time just like a standard player. Granted, these other systems bring different capabilities to the table, but none offer the convenience of storing and managing your Blu-ray collection.

Living with the BDP-CX7000ES the past month has given me a new perspective on the convenience of a disc changer. Although I can personally live without it, I enjoyed having a good portion of my library accessible from one player, and I can see people getting hooked on the experience.

If you don’t care about the storage and are willing to leave the comfort of your couch to change discs, better video processing is available in other players. But if you’re looking at this MegaChanger, that’s probably not you. The BDP-CX7000ES offers Blu-ray performance at 1080p/24 that’s on par with the best we’ve seen and very solid DVD upconversion, which makes it attractive if you’re looking for large-capacity storage and management and don’t want to spend media server money.

Source: hometheatermag.com

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Last summer, Toshiba decided to abandon their self-developed HD-DVD format and to go Blu-ray instead. Soon after, the company started rolling out a few Blu-ray devices here and there, but today Toshiba Japan announced [JP] a flood of new Blu-ray-powered devices. The company is ready to roll out a total of three Blu-ray recorders and one Blu-ray player in the next few weeks.

The three new Blu-ray recorders are branded VARDIA. The basic model (D-B305K/pictured above) features a 320GB HDD (price: $1,100), while the D-B1005K ($1,400) comes with a 1TB hard disc. VHS fans can pay $1,500 to get the D-BW1005K, which is a VHS/Blu-ray recorder combo that helps you to backup your cassettes on Blu-ray discs (pictured below).

The recorders allow you to copy material from DVD to Blu-ray and vice versa. All models come with an HDMI interface, a USB port, LAN connectivity and an SD memory card slot (the player lacks the USB port).

The SD-BD1K is Toshiba’s new Blu-ray player and will cost $300 (pictured above).

Toshiba says they want to tap the growing demand for Blu-ray recorders in Japan with their new line-up. In the US, Toshiba is selling only one Blu-ray player so far, but this might change very soon. The new VARDIA recorders and the player will hit Japanese stores in about four weeks.

Source: crunchgear.com

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Panasonic today revealed three new Blu-ray Disc player (DMP-BD45, DMP-BD65 and DMP-BD85) for its 2010 lineup, and introduced its first-ever 3D Blu-ray Disc player, the DMP-BDT350, which coupled with a 3D HD television set and 3D glasses, gives the consumer the ultimate home 3D experience.

The BD65 and BD85 combine high quality images with enhanced networking functions, including VIERA CAST’s improved and expanded Internet functionality and VIERA Link, which allows the consumer to operate their VIERA Link capable audio/video components with one remote. To further enhance the networking experience, the BD85 includes a Wireless LAN adaptor, while the BD65 features Wireless LAN capability. The BD45 offers all the non-networking basic functions needed to fully enjoy a Blu-ray 1080p HD experience.

The BD85, BD65 and BD45 join the BD70V Blu-ray player which will continue as part of the line-up in 2010, offering multi-format playback and premium 1080p up-conversion. The Panasonic Blu-ray players will be available in the spring of 2010.

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At this moment, there is no doubt that the 3D Blu-Ray Player will be the next big thing in 2010. Samsung seems to be the first to offer this technology to the public with its new Samsung BD-C6900 Blu-Ray Player which has appeared on a CES 2010 award list distributed at CES Unveiled.

There is no information yet about the features or technical specifications of t

he new Samsung BD-C6900 3D Blu-Ray Player although the rumour is that it will support DLNA.

The spec leverages the technology behind Blu-Ray 3D to deliver 1080p resolution to each eye. The specifications are not tied to one technology so it will provide the same visual experience on any 3D display regardless of the technology.

The specifications were designed to allow the PS3 to play 3D content and the tech supports playing 2D discs in 3D players and will allow 2D version of 3D films to be played in existing players.

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Sony BDP-S560 Wireless Blu-ray Player would be the Bad News Bears: a competitor with strong basic abilities but not too much in the way of surface flash. Sony doesn’t attempt to grab your attention with media streaming, although its player can display photos from a DLNA PC. The BDP-S560’s key strengths can mostly be found under the hood.

True to BNB form, the Sony player’s exterior has a straightforward design. A glossy front panel flips down when you hit the Disc Tray Open/Close button; outside of this, the only other visible features are the Stop and Play buttons and a USB port. Around back you’ll find a standard set of A/V connections, including HDMI and component-video jacks. There’s also a second USB port for plugging in a flash drive — something you’ll need to do if you want to enable BD-Live features on discs. (Unlike the other two players here, the Sony doesn’t have built-in memory.)

Sony’s remote control doesn’t have a backlit keypad, but its buttons are clearly sectioned into groups: disc transport controls at the bottom, menu navigation in the middle, and other controls on top. One button that’s conspicuously absent is Disc Eject — you literally have to get up and push that on the player’s front panel, which defeats the whole purpose of having a remote control in the first place! The wealth of information that pops up when you press the remote’s Display button almost makes up for the omission, though: Along with video encoding format (AVC, VC-1), soundtrack format/sampling rate, and video data rate, it shows a graphic timeline displaying total disc time/currently elapsed time. Yet another smooth Sony touch is an onscreen fade-to-black effect that gets triggered when you press the Stop button.

Sony’s Internet Settings menu for connecting the player to a Wi-Fi network was fairly easy to follow, although entering passwords manually via its onscreen virtual keypad was a slow, tiresome process. Unfortunately, the first BDP-S560 I checked out abruptly died and its departure proved to be permanent. (A second unit that Sony sent worked fine, however.)

Sony BDP-S560 Wireless Blu-ray Player PERFORMANCE

With the Sony’s Quick Start mode selected, operation proved to be adequately zippy. Only 5 seconds elapsed between the moment I pressed the Power button and the moment the disc tray could eject. Most movies loaded up and displayed an image after 23 seconds. The player’s 2X fast-scan mode delivered choppy picture quality when searching discs; performance here lagged behind both the Samsung and LG.

Like the other two players here, the BDP-S560 sailed through all our high-def disc tests for both film and video-sourced material. The real surprise with this player, however, turned out to be its DVD upconversion. After plugging in the Sony and checking out a few DVDs, I couldn’t help but admire how clean, sharp, and solid its picture looked. And when I ran my standard round of HQV DVD tests, it passed every one, including the tough Assorted Cadences tests, which trip up virtually every player except for those that actually feature built-in HQV processing. In addition to its awesome standard-def upconversion, the BDP-S560’s noise reduction didn’t result in any picture softening.

BOTTOM LINE

Sony’s BDP-S560 lacks the media-streaming features found in the two other players, and you’ll need to plug in your own flash memory to enable BD-Live features on discs. Even so, when the moment of truth arrives and it steps up to the plate to play Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, this Sony’s video performance is nothing short of stunning. I don’t know about you, but that’s the main thing I expect from my Blu-ray Disc player.

Source: soundandvisionmag.com

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In the market for a Blu-ray player and can put down a little more than for just a bargain player? Especially if you’re a loyal Marantz enthusiast, you’ll be happy to know you can get some money back for buying one of its Blu-ray players from now until the end of the year.

Marantz is offering a $100 mail-in rebate applicable to the purchase of its high-performance BD7004 ($799) and BD5004 ($549) Blu-ray players, good on purchases made between now and December 31, 2009.

The BD7004 and BD5004 look as good as they perform, with sleek aluminum/reinforced resin front panels and center-mount drawers. The video performance gets a big boost from Anchor Bay VRS Technology video scaling, to bump up those standard DVDs to 1080p as well.

Both units include SD/SDHC card readers for WMA, MP3, and JPEG file support, and the BD7004 plays nicely with DivX and AVCHD files, too.

Lossless audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are decoded onboard, and both have HDMI 1.3a support for 36-bit Deep Color. And with that extra $100 you’ll be able to pick up some cool Blu-ray discs to start demo’ing in your theater.

Marantz BD7004

As you’d expect from a deck designed for demanding home cinema systems, there’s plenty of action on the back panel. There are Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio decoders on board and the 7.1-channel analogue outputs let you enjoy hi-res soundtracks even if your amp lacks HDMI sockets. A separate set of stereo audio connections, isolated from the multichannel sockets, is best used for straight-up CD playback, while the coaxial digital output passes the 5.1 audio stream to a receiver.

On the video side, the HDMI v1.3 port fires out 1080/24p pictures from Blu-ray discs, Dolby TrueHD/DTS HD Master Audio bitstreams and upscaled DVD video signals (at 720p, 1080i or 1080p). Component outputs deliver hi-def video up to 1080i and benefit from a 297MHz/12-bit video DAC (the BD5004 offers a 150MHz version).

Marantz BD5004

The BD5004’s disc drive supports the following formats: BD, DVD, CD audio, AVCHD, JPEG, MP3, WMA, and Divx. The back panel features an Ethernet port for BD-Live Web features, as well as quick firmware updates. The player doesn’t include a wireless network connection option. The BD5004 lacks internal memory, so the addition of an external storage device is required to download BD-Live features; an SD card slot is provided for this purpose. The front-panel SD card slot also supports playback of AVCHD, JPEG, MP3, and WMA files. Finally, the BD5004 sports IR in/out ports for integration with an advanced control system.

High Points
• The BD5004 supports 1080p/24 playback of Blu-ray discs.
• The player has internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and can pass these formats in bitstream form over HDMI.
• It supports BD-Live Web content and can play picture-in-picture bonus content.
• This player offers a Source Direct mode to output all discs at their native resolution via HDMI.
• The SD card slot allows for easy playback of digital movies, music, and photos.
• IR in/out ports are provided.

Low Points
• The BD5004 lacks multichannel analog audio outputs, so it’s not the best choice for someone who owns an older, non-HDMI A/V receiver.
• This player does not support any type of video-on-demand or music streaming, nor does it feature a wireless option for connection to your home network.
• The player lacks internal memory, and Marantz does not supply an SD card for storage of downloadable BD-Live content.

Source: us.marantz.com

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Heavy Performer

Right now, you can get Blu-ray players for less than $200.

Well, you can, but do those players offer you onboard decoding of all the audio formats, upconverting of the 8-bit video to 16-bit, Marvell Qdeo processing, eight Wolfson DACS, tank-like build quality and pretty much everything else you can think of to eke out every last bit of performance?

That was a rhetorical question

At just over 30 pounds, Pioneer’s BDP-09FD blu-ray player is nearly as heavy as the Rotel RSX-1560 receiver.

Just as the low weight of the RSX-1560 is impressive given its specs, the tonnage of the BDP-09FD makes it an outlier in its product category.

It’s important, believe it or not, to make a high-end product feel like a high-end product. There was a time when manufacturers put sheets of lead at the bottom of a product to make it heavier (therefore feeling more “expensive”).

Not that the BDP-09FD needs lead to feel hefty. It does that with its own guts and chassis. Pioneer really got the feel of it right, from the disc tray to the solidity of the unit itself.

Inside, there’s a toroidal power transformer similar to what you’d find in a good power amp or receiver. There is even a power supply with massive capacitors dedicated to just the analog audio stage. In looking at the whole parts list, two words come to mind.

Glorious Overkill

With the BDP-09FD, Pioneer seems to have decided to go all out in making the ultimate Blu-ray player. A similar attitude brought us the KURO plasmas (may they rest in peace). The question is, and this is one many companies struggle with: How do you make a high-end version of a commodity product?

The first step is making it look and feel the part, which, as mentioned, they’ve pulled off. The bigger issue then is the performance.

“But I thought Blu-ray was perfect,” you say. Well, sort of. The potential is there for the content on Blu-ray to be perfect. Let’s say you have that perfect disc in your hand, can your player and display re-create that disc in all its perfection? Pioneer is betting no, and has a bunch of do-dads to clean it up before you send it to your display.

The first is an upconversion from the 8-bit video on the Blu-ray to 16-bit. This smoothes out the transitions between different shades of gray (and therefore, allowing more shades of colors). While this can be transmitted over HDMI, chances are your TV is going to neuter it back down to 8-bit to process it again; though, I suppose we can blame that on your display.

Suffice it to say, you’d be getting the best possible video to your TV. There are also extensive video adjustments and noise reduction circuitry. Sure most people wouldn’t need this level of adjustment, but it’s helpful in certain installs and probably won’t hurt.

The real überness of the BDP-09FD lies elsewhere.

Powerhouse

For the foreseeable future, most people’s movie collections are going to be predominantly DVD. The BDP-09FD makes DVD look as good as just about any consumer product I’ve seen. Using Marvell’s Qdeo chipset, it does so well on every processing test that you step away and wonder why other products can’t do this well.

De-interlacing all content is a no brainer, as is pickup of the 3:2 sequence from 480i and 1080i content. Where the BDP-09FD is really over the top is with diagonal lines. On lesser processers (either in your TV or in your BD player), diagonal lines can get the much despised “jaggies,” as in, jagged steps instead of a smooth diagonal line. With both SD and HD content, the BDP-09FD does a better job creating a diagonal line, no jaggies, than any product that comes to mind.

With the waving flag test on the Silicon Optix test DVD, a test of video processing, the BDP-09FD creates a smooth flag with lots of detail. Nearly flawless.

Detail with scaled DVD content is excellent as well.

Audiophile

Adding a whole other level to the performance is the audio quality. With the aforementioned dedicated power supply for the audio, plus eight 24-bit/192kHz Wolfson DACs, the audio sound quality was clearly an important aspect in product development. Sure you can send all the audio via HDMI to your receiver or pre/pro, but depending on what you’re using, the analog out of the BDP-09FD might actually sound better. When was the last time you thought that was possible with a Blu-ray player?

Using the analog outputs, I found the audio quality with CDs to be a bit more natural and smooth. A little less brittle. Again, this will depend a lot on what you’re using as a receiver or pre/pro, but it’s worth checking out. The BDP-09FD will also decode, on board, all the latest audio formats. So if your processor doesn’t have HDMI in, no worries. Again, thanks to the DACs, you may want to go analog.

Sadly, from the company that brought us the first “combo” player, the BDP-09FD doesn’t play DVD-Audio or SACD. These are essentially dead formats, but I still have a collection of discs I love, and I’d love to hear them on a player like this.

If you have a Pioneer receiver, the Precision Quartz Lock System (PQLS) eliminates jitter across HDMI for that extra bit of performance.

Ultimate

The BDP-09FD is a niche product to be sure. After all, you can get perfectly acceptable Blu-ray performance from any player. But that’s not what this product is about.

This is for those people who want the absolute best performance from every aspect of their system, and that extra little bit of video and sound quality. For those people, this is the source they should be looking at first. How do you build a high-end version of a commodity product?

Source : hemagazine.com

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