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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Delivering up to 14TB of centralized network storage, Envive’s Theater Station Multi-zone Digital Media Management System keeps all your media in one convenient location. A single TheaterStation Client can connect with a variety of 4TB, 6TB, 10TB and 14TB storage units that fit in standard rack mounts. As your video and audio library expands, so will your Envive system. Users can easily transfer, store and sort music and movies, whether they are created, purchased on hard media or downloaded from the Internet. The complete TheaterStation product line is ideal for either single-zone or multi-zone installations.

The networked storage units are available in rack mount or small towers with RAID protection. The system is designed for easy expansion with the addition of more hard drives and extra clients to enjoy media in multiple rooms throughout the house. The TheaterStation system enables users to retrieve, create, or capture cover art and metadata for all of the media in their library.

Envive’s software helps users get their digital library into the TheaterStation system by using PC, MAC, and Linux based tools to drag and drop their digital files onto the central network storage devices. The TheaterStation’s user interface makes it easy for users to store, sort, and access all their digital media. It supports the importing of non-DRM protected audio files from popular download services, and numerous video file formats including AVI, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, DVD ISO, H.264, and VC1.

The TS Client and TS Client Mini are easy to set up and connect to the networked storage devices. Providing internal upscaling to 1080p, the TS clients are equipped with built-in DVD drives for local movie playback and archiving. Capable of interfacing with a variety of home automation control systems, the TS Client and TS Client Mini provide IR, IP and serial connections.

The rack mount storage units come in either 1U rack mount with 4-bays for 4TB to 6TB drives or 2U rack mount units with 8-bays to accommodate 6TB to 14TB drives. For installations without industrial racks there is the 4-bay tower that is capable of holding four, 1TB drives.

The cost is on par with other high-end digital management systems. For instance the TS Client is $1,795, while the TS Client Mini is $1,995. Storage costs can run $4,795 for 4TB or up to $10, 995 for 14TB.

Source: enviveit.com

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ZeeVee’s ZvPro 250 HD video sends HD content to all TVs on a home’s coax network for an all-you-can-view buffet.

Clearly, the people at ZeeVee do, too, because their ZvPro 250 and ZvBox 150 turn TV viewing into an all-you-can-watch, anywhere-you-can-watch-it-in-HD experience. Suffice it to say, I really liked my time with the ZvPro 250.

I like that the ZvPro 250 turned my condo’s coaxial network into a high-definition video distribution system. ZeeVee says there’s no limit to the number of HDTVs that can receive content from a single ZvPro 250.

Connected to a cable or satellite box, the ZvPro 250 makes the channels that box gets accessible from any TV connected to the venue’s coax network. If the box is also a DVR, the recorded content becomes accessible, too.

I like that ZeeVee’s Zinc Internet Video Browser allows me to select online videos from any TV on the network.
It should be noted that I tested the ZvPro 250 (retail: $2,499), as opposed to the ZvBox 150 (retail: $999).

Some of ZvPro 250’s step-up features include:

• Outputs up to 1080p using the VGA input and up to 1080i using the component input, whereas the ZvBox 150 maxes out at 720p.
• Fan-cooled, so it can be installed in racks, while the ZvBox 150 needs more breathing room because it uses its chassis as a heat sink and runs warm.
• RS-232 serial port, which can be configured as a control port for switching inputs.

The overwhelming benefit of the ZvPro 250 is how it creates a large-scale HD distribution system without the need to run any wires. On a small scale, however, my 650-square-foot condo provides a nice illustration of what the ZvPro 250 does.

Specifications, Pros and Cons

AT A GLANCE

Specs:
> Creates an HDTV channel and distributes it over coax to every HDTV on premises
> Works with any VGA or HD video source
> 1080, 720 and 480 on component input
> Up to 1680×1050 on VGA
> 1080i and 720p encoding
> $2,499
> Sister product ZvBox 150 (up to 720p) is $999

Pros:
> Allows cable box and online content to be viewed from any on-premises TV connected to coax.
> Not necessary to run wires, which saves a lot of money.
> Great online interface makes watching streaming content super-easy.

Cons:
> Expensive (although, relative to the cost of wiring for an HD distribution system it’s cheap. Also, there’s the 720p $999 alternative.)
> Can’t watch two different cable box channels on two different connected TVs (but you can watch online content while another TV watches cable content).

Source: electronichouse.com

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