Harmon Kardon Introduces the DVC600 Home Theater/Blu-ray Center

Are you a HD Show Freak? You see the increasing number of good TV shows available in High Definition and you're wondering how you could watch them all? Harman Kardan has the solution for you. The new DVC600 can record up to eight simultaneous HD shows. Is this enough for you? Oh and yes, the system will also record and play Blu-ray discs.

The new Media system will be UNIX based. Cool!  Too bad this is not Linux though; third parties could have had features to the system!

This poppy comes with a price tag though. Expect to pay 3k-4k euros to bring this one at home.

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Loewe Announced the BluTech Vision Blu-ray Player

Wow! (and I'm not talking about Vista here) We don't know if this new BluTech Vision Blu-ray player will output a nice video and audio quality, but its sleek design is impressive. To be released in October in Germany, the new player features HDMI, 24p, TrueHD and DTS HD, 7.1 surround. Price and international availability have not been announced yet.

Check the other picture after the break.

IFA: Philips BDP-7100 Blu-ray Player Revealed

Philips announced their first Blu-ray Player this week at the IFA Conference in Berlin. The BDP-7100 Blu-ray player specifications are only partially available for now, but Philips said that their new device will support 1080p, 24p, True HD and DTS HD. The device also has HDMI port, but the version has not been specified. The device is also compatible with the HDMI CEC function that allows the control of other devices with one remote.

No price has been announced but the Blu-ray player is said to be available "now".

Another picture after the jump.

Daewoo Jumps on the Blu-Ray Bandwagon

What a nice surprise coming from the Blu-ray camp at the IFA conference. Daewoo announced their first Blu-ray player, the blue hue DBP-1000. The player supports the full BD specification, including the ability to access BD Live online content, to present picture-in-picture material and deliver BD's interactivity features.

According to Daewoo, 1080p will also be available thru the HDMI port. Upscale capability for DVD and jpeg pictures has been added to the player. And finally, the DBP-1000 can support DivX, DVD and CD formats, BD-R and BD-RE discs.

Outputs? A lot of them! Besides the HDMI port, the DBP-1000 as s-video, composite video, component video and digital and analogue sound outputs. You will also be able to download content thru the USB port located at the front of the player. Cool!

No release date and price have been announced by Daewoo.

Source 

IFA: Sony Revealed the BDP-S500 Blu-ray Player

European Blu-ray fans will be happy to know that Sony will release two new Blu-ray players in Europe this fall. The BDP-S300, already available in North American, and a brand new model called the BDP-S500.

So, what is that new BDP-S500? It basically has the same specs as the BDP-S300 (1080p via HDMI, 7.1 channel Linear PCM, Dolby Digital Plus), but the BDP-S500 adds Dolby True HD, DTS-HD1, and HDMI 1.3. The price? $1200! That's $400 more than the BDP-S300. It's a lot of money considering that the market is looking for players under the $300 mark. 

What about the BDP-S1? Does this means the end of the device? Probably, but this has not been announced by Sony yet.

One last thing… Since the trend is to throw in free movies with Blu-ray players, Spiderman Blu-ray Trilogy will be shipped with the both players.

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LG Drops the Price on the BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD Player

Still not convinced that Blu-ray is going to win the Blu-ray/HD DVD war? You absolutely want to have access to Universal's library of HD DVD movies? Well, if this is the case, you will be happy to know that LG dropped the price on their hybrid Blu-ray /HD DVD player.

The new retail price is now $999 instead of $1199. But wait, this is still very expensive if you consider that you could have a Sony BDP-S300 and a HD-A2 for only $899…

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Blu-ray Player Review: Pioneer Elite BDP-94HD

If you're in the market for a new or your first Blu-ray player, you might want to consider the Pioneer Elite BDP-94HD. According to hometheaterblog, the Pioneer's Blu-ray player has a better high definition video performance than Sony's BDP-S300 or PS3. The $999 price might stop you from buying this Blu-ray player, but if you already spent a lot of money on a 1080P widescreen TV, spending a few hundred dollars more to get the top notch player is probably the best thing to do. 

Here's the summary of the Pioneer Elite BDP-94HD review:

New Blu-ray Drive from Pionner

Pioneer announced a new Blu-ray drive for the Japanese market. The new BDC-S02J can only read Blu-ray discs and write DVDs. Available in beige and black, the new drive has a SATA port and can read single- and dual-layer Blu-ray discs and movies, BD-REs and any type of DVDs and CDs. The drive is also bundled with a host software.

Pricing information is not available yet and the release date is for August.

 

New Blu-Ray Player From Denon

 

Denon officially announced the upcoming release of a new Blu-ray player for next fall. According to Denon, the DVD-3800BDCI is the first BD-Rom Profile 1 version 1 Blu-ray player featuring the 10bit Silicon Optix Realta chipset(Gosh, you'd be tired just using the name!). However, with a retail price of $1999, this is also the most expensive Blu-ray player appearing on the market to date.

To respect the BD-Rom Profile 1 version 1, the new player also incorporates a secondary decoder. Denon explains this feature by saying that "This allows for simultaneous playback of a secondary audio and video track which may be used for interactive audio and commentary and for picture-in-picture capability (respectively)". Sounds promising to me, but let's wait and see how useful this type of feature can really is.  

Denon is taking a bet on the high-end Blu-ray player market with the introduction of the DVD-3800BDCI. It will be more than interesting to see reviews of this product and how better it is compared to cheaper Blu-ray players like the PlayStation 3.

It's also interesting to note that Denon is still using the word "DVD" in its Blu-ray product line. Have they concluded that Blu-ray will win but not the name?

Here are the details from Denon's official press release:

Samsung Announced Two New Blu-ray Players

Samsung announced the replacement of the Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player with two new units with enhanced audio features compared to their predecessor. The new BD-P2400 and BD-P1400 players will have audio format support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD.

The two players are identical except, for a Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processor built in the BD-P2400. The HQV unit is similar to those used by Hollywood production studios and enables true 1080i to 1080p HD de-interlacing. This optimization process can also be done with standard DVD formats.

The new Blu-ray players are expected this fall with a retail price of $549 for the BD-P1400 and $649 for the BD-P2400.

Anything exciting here? Not really, but it's good to know that a strong 3rd generation is heading our way before the next Holiday season. The only thing really surprising is the retail prices of the new players. The BD-P2400 and the old BD-P1200, currently on the market, have (almost) the same retail price. I would have expected a lower manufacturing cost thus a lower retail price. Will we see a price drop when the Blu-ray players are officially introduced next fall?

Here's the complete press release: