DVD & PVR - Blu-ray & HD DVD - News

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  Panasonic makes your Blu-ray discs portable

  While DVD players are virtually everywhere and portable DVD players are cheap, when you buy a Blu-ray disc you're typically limited to watching it in your home theatre. The Panasonic DMP-BD15 looks to address this; it is the first portable Blu-ray player and it's also designed to be used easily around the house with a built-in stand.

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  Panasonic rolls out Blu-ray and VHS players

  Panasonic's new players, the DMP-BD60, DMP-BD80 and DMP-BD70V are mostly incremental updates to the existing Blu-ray players, except for the addition of VHS playback on one of the players.

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  Samsung's wall-mountable BD-P4600, DB-P3600 with Wi-Fi dongle

  The Samsung BD-P4600 is a wall-mountable Blu-ray player, unveiled at CES this year.

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  Samsung DVD-H1080: Portable-size DVD player for the home

  Samsung has a nice little iPod Shuffle clone called the S2 Pebble. Well, the company must've liked that river-smoothed-stone look, because it's adapted it to the DVD-H1080 DVD player.

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  Sharp intros two new sub-US$300 Blu-ray players

  In case you didn't know, Sharp makes Aquos Blu-ray players, and it's got two new models lined up for the first half of 2009, the BD-HP22U and BD-HP16U.

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  Toshiba upgrades portable DVD player offerings with 9-inch screen

  Toshiba just announced two new portable DVD players hitting this March. While we weren't thrilled with the SD-P71S, it seems the high-end SD-P93S has gotten quite a makeover.

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  CES 2009 preview: Home entertainment

  For the last few years, the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray has monopolised home entertainment coverage at CES. Now that HD DVD is dead, we can finally get back to focussing on new technology, rather than which studios are backing which format. Blu-ray should have a big presence, along with its new competitors, internet-powered video-on-demand boxes.

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  LG Blu-ray box to offer CinemaNow, YouTube videos

  LG Electronics will add video streaming features from CinemaNow and YouTube to its 2009 line-up of networked Blu-ray players, the company said on Tuesday.

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  Best technology of 2008

  As the year draws to a close, we take a look back at some of our favourite gadgets and goodies from 2008.

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  Why HDMI? What you need to know before going digital

  Tired of all those messy home theatre cables ruining your living room's feng shui? Wondering why analog cables are still connecting your all-digital gear? There is a solution — HDMI.

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  Five of the best Blu-ray players

  With this year tipped to be a "Blu-Christmas", it feels like a pretty good time to do a round up of some of the best and most interesting Blu-ray players on the market.

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  CES 2009 preview: Home entertainment

  For the last few years, the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray has monopolised home entertainment coverage at CES. Now that HD DVD is dead, we can finally get back to focussing on new technology, rather than which studios are backing which format. Blu-ray should have a big presence, along with its new competitors, internet-powered video-on-demand boxes.

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  Sony cuts costs, but not brand problems

  Big layoffs may save pennies, but they won't fix what's really wrong with the Japanese consumer electronics giant.

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  Seven reasons you shouldn't use the PS3 as your Blu-ray player

  While Sony's PlayStation 3 is arguably the best Blu-ray player on the market right now, we offer up a few legitimate reasons why you might want to get a stand-alone player instead.

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  CES 2007: A shotgun marriage for Blu-ray and HD DVD?

  The key number in the battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps is 250,000.

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  PCs now ready for Blu movies

  Playback software supporting Blu-ray (BD) commercial movies, and video cards certified for High Definition Copy Protection (HDCP) are now readily available, which means BD disc drives can now be used to their full potential.

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  Who decides if Blu-ray or HD DVD will triumph?

  At the official launch of Blu-ray, proponents of the optical disc format tell us how much of a role consumers, movie studios, manufacturers and the porn industry play in the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray.

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  High-def buyers face upgrade headaches

  Australians may be snapping up high definition (HD) capable equipment, but movie studios and technology vendors face a potential public relations disaster if they can't help consumers avoid compatibility problems that could potentially force consumers to repurchase equipment down the road.

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  Kogan Blu-Ray Player

  Kogan's budget line Blu-Ray player has excellent playback and is region free, but is hampered from being a better player because of some crippling concessions.

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  Sony BDP-S550

  The BDP-S550 is a fully loaded Blu-ray player with all the bells and whistles, including the latest Profile 2.0 advanced interactive feature support and HD audio.

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  Pioneer BDP-LX71

  The Pioneer LX71 is a great Blu-ray player, despite a slow loading speed for interactive discs and the high price.

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  Sony BDP-S350

  The combination of its small design, solid feature set, and excellent image quality make the Sony BDP-S350 a worthwhile standalone Blu-ray player — especially if you can find it for less than AU$400.

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  Samsung BD-P1500

  The Samsung BD-P1500 is a great player to finally take the HD plunge with. The price is right, it looks and sounds great with BD and will also make the most of your DVDs and CDs.

More reviews »

• What is HDMI?

  Tired of all those messy home theatre cables ruining your living room's feng shui? Wondering why analog cables are still connecting your all-digital gear? There is a solution — HDMI.

• 

  Kogan Blu-Ray Player

  Kogan's budget line Blu-Ray player has excellent playback and is region free, but is hampered from being a better player because of some crippling concessions.

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  Sony BDP-S550

  The BDP-S550 is a fully loaded Blu-ray player with all the bells and whistles, including the latest Profile 2.0 advanced interactive feature support and HD audio.

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  Panasonic DMR-BW500

  The Panasonic DMR-BW500 is Australia's first Blu-ray recorder and while it isn't a bargain, it is one of the most feature complete PVRs on the market.

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  Pioneer BDP-51FD

  In many ways, the new Pioneer BDP-51FD is more of a no-frills performance-centric home theater kit than most of its peers in the market.

More popular reviews »

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  Panasonic DMP-BD35

  Quite simply, the Panasonic BDP-BD35 is one of the most sensibly priced and best-performing stand-alone Blu-ray players on the market.

More editors' choice »

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  iRiver P7

  2009/01/09 15:36:07

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  Samsung Luxia 8000 Series

  2009/01/09 15:35:58

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  iRiver Wave Home

  2009/01/09 15:38:05

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  Photos: Airbus A380 lands in Sydney

  Singapore Airlines, the first carrier to take ownership of the world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, has flown its inaugural commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney. ZDNet Australia visited Sydney Airport to see what customers can expect from what's been dubbed the "big fella".

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  Aussie Matrix fans miss out on free HD DVD player

  Matrix fans in the UK were the latest winners in the Blu-ray versus HD DVD war, picking up a free HD DVD player with their copy of the Matrix Trilogy.

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