Pioneer’s BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player also delayed until December
From Engadget: “First Sony had to announce twice that its BDP-S1 was going to be delayed until December 2006 due to software bugs. Now Pioneer has been delayed too, for unspecified failure to meet “quality control requirements,” which may or may not be related to the other assorted blue laser shortages. The BDP-HD1, which was due to come out this month (after having been delayed from its previous May launch), won’t ship now until December as well. The price, however, has dropped since we last eyed it at CES — it’s now down to $1500.”
PS3 Twice as Power-Hungry as XBox 360
From Gizmondo: “Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3, due on US shores on November 17, sucks up 380 watts of power, a far cry from the PS2 which sips a mere 45 watts. That means the PS3 uses more than twice the 160 watts consumed by the Xbox 360. The PS3’s 380 watts will cost you around $40 a year to run if you play it two hours a day.”
DVR Sales Down The Pooper by 49%: TiVo Hit Hard?
From Gizmondo: “Yesterday, we wrote about how TiVo is fairing after launching their Series 3 DVR. Since then, we’ve had some astounding numbers come in that show US DVRs sales are down 49% for January through August, as compared to last year. Since TiVo is number one in this space, they might be taking the brunt of this hit. Seems like a sound jump to reason that most of you are renting your DVRs from your cable or satellite providers.”
Universal Bets $42 Million That Sacha Baron Cohen Can Continue To Taunt Middle America With Naive-Foreigner Characters
From Defamer: “On Friday, THR brought word of a multistudio bidding war for the worldwide distribution rights to Sacha Baron Cohen’s next movie, Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt, an auction obviously timed to maximize the comedian’s take before Borat’s upcoming, scaled-back release could threaten a market correction for his guerrilla filmmaking services.”
Hack Attack: One-click DVD rips
From Lifehacker: “My solution to this problem is to rip every DVD I rent to my hard drive as soon as I get it. In my experience, a rip smooths over those un-renderable sections of the DVD without issue, so when I’m ready to watch the ripped DVD, it’s certain to be scratch and skip-free. Since I’ve got no time to sit around clicking through dialogs to rip my DVDs, I’ve put together my very own one-click DVD ripping solution.”
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse
From Digital Bits: “Okay… on top of all of the above, this disc also delivers a few great extras, including audio commentary on the main feature shorts with creator Smigel and his animators, along with a host of guests including Stephen Colbert and Steven Carell (the voices behind Ace and Gary), political wonks James Carville, Al Franken and Paul Begala, TV host Bryant Gumbel and many more. Mickey Mouse even appears (brilliant!) on the track. It’s a very funny and highly entertaining commentary (particularly Colbert and Carell). You also get a brief video and still gallery of storyboard and production art featuring the Ambiguously Gay Duo. There’s even an Easter egg… just the thing if you’re hankering for a juicy bucket of Cluckin’ Chicken! That’s a helluva great batch of extras for a title like this.”
Buy a Toshiba HD DVD player - get three free HD DVDs
From EngadgetHD: “If you’re thinking about picking up a first or second generation HD DVD player from Toshiba, consider the pot sweetened. The promotion doesn’t apply until November 1st, so walk, don’t run to your local retailer and keep the receipt. Mail it in with the above form and in a speedy 8 to 10 weeks you will be the proud owner of at least three HD DVDs.”
Mission: Impossible III (Blu-ray)
From Hi-Def Digest: “Paramount is making high-def history by releasing ‘Mission: Impossible III’ simultaneously on Blu-ray and HD DVD day-and-date with the standard-def DVD — a first for a top-shelf, A-list new release. ‘M:I III’ is also the only release on either format to get two full discs, one for the movie, one for the majority of the extras. That’s exciting news, because it means the Blu-ray (on a BD-25, 25GB single-layer disc) boasts a very high bitrate. With only an audio commentary and no uncompressed soundtrack options included, there is maximum wattage devoted to the video quality. Note also that the Blu-ray version has been encoded using the MPEG-2 codec (the HD DVD is VC-1). However, the bitrate on the Blu-ray actually maxes out a bit higher than the HD DVD (which, while benefiting from an extra 5GB of disc space has some HD bonus content included, eats up some of those extra gigabytes). So this comparison is most interesting…”
Even enthusiasts can’t pick the winner
From EngadgetHD: “Despite all the predictions, polls, and prognostications from this site (and many others) on which next-generation DVD format will win this format war, even the enthusiasts aren’t in agreement. CNET recently completed a survey of early adopters, and the one thread that ties all their responses together is… uncertainty. 81% of responders said they weren’t sure which format would win — despite the very vocal responses we always see in our comments — and more than half are concerned about compatibility between current and future products.”
The “Maltese Falcon” flies again on DVD
From Yahoo News: “John Huston’s “The Maltese Falcon,” the DVDs’ main event, looks and sounds outstanding, though there are some obvious audio synch problems in the final scenes. The video will play a bit on the flat side for those who prefer jacked contrasts with their film noir, but the images unspool handsomely across an uptown gray scale. Wear doesn’t figure in. When Humphrey Bogart growls, “I won’t play the sap for you,” his voice is thick yet distinct; it’s easy to forget you’re listening to an old movie.”