PowerFile adds Blu-ray technology to storage appliance
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PowerFile is replacing DVD technology with Blu-ray technology to significantly boost the storage capacity of its A3 optical storage system.
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(InfoWorld) - Key backers of the new Blu-ray Disc optical storage technology turned out in force at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin to announce a string of content and equipment offerings. The flurry of announcements came as the consumer electronics industry prepares for the important holiday shopping season, when manufacturers typically generate their highest sales. With content crucial to the successful take-upÂ of high-definition players, recorders and game consoles, Hollywood studio executives lined up at a news conference to list the number of movies they plan to launch in the Blu-ray Disc format beginning in November. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC will release eight movies on Blu-ray in Japan and North America on Nov. 10 and Australia and Europe on Nov. 14, said senior vice president of sales Franco de Cesare. The movies, including "Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut)," grossed more than US$2 billion in box office sales. The recommended retail price is $39.98. Warner Home Video, a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., will release more than 10 Blu-ray Disc titles in several European markets, including France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., according to Stephen Nickerson, senior vice president sales and marketing. Titles will include recent hits such as "Firewall" and "Syriana," and older ones from the extensive Warner Home Video library such as "Full Metal Jacket," "Training Day" and "Space Cowboys." Beginning in October in Europe and Asia, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, a division of Sony Corp., will begin rolling out a broad mix of releases , including "Hitch," "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," "The Fifth Element" and "Hostel," said senior vice president Matt Brown. Paramount Home Entertainment International intends to release "Mission: Impossible III" and "Mission Impossible Trilogy Box Set" on the Blu-ray format this year. "Mission: Impossible III" on Blu-ray will be on two discs and loaded with extras. Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, which co-invented the CD with Sony Corp. and has collaborated closely with the Japanese manufacturer in the development of Blu-ray, introduced several products supporting the new optical storage format. Philips' BDP9000 Blu-ray Disc player plays back high-definition content in full 1080p resolution. It is designed to connect with HDTV (high-definition television) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) devices. In addition to its Showline Media Center MCP9480i, which supports Blu-ray, Philips plans to launch TripleWriter, an all-in-one internal drive for PCs that can record and playback optical formats including CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The product goes on sales next month in the U.S. and Europe. The Blu-ray Disc Association also announced that Sun Microsystems Inc., the creator of Java technology, has joined the consortiumâs board of directors. The IFA runs though Sept. 6.
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Now that digital cameras have overtaken film cameras in sales, users are beginning to encounter a familiar problem -- what to do with the bulging image files and folders filling up computer hard drives?
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A Blu-ray Disc drive and home photo viewer both do the HD tango, and an upgraded version of Sony's LocationFree TV base station serves to remind that there are still some obstacles to HD ubiquity.
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Rolling out dual-layer BD support first, though IFA 06 Pioneer will follow up the release of its... er... pioneering Blu-ray Disc recorder with an updated model that supports dual-layer media, it has emerged. And the company said it is planning to offer a version that can also handle HD DVD.â¦
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Philips Electronics unveiled an  optical disk drive on Monday for use in computers that can burn  and play CDs and DVDs in three formats, including the new  Blu-ray standard.
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As part of digital shift, electronics maker is planning device that will record HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs.
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Clever 'perpendicular recording system' boosts storage capacity
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Receiver will allow your TV to display HD content that's stored on your PC.
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Will the competing next-generation optical disc standards ever meet in the same device? Not for now, it seems.
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Integrated video engine to offer DVD quality on a handheld
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The disc can store both HD and SD video has a one-side readout, triple layer structure of an outer 25 GB Blu-ray disc (BD) and an inner 8.5 GB DVD dual layer.
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Multimedia suite Nero has received an update which enables authoring of both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
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The high-definition movie disc battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc can be traced all the way back to 2000, when companies began experimenting with using new blue lasers in optical disc systems.Because the wavelength of blue light is shorter than that of the red lasers used in DVD, less physical space is needed to record each bit of data and so more information can be crammed onto a DVD-sized disc. This extra space was needed to store the new high-definition video and TV services that were starting to be commercialized around that time.But what started in 2000 as technical research became a battle between the world&#39;s largest electronics companies and movie studios, with the consumer caught in the middle.Here&#39;s a look at the major milestones from the first research:2000Oct. 5 -- Sony and Pioneer unveil DVR Blue at Japan&#39;s Ceatec show. The format would go on to form the basis for first-generation Blu-ray Disc BD-RE.Nov. 1 -- Sony announces the development of Ultra Density Optical (UDO), a blue-laser optical disc format proposed to replace magneto-optical discs.2002Feb. 19 -- Led by Sony, nine of the world&#39;s largest electronics companies unveil plans for Blu-ray Disc.Aug. 29 -- Toshiba and NEC propose to the DVD Forum the next-generation optical disc format that will become HD DVD.Oct. 1 -- Prototypes of both formats are unveiled at Japan&#39;s Ceatec exhibition. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer and JVC showed prototype Blu-ray Disc recorders while Toshiba showed a prototype under the name Advanced Optical Disc (AOD).2003Feb. 13 -- Licensing of Blu-ray Disc begins . Player makers pay US$20,000 to license Blu-ray while the content-protection system license carries a $120,000 annual fee and additional charge of $0.10 per player. Media makers pay $8,000 annually and $0.02 per disc for the copy protection system.April 7 -- Sony announces its Blu-ray Disc-based Professional Disc format for data archiving applications.April 10 -- Sony puts on sale in Japan the world&#39;s first Blu-ray Disc recorder, the BDZ-S77. It&#39;s based on a 23G-byte cartridge version of the BD-RE disc and costs &#165;450,000 (US$3,815 at the time). The machine and a later model from Panasonic lack support for prerecorded movies that will launch later and prove an expensive early step into next-generation video.May 28 -- Mitsubishi Electric joins the Blu-ray Disc group .2004Jan. 7 -- Toshiba unveils its first prototype HD DVD player at CES. The player includes backwards compatibility with DVD.Jan. 12 - Hewlett-Packard and Dell put their support behind Blu-ray Disc.June 10 -- The first commercial version of HD DVD-ROM is approved by the DVD Forum.Sept. 21 -- Sony announces the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-ray Disc.Nov. 29 -- Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO and New Line Cinema announce support for HD DVD .Dec. 9 -- Disney announces support for Blu-ray Disc.2005Jan. 7 -- Backers of both formats promise players and movies in North America by the end of the year -- something that never materialized.March 24 -- Talk and hope of a common format as Ryoji Chubachi, then Sony&#39;s president-elect, says: &quot;Listening to the voice of the consumers, having two rival formats is disappointing and we haven&#39;t totally given up on the possibility of integration or compromise.&quot;April 21 -- Sony and Toshiba begin discussions on the possibility of a single format. The talks ultimately go nowhere.Aug. 18 -- Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Universal Music Group decide to back Blu-ray Disc.Sept. 27 -- Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. put their weight behind HD DVD .Oct. 3 -- Paramount Home Entertainment says it will offer movies on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.Dec. 16 -- Hewlett-Packard decides to drop exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc and back both formats .2006Jan. 4 -- Bill Gates announces at CES that Microsoft will offer an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 console.March 10 -- Blu-ray Disc-supporter LG Electronics surprises the industry with news that it&#39;s developing an HD DVD drive.March 31 -- Toshiba launches the world&#39;s first HD DVD player , the HD-XA1. It cost &#165;110,000 (US$936 at the time) in Japan.Nov. 11 -- Sony&#39;s PlayStation 3, which packs a Blu-ray Disc drive, goes on sale in Japan.Dec. 29 -- Hackers report success in breaking through part of the AACS copy protection that&#39;s on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.2007Jan. 7 -- Seeking to end the battle, LG Electronics unveils a dual-format player, while Warner Bros. shows a prototype disc that holds both an HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc layer so is compatible with players for both formats.April 17 -- Sales of HD DVD players in North America hit 100,000 since launch.Aug. 1 -- Microsoft cuts the price of its HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 from US$199 to US$179 and starts offering five free movies.Aug. 20 -- Paramount and Dreamworks Animation both drop Blu-ray Disc in favor of HD DVD.Sept. 13 -- Sony says it will use Blu-ray Disc in all high-def video recorders in Japan.Nov. -- The price of Toshiba HD DVD players drops to US$100 with rebates as the holiday shopping season begins.Nov. 11 -- Sony begins selling a lower cost version of the PlayStation 3.2008Jan. 4 -- Warner Bros. drops its bombshell: it will stop issuing HD DVD movies in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. In response the HD DVD Promotion Group cancels its CES news conference.Jan. 6 -- Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, says at CES : &quot;We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers.&quot; In response Sony CEO Howard Stringer, with a grin on his face, says &quot;All of us at Sony are feeling blue today.&quot;Jan. 14 -- Toshiba cuts the price of HD DVD players with the HD-A3 seeing a retail price of US$150.Feb. 11 -- NetFlix and BestBuy say they will phase out HD DVD.Feb. 15 -- Wal-Mart, the world&#39;s largest retailer, says it will phase out HD DVD by June.Feb. 16 -- Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports Toshiba has halted production of HD DVD players. Several additional local media reports confirm and The Nikkei business daily says Toshiba has decided to stop developing the format any further.Feb. 19 -- Toshiba formally announces it will&#160;phase out the production of HD DVD players and recorders&#160;by the end of March. The format war is over.(Dan Nystedt in Taipei contributed to this report.)&#160;
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Online and interactive IFA 07 Daewoo has given the Blu-ray Disc next-gen optical disc format the thumbs up by showing off its first BD player, the slim, blue-hued DBP-1000.â¦
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One-off opportunity, says cheeky vendor Sony's BWU-100A Blu-ray Disc burner will this month gain the ability to play pre-recorded BD discs, the consumer electronics giant has revealed. The fix will come courtesy of an update to the copy of CyberLink PowerDVD bundled with the internal drive.â¦
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Up to 15,000 audio files can be stored on the company's upcoming hard drive-based player.