Install Any SATA Hard Drive Into The PS3 (Because You Can?)

Japan's Kurouto Shikou insists that the 60GB hard drive found in the PS3 is too small. (It's from Japan, of course it's small.) To that end they've designed a SATA and eSATA slot for the system that lets you install third-party hard drives. You have to remove the built-in hard drive before installing the slot, but afterward your options are limited to however much you can spend on hard drives. (They're fairly cheap, by the way.)

Will the PS3 recognize all that extra storage space (unlike the Xbox 360, which can only access 20GB per hard drive, despite the latest hacks), and does it make sense to go to all that trouble to install a larger hard drive in the first place? Maybe if you're dumping Blu-ray movies left and right, otherwise, right now, this looks to be more trouble than it's worth. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page (in Japanese) [Kurouto Shikou via Akihabara News]

Sharp's 1,000,000:1 Mega-Contrast Premium LCD vs regular LCD

Don't get us wrong, we love our high contrast HDTVs -- especially those among us lucky enough to have a 10,000:1 Sharp set and the like -- but if you've never experienced a 1,000,000:1 picture, you've never seen truly black black-levels. At CES 2007 Sharp was showing off their reference grade 37-inch Mega-Contrast Premium LCD, which had even deeper blacks than most SED sets we've seen to date (but not Sony's OLED set). Granted, this side by side comparison was with a mere 1,200:1 set that didn't exactly put up much of a fight -- we might have liked to have seen it alongside one of their 10,000:1 or 12,000:1 sets,

HD DVD Turns It Up To 51GB With Triple Layer Goodness

We don't know what we were expecting the specs on the AppleTV to be—nothing extraordinary, we're sure—but what we see now is kind of deflating. The ATV has a 1.0GHz Pentium M-based chip which is down-clocked for a 350MHz bus and has 2MB of L2 cache. Not the type of powerhouse you'd want to hack and put Linux on. The peripherals aren't that impressive either. There's a 40GB, 2.5-inch PATA hard disk, an nVidia G72M with 64MB of DDR2 RAM, 256MB of 400MHz DDR2 main system RAM, and 802.11n compatibility (it works with Airport Extreme). We suppose the meager specs are why the machine costs only $299, but it makes us wonder how well it'll handle Apple's 1080 HD trailers.

Sex sells but not on Blu-Ray

The deciding factor in the case of HD DVD vs. Blu-ray may be this: who will work with the porn industry?

According to some bloggers, the makers of X-rated material are leaning toward HD DVD, saying Blu-ray is too expensive and doesn't have the market share.

And that may be the way top Blu-ray backer Sony wants it. A leading porn director told German news site Heise that Blu-ray manufacturers in the U.S. had told him Sony would pull their Blu-ray licenses if they made porn films.

Blog community response:

"It does not matter how you stand to porn. It is here and it is a massive business. It is also an industry that is an early adopter for new media technology. VHS might not have won with out the adult film industry adopting it."
--SGKnox.com

"Porn was a huge factor in VHS winning the VHS/Beta format wars even though many people don't like to acknowledge it. Porn, like gaming, pushes tech adoption."
--kdawson on Slashdot

"I've tried my best to avoid making cheap Betamax/Blue-ray comparisons, because I thought it pigeonholed a new technology that had promise but little real world exposure. This comparison, however, is an unavoidable direct parallel. At this point the story is still rumor...and I really can't imagine Sony making the same mistake twice."
--Gizmodo

Sony breaks out five new HDD Handycams

Up top we have the $1,000 DCR-SR300, which features Super Steadiest image stabilization, that dual-record feature for capturing 4 megapixel stills while recording video -- you can do 6 megapixels when you aren't recording. The camcorder records in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, and supports that Bluetooth ECM-HW1 for enhanced center channel recording. Perhaps most interesting is the 240 fps three second burst recording mode for getting those slow-mo action shots -- normal recording is at 60 fps. Next up is the DCR-SR200, which shares most of the SR300's feature set, but only manages 2 megapixel and 4 megapixel shots respectively. Further on down the chain we have the 60GB DCR-SR82, 30GB SR62 and 30GB SR42, which go for $750, $650 and $600 respectively, but don't feature a whole lot in the feature department. All of these cameras are available for pre-order now, and will all be out at some indeterminate date in 2007.

HP's hd100 external HD DVD drive now on sale

HP's hd100 HD DVD external USB drive is finally shipping and listed on sale at several retailers. Announced last fall, it was scheduled to ship in 2006 but didn't quite make it. We checked with HP when taking a look at a few other proucts (like it's evil twin, the bd135 Blu-ray burner also pictured above) and found out it is now shipping, a quick search on Froogle shows it can be bought for $449. What does $240 more than the price of an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on that also works on the PC buy you? A drive capable of 2.4x HD DVD / 5x DVD / 14x CD read speeds, USB 2.0 cable, power cord, assorted manuals and support software and a copy of Cyberlink's PowerDVD HD DVD edition. Unfortunately, at a price that buys two Microsoft-subsidized Xbox 360 drives and leaves $40 left over to put towards playback software and an HD upgrade we're not in that much of a hurry to add-to-cart, but for an officially supported HD DVD solution on the PC, this is about it.

LG is about to get it right...

So LG has announced their dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray player? Fantastic. Time Warner goes so far as to create dual-format discs? Pop open the bubbly. But you know something? It didn't take long for my initial feeling of elation to give way to 100% certified organic bile.

Absolutely none of this was necessary. Remember DVD, the little media format that could (and turns ten in a few months)? It seems like ancient history now, but it took some time for the various companies to agree on a single format back then. While it's something of a cliché to mention the Betamax/VHS videocassette format war these days, in the mid-1990s Sony had only just closed up the Betamax shop. I'd like to think that, with Sony still smarting, retailers unhappily clearing out excess Betamax stock and Betamax owners angrily trying to figure out what to do with their machines and tapes, the companies realized things go a lot smoother when everyone agrees at the outset.

It's hard to argue with the result. The DVD format was adopted pretty quickly and has gone on to remake the movie and home video industries; and we've now gotten to the point where DVD utterly dominates the home video landscape.

Then, just in case anyone though that was DVD's uptake was a fluke, there came the DVD+R/DVD-R debacle, where consumers had to decide which format they'd commit their data or video archives to. When Sony came out with the first multi-format burners, consumers breathed a collective sigh of relief.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the entertainment and tech industries had plenty of evidence to show that just agreeing on a single format is best for everyone involved, saving a lot of time, energy and money. But no, they had to go off into their separate rooms, and the results of that intransigence -- including the eventual appearance of dual-format players -- were predictable.

Years ago, Simpsons creator Matt Groening related his frustration with trying to make a Simpsons movie in the nineties. As he related it, during one of the meetings with all the%

LG's Super Multi Blue GGW-H10N: a Blu-ray writer and HD DVD reader for the PC

LG is all over the dual-format optical game this next week. In addition to the HD DVD + Blu-ray combo player they just announced, they also touting a new Super Multi Blue dual-format drive for PCs. Not only will the GGW-H10N playback your Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, and HD DVD media, it'll also record -- yes record -- up to 50GB of data to dual-layer BD-R/BD-RE media. You also get 4x recording to 25GB single-layer BD-R discs -- doubling the industry's standard rate. The drive is also the first to support "SecurDisc" technology co-developed with Nero. That gives you the ability to secure your burns with password encryption, digital signature, checksum integrity checker for sharing data securely and with peace of mind. Expect the new drive to ship before March in the US for about $1,200 -- a worthwhile, convenience premium when compared to purchasing a $760 dual-layer Blu-ray burner and $199 Xbox 360 HD DVD drive (and all appropriately applied magic) separately. No pictures yet (that's their older, Blu-ray burner pictured) but will slap one up as soon LG sees fit to release them

Toshiba unveils SD-H903A HD DVD burner for PCs

Hot on the heels of all this last minute, pre-CES HD DVD-related action is the SD-H903A, which Toshiba touts as "the world's first dedicated PC-based HD DVD burner" that writes "to all main optical discs." Aside from the obvious (albeit expected) hand-to-the-face to BD-Rs in that last claim, the burner does manage to write nicely to HD DVD-R (single and dual-layer at a measly 1x), DVD +/- R, DVD-RAM, DVD +/- RW, CD-R, and CD-RW. Additionally, it'll include an 8MB buffer, and if all goes well, should play back all your precious HD DVD titles without complication. While we've no idea how much coinage will be required to pick this (admittedly sluggish) drive up, sample shipments are scheduled to take off this month, and we should get a good look at just what it's capable of at next week's CES.

Is HDMI 1.3 Worth waiting for?

The HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) connector is currently the state of the art in home theater technology. It allows high-def digital video and multichannel digital audio to be sent over a single cable from an A/V source, through an A/V receiver, then onto an HDTV. Utilizing HDMI often results in a better picture on many HDTVs (vs. component video), and it's the preferred connection method for the latest generation of Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and upscaling DVD players.

Unfortunately, HDMI has been plagued by compatibility problems, especially when using cable and satellite boxes as sources. Moreover, there have been multiple iterations of the standard: HDMI 1.0 hit in December 2002, followed by 1.1 in May 2004, 1.2 in August 2005, and even 1.2a in December of 2005--each of which has added a smattering of features, some important, some obscure.

Enter HDMI version 1.3. The latest iteration of the standard is said to be the update that home theater enthusiasts have been waiting for. Among the highlights of HDMI 1.3 are increased bandwidth (10.2Gbps, more than enough to handle superhigh video and audio resolutions), "deep color" support (higher color bitdepth could result in a smoother HD image), and the ability to pass HD lossless audio formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio).

In theory, that means devices that support HDMI 1.3 could deliver better HD images and more convenient use of surround sound. Whether or not that will translate to the real world remains to be seen. To date, the PlayStation 3 is the only device with HDMI 1.3 compatibility; other products--TVs, video players, and A/V receivers--are expected to begin shipping in 2007. Another big caveat: you'll likely need a "pure" HDMI 1.3 path from source to destination in order to fully enjoy any of the supposed benefits.

So, does that mean you should hold off on buying any new HDTV, video player, or A/V receiver until the HDMI 1.3-equipped models are available? Having not yet seen demos of HDMI 1.3, it's hard for us to say. But our gut feeling is that the difference between a 24-bit HDMI 1.1 high-def image and a 48-bit HDMI 1.3 image will be pretty hard for the average viewer to appreciate--or, at least, not nearly as noticeable a jump in quality as upgrading from standard-def to high-def. And if your primary high-def viewing source is cable or satellite TV, you'll need to wait until your provider can equip you with an HDMI 1.3-enabled set-top box before you could even enjoy the theoretical picture quality improvement anyway. In other words, we wouldn't put off the purchase of an HDTV just to wait for HDMI 1.3.

On the audio front, the question is a little more vague. The HDMI implementation on current A/V receivers leaves a lot to be desired, especially if you're trying to get the best possible audio from the latest crop of HD-DVD and Blu-ray players. The idea of an HDMI 1.3-enabled receiver with onboard Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding would--again, theoretically--help simplify the situation. But the improvement in sound quality is likely to be appreciated only by discriminating audiophiles, and it will, presumably, require an HDMI 1.3-enabled player as well. Moreover, current Blu-ray/HD-DVD players and receivers can already access these better-sounding soundtracks--you just need to dive into the menus and toggle the correct settings on the player and the receiver (linear PCM output over HDMI).

Xbox 360 HD Movie/TV Downloads Doing Well, More on the Way

The ability to download HD movies on the Xbox 360 was deemed by industry insiders to be the most successful story in digital downloads of 2006. Movie downloads for sale or rent from the Xbox Live Internet service are doing surprisingly well, and Microsoft is in talks to procure more content from all the major studios, well, except Sony, which competes against the Xbox 360 with its PlayStation 3.

Doing particularly well are the movies offered in HD, not surprising since many Xbox 360 owners are already playing their console games in high definition. Industry wags say consumers are lukewarm about downloading movies on their PCs and Macs, because there's no convenient way to watch those movies in their living rooms or home theaters. Not so with the Xbox 360, which has already made its inroads into the TV room.
Competing download services such as Amazon Unbox have discovered that it's hard to get people interested in downloading movies for playback on PCs, as evidenced by slow sales of the company's downloads. Sources at movie studios say some titles on the Amazon service have barely even garnered 100 downloads each.

I've downloaded movies and video content on Xbox Live, and it's a seamless and cost-effective experience, where even HD movies cost just a dollar more than their standard-definition counterparts and download surprisingly quickly. The compression quality is quite good, too, although the content is offered in resolutions of 720p or 1080i, and not in the desirable highest-resolution 1080p. The only problem with the service thus far is that not enough content is offered in high definition.

Besides the Xbox 360, there's other help on the way. Apple's iTV device is set to be released soon, and that might help consumers bridge that chasm of convergence between their Macs and PCs and the home entertainment center. Making it easy to play movies where the TV set resides is the key to luring people into downloading content

Toshiba to Roll Out Cheaper HD DVD Players Next Week?

Toshiba is taking the gloves off next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where the company might introduce a third line of HD DVD players that will be even cheaper than its current versions. Toshiba chief Yoshihide Fujii offers this tantalizing hint: "At first I thought the price threshold is $499. Maybe coming next is $399 and after that is $299."

Perhaps Fujii isn't aware that Toshiba's much-improved HD-A2 player (pictured above), released a couple of months ago, can now be found on the web for $399. But that $299 price could be a number that opens the floodgates for HD DVD player sales. We'll be at Toshiba's CES press conference on January 7, and we'll bring you details as they happe

Blu-ray-equipped Macs currently tracking for February

While Sony is working feverishly to secure every Blu-ray drive it can for the PlayStation 3, sources report talks with Apple have the computer maker scheduled to receive the first Blu-ray drives for Macs in February.
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Details beyond that timetable are vague at this point, including whether systems will be announced with the new drive that month, pre-announced in January for a later release, or simply be added to manufacturing for an announcement later in the first quarter. Also unknown is whether the new drive will rely on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for out-of-the box support, or whether an update adding support for the drive will be released for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Sony currently offers VAIO laptops with Blu-ray for $3,000-$3,500 and VAIO desktops with Blu-ray for $2,250. Blu-ray drives for desktop computers typically sell on their own for $650-$850.

Sony's BDP-S1 has landed, finally!

After just a few delays (cough, cough) it appears that Sony's first Blu-ray player -- the BDP-S1 -- has finally landed, and a few days early to boot. At last word the player was expected on or about Dec 4th 2006, but a few lucky Blu-ray fans picked one up from Best Buy today; no word on pre-orders from the Sony Style store as of yet. The early results are good and some have already started to enjoying that 1080@24P that we have all been waiting for. Sure 3:2 pulldown works great, but there is nothing like a native frame rate to bring out the best in film. Early indications seem to point to a lack of Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD decoding, but you can still enjoy uncompressed audio tracks via discrete analog cables or HDMI. As cool looking as this player is, a PS3 at Ebay prices may still be a better deal than a stand alone Blu-ray player.
THE PLAYER LOOKS LIKE....

Get a PS3 in Hong Kong (legally) for cheap!

Now its not quite the news happening in the world of PS3'z well but if you are in Hong Kong on November 17th you could get a ps3 60GB for just
{US}486$, reported by Engadget this story is very strange and funny but well lets continue, but if you wanna wait till decmber you could get the 20GB one for 408$ now well the USA pricing are 600$ and 500$ respectively so well all those lucky dogs out there nJoy!

Steve Jobs ..The man Behind Apple

Steve Jobs the most elite man in the world of technology today , rude yet friendly he signifies to me a total business man, my role model and the perfect human ... he is frank and the best part he runs my favorite company Apple Computer Inc; The company in which I dream to work in. Steve Jobs has taken wrong decisions in life but doesn't regret them an excellent human and well, the cool guy on the block has too be Steve Jobs,. Steve just makes it possible. Thanks Steve ..Thanks for making computers as they are now.
For his biography go to
The Wikipedia entry on STEVE JOBS

There are wild rumors, and there are interesting rumors, but here's a doozy for ya: Xbox Live could soon start vending HD movie content, according to one freshly minted Wordpress blog (take that for what it's worth). According to Shsibae (huh?), over 1000+ hours of video will make its way onto Live for rental at about $4 a go, or for purchase (at an unstated price). Hard to imagine Xbox 360 doing for PC-free online movie downloads what all the other companies couldn't or haven't (we're looking at you TiVo, Netflix, iTV, etc.), but then again Microsoft did start up with that Xbox Live music video download thing last year. Seriously though, what a coup would that be if Microsoft swooped in to make the Xbox 360 the premier digital content hub -- with or without HD DVD -- right underneath Sony's nose at the eve of their PlayStation 3 launch? We just hope Microsoft would have a larger drive waiting in the wings if this one turns up roses though, our 20GB is already packed to the gills with game demos.