Onkyo Gets DV-SP406 Upscaling DVD Player While Working On Blu-ray Release

While Sony's busy busting out the next-generation of Blu-ray players, Onkyo seems perfectly happy upconverting plain ol' DVD's. To be fair, the company has a Blu-ray player of their own on tap for later this year, but until then you'll just have to settle for the Onkyo DV-SP406 upconverting DVD player. Capable of upscaling standard-def content to 1080p via HDMI, the DV-SP406 offers playback of all the usual file formats including JPEG, MP3 and WMA files plus video CD's. It also features coaxial/optical digital audio ports, a 108 MHz/14-bit video DAV, Dynamic Range Control, DTS/Dolby Digital/Digital Audio output, and a USB port for multimedia file transfer. Available in black and silver, the DV-SP406 is available from Amazon for $125.

Via Onkyo

New Logo From Toshiba Connected To The Blu-ray Killing DVD Player?

Early in June we got word that Toshiba was working on an HD-enabled DVD player that featured enhanced image scaling capabilities resulting in a picture quality similar to that of Blu-ray. Apparently it's no joke, as the DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, has released a new logo that's rumored to be directly related to the super-powered DVD player. It's also now widely believed that the player will use Toshiba's SpursEngine 1000 CPU and judging by the 'Download DL' portion of the new logo will feature interactive and connected capabilities similar to those of Blu-ray's Profile 2.0. What's really surprising is that at the same June 11 meeting that produced the new logo, Toshiba continued talks regarding the now-dead HD DVD format!

Via TG Daily

Green House GH-DV100S DVD Player Nothing But The Simplest

About as simple as they come, the Green House GH-DV100S DVD player does nothing more than enable DVD ± R / RW and CD-R/RW recording and CD-DA playback. The 1.8 kg DVD player comes with component video, S-video, coaxial digital, and analog audio ports. Set to be released at the end of June in Japan, the GH-DV100S will retail for 3980 Yen, or US$37. Dirt cheap!

Via Aving

The Digitable: Multimedia Coffee Table With A Built-In DVD Player

This is interesting: the Digitable, a creation of UK designer Peter Lea, is a modern looking glass coffee table with an integrated DVD/CD player and a spinning carousel for disc storage sitting nicely at the bottom. Too bad it's just a concept design for now. The day may come though, when the coffee table is an integral piece of your high-tech home theater setup!

Via Born Rich

Toshiba Aiming For Blu-ray Again With A DVD Player, Please Tell Us This Is A Joke

Japanese news outlet Yomiuri Shimbun has reported that Toshiba is working on an upscaling extension to current DVD technology which will produce a DVD player that'll produce picture quality comparable to Blu-ray and the now-defunct HD DVD format. Details are minimal at the moment, but Toshiba's new high-def DVD player (for lack of a better term) should be available in the next 6 months, "relies on a newly-developed large scale integrated circuit chip to rapidly convert the stored video", and is backwards-compatible with standard DVD's. We're guessing we'll be keeping you updated on this one, just because it seems to ridiculous.

Via vnunet

Sony's DVP-NS708H Upscaling DVD Player Sees European Light Of Day

Sony's DVP-NS708H upscaling DVD player, built of course for Bravia TV's and home projectors, upscales standard-def DVD's to 1080p. A European release, Sony's new upscaling player features PhotoTV HD which can play back JPEG pics from a Sony CyberShot or Alpha digital SLR camera, burned onto a CD or DVD, on your TV's screen for optimized photo viewing. Compatible with Bravia Sync, the DVP-NS708H can be controlled with the push of a remote button and features a bunch of outputs including HDMI, component, and coaxial digital. Other features include a Precision Drive 3 Mechanism for stable playback, Precision Cinema Progressive (PCP), and a 12 bit/108 MHz Noise Shaped Video D/A Converter.

Via The Earth Times

Toshiba Vardia RD-X7, RD-S502, RD-S302 And RD-E302 HDD/DVD Recorders Land In Japan

Japan will be treated to 4 new Toshiba Vardia HDD/DVD recorders in June. The flagship RD-X7 offers a terabyte of drive space, 1080p support, MPEG2 conversion to MPEG4, DVD/CD compatibility and an HDMI port. The RD-S502 will store up to 500 GB and features a 12-bit, 148 MHz processor and the lower end RD-S302 and RD-E302 models have 300 GB of HDD space and an identical processor to the RD-S502.

Via Akihabara News

Sony Releases 8 New "Made For Your Bravia" DVD Recorders

Sony's newly announced European lineup of hard disk drive DVD recorders, marketed as the perfect companion to your Bravia, features 8 new models ranging from the RDR-HX680 with 160 GB of drive space to the RDR-HXD1090 with 500 GB of space. The two flagship models RDR-HXD1090 and the RDR-HX1080 both feature 500 GB of HDD space, enough to record 1420 hours of video, feature both analog and digital tuners, and all models feature a HDD camcorder connection that'll connect to any standard-def Sony Handycam for direct dubbing to your DVD recorder.

X-Pict Story allows you to create personal slideshows with the option to add background music, viewable directly on your TV or burned to a DVD. Time-shifted television shows and other recorded video content is recorded using a high-bit rate HQ+ record mode that reduces image noise and improves the reproduction of moving images.

Owner's of Bravia TV's will be familiar with Bravia Sync which allows you to coordinate your entire home theater, controlled by a single remote control button push. When connected to your Bravia via an HDMI connection, all of the new DVD recorders are compatible with this feature. Check out the full press release from Sony after the jump...

Continue reading: "Sony Releases 8 New "Made For Your Bravia" DVD Recorders"

Next-Generation Hybrid DVD Player From Touch Interactive

This cool looking hybrid DVD player and display from industrial design company Touch Interactive aims to "regenerate the look and feel of a home entertainment system through the design of a new generation DVD system". Touch Interactive wanted to bring the traditional video cassette player design back, taking a backwards design approach from the usual DVD player, typically small and compact. With a display system connected directly to the DVD player, Touch Interactive has developed a unified display device perfect for presentations and home use.

Touch Interactive via Cybertheater

Oppo DV-983H DVD Player: Upconverting Option For Exhausted Casualities Of The HD Format War

For those not ready to fork out a ton of money on a new Blu-ray player now that the format war is over, you can always spend a ton of money on a new Oppo DV-983H upconverting DVD player instead. But while we understand if you're not ready to fork out $400 for a Blu-ray player, you may as well if you're going to fork out $399 for the DV-983H. Key features include:

• 1080p HDMI upconversion
• Anchor Bay VRS (Video Reference Series) video processing
• 7.1 channel audio
• aspect ratio conversion
• multi-level zooming, allowing users to stretch to full screen or crop black borders
• support for USB content, Kodak Picture CD, WMA, as well as a variety of other multimedia formats

For an extensive list of specs and features, click here.

If you're not quite ready to fork out $399 for an Oppo DV-983H, Amazon has sales on last generation upconverting models:

Oppo DV-981HD Upconverting DVD Player-on sale for $229.99
OPPO DV-980H Upconverting DVD Player-on sale for $169.99

Via Oppo Digital

Sony's DVP-NS700H: The Latest Japanese Upconverting DVD Player

Sony's DVP-NS700H 1080p upconverting DVD player couldn't be announced at a better time. With the recent death of HD DVD and Blu-ray prices at an all time high, upconverting DVD players will very likely be a popular purchase choice for those in the home theater market. The DVP-NS700H upconverts standard definition DVD's via an HDMI connection to your HDTV and features multichannel audio. Support for JPEG digital photo viewing on your HDTV is also included via the Burabia Photo viewer, and if you wish, you can even view all your pics in a slideshow with preset music. Finally, the DVP-NS700H will also record digital television broadcasts just in case you don't have a TiVo. Scheduled for an early April release in Japan, there is no pricing info available yet for the Sony DVP-NS700H.

Via Sony Japan

TV Luddite Alert: Transfer Your VHS Movies To DVD

If your still working on upgrading from VHS to DVD after the first HD disc format has already moved through its entire life cycle, you are undeniably a little behind the times. But that's no reason to toss out all of your old VHS movies. Just transfer them to DVD. Wired magazine has reviewed 4 VHS-to-DVD converters to help you get started.

Panasonic's 3 New Japanese Media Record Releases Include Blu-ray Recorder

Panasonic has spit out 3 new media recorders in Japan: the DMR-BR500, the DMR-XW320, and the DMR-XW120. The DMR-BR500 is a Blu-ray video recorder with 250 GB of HDD and the DMR-XW320 is a traditional DVD recorder that allows recording of HD content and features 500 GB of space. The DMR-XW120 is the lower-end model of the three featuring the same specs as the DMR-XW320 but with half the HDD space at only 250 GB. All three models support the Mpeg-4 AVC/H.264 codecs at a max bit rate of 8.6 Mbps allowing you to record full HD content.

Via Akihabara News

Toshiba To Launch New HD DVD Recorder, The Vardia RD A301, Next Month

Toshiba has announced the launch of the new Vardia RD-A301 HD DVD Recorder which will be released in Japan in mid-December, just in time for Christmas. The cool thing about this model is that it can record high-def content to regular DVD's thanks to HD Rec technology which stores up to 2 hours of transcoded high definition video on a tradition 4.7 GB DVD-R disc. This represents extra money in your pocket from not having to buy expensive blank HD DVD's. It can also transcode MPEG2 high-def broadcasts to the more efficiently compressed MPEG4 format meaning you can store more content on your discs or on the recorder's 300GB built-in hard disk drive. One issue with the new Vardia is that recorded DVD's can only be played back on the same player, but then again how many people have multiple HD DVD players and recorders? It will retail in Japan for $100000 Yen or $875 US.

Via eNews 2.0