Newly released today from Play Asia



features
Fully Compatible with Xbox 360™, Wii™, PS3™/PS2™
Support Component Signal (Stereo Function)
High Quality and High Speed for Transfer Signal.
Support Dolby Prologic.
Support DTS 5.1 Channel System.
Support DOLBY Digital and Surround Sound
Support Stereo Sound
Support Optical Signal
Compatible with Surround Receiver or Integrated Amplifier
Support CRT, Plasma, LCD or any HDTV System
Support D2 (480i/480P); (720i/720P) & D4 (1080 i/ 1080 P) technology.

Price: US$ 19.90 (~10.42 GBP)

Buy at Play Asia ...

Newly released today from Play Asia



features
Fully Compatible with Xbox 360™, Wii™, PS3™/PS2™
Support Component Signal (Stereo Function)
High Quality and High Speed for Transfer Signal.
Support Dolby Prologic.
Support DTS 5.1 Channel System.
Support DOLBY Digital and Surround Sound
Support Stereo Sound
Support Optical Signal
Compatible with Surround Receiver or Integrated Amplifier
Support CRT, Plasma, LCD or any HDTV System
Support D2 (480i/480P); (720i/720P) & D4 (1080 i/ 1080 P) technology.

Price: US$ 19.90 (~10.42 GBP)

Buy at Play Asia ...

Newly released today from Play Asia



features
Fully Compatible with Xbox 360™, Wii™, PS3™/PS2™
Support Component Signal (Stereo Function)
High Quality and High Speed for Transfer Signal.
Support Dolby Prologic.
Support DTS 5.1 Channel System.
Support DOLBY Digital and Surround Sound
Support Stereo Sound
Support Optical Signal
Compatible with Surround Receiver or Integrated Amplifier
Support CRT, Plasma, LCD or any HDTV System
Support D2 (480i/480P); (720i/720P) & D4 (1080 i/ 1080 P) technology.

Price: US$ 19.90 (~10.42 GBP)

Buy at Play Asia ...

New from Play Asia



features
Features 6 characters based on the video game
Contains 1 out of 6 Screen Cleaner Phone Strap (shipped randomly!)
Limited availability ...

via postgazette

Many consumers have put off buying new high-definition DVD players, wary of the battle between two competing formats. Now, some electronics hardware makers are hoping to make the question moot by rolling out machines that play movies in both formats.

The two new formats, known as HD-DVD and Blu-ray, have been duking it out to become the next-generation DVD format of choice, each offering high-resolution video to match the HDTV sets that more families are buying.

But at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, at least one hardware provider, LG Electronics Co., is expected to showcase DVD players that work with either technology. Hewlett-Packard Co. will also have products that support both formats in the marketplace this year, a source close to the company says. Others are expected to follow suit.

The news should come as a boon to consumers who are weighing which player to buy to go with their new big-screen, high-definition TV sets. While regular DVDs work on the new sets, DVD players specifically designed for HD offer exceptionally sharp pictures and more features.

But the burgeoning format war between the backers of HD-DVD and Blu-ray has caused many consumers to pause before taking the plunge into high-definition movie discs. Many studios aren't releasing movies in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so choosing one player or another could mean that the high-def version of a favorite title isn't available. Universal Pictures, for example, releases movies only in HD-DVD, so its remake of "King Kong" isn't available in Blu-ray. Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Corp. release films only in Blu-ray, meaning there is no HD-DVD version of Disney's "Pearl Harbor." Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. release movies in both formats.

The new dual-format players will work by using optical drives and integrated circuits that can run with both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Developing the drives proved tough because they needed to pull data from two different places on the discs, close to the top edge for Blu-ray and closer to the middle for HD-DVDs.

For now, the dual-format players are likely to carry high price tags, expected to be around $1,200 or higher. That's actually lower than some of the Blu-ray players out there -- Pioneer Corp.'s Pioneer Elite BDP HD-1 costs $1,500, although Sony and Samsung Electronics Co. offer less-expensive players at $1,000 and $800, respectively -- but more than double the $500 it costs for a Toshiba HD DVD player.

Sales of stand-alone DVD players have been slow, but there is an alternative for consumers looking to try high-def discs: game devices. Sony's PlayStation 3, which costs around $500, comes equipped with Blu-ray. And for $200, consumers can pick up an attachment that plays HD-DVD movies for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which costs $300 to $400.

About 695,000 consumers own either a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player, according to Tom Adams of Adams Media Research in Carmel, Calif. But only about 25,000 have purchased stand-alone Blu-ray players. Another 400,000 consumers have Blu-ray because they bought a Sony PS3 game console. Meanwhile, about 120,000 or so have a stand-alone HD-DVD player while about 150,000 have an HD-DVD upgrade kit for their Xbox 360 game consoles, Mr. Adams says. He adds that those numbers are well in excess of the 300,000 DVD-player sales in 1997, when that technology rolled out.

Some consumers have dodged high-definition players because they already own top-of-the-line DVD players that add higher resolution onto regular DVDs so they look crisper on HDTV sets. For those viewers, there might not be much advantage to the newer technologies.

San Francisco computer consultant Tyler Dikman, for example, owns a high-end Denon 3910 DVD player that he uses with a 60-inch Sony Grand Wega rear-projection HDTV set. Mr. Dikman had heard the buzz about next-generation DVDs for a couple of years and shelled out $1,000 for a Sony Blu-ray player in November. After watching movies like Paramount Pictures' "Mission Impossible III" and Columbia Pictures' "The Fifth Element" on the new player, he decided that, although the text was crisper on subtitles and there were fewer glitches like blurring, overall the Blu-ray movies didn't look much better than regular DVDs on his Denon player. The Sony player also wouldn't play his audio CDs. He took it back to a Best Buy Co. store last month.

"I was waiting for this night-and-day difference, and I don't feel I got it," says Mr. Dikman, who says he still plans to buy a high-definition DVD player once the players have overcome snafus like the CD issue. Sony says there may be changes in future models, and overall, consumers have responded favorably to the product. "Of course, performance is affected by several factors, including what other components are included in the home theater system, how they are connected to one another and how the content was encoded," a Sony spokesman says.

...

via postgazette

Many consumers have put off buying new high-definition DVD players, wary of the battle between two competing formats. Now, some electronics hardware makers are hoping to make the question moot by rolling out machines that play movies in both formats.

The two new formats, known as HD-DVD and Blu-ray, have been duking it out to become the next-generation DVD format of choice, each offering high-resolution video to match the HDTV sets that more families are buying.

But at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, at least one hardware provider, LG Electronics Co., is expected to showcase DVD players that work with either technology. Hewlett-Packard Co. will also have products that support both formats in the marketplace this year, a source close to the company says. Others are expected to follow suit.

The news should come as a boon to consumers who are weighing which player to buy to go with their new big-screen, high-definition TV sets. While regular DVDs work on the new sets, DVD players specifically designed for HD offer exceptionally sharp pictures and more features.

But the burgeoning format war between the backers of HD-DVD and Blu-ray has caused many consumers to pause before taking the plunge into high-definition movie discs. Many studios aren't releasing movies in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so choosing one player or another could mean that the high-def version of a favorite title isn't available. Universal Pictures, for example, releases movies only in HD-DVD, so its remake of "King Kong" isn't available in Blu-ray. Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Corp. release films only in Blu-ray, meaning there is no HD-DVD version of Disney's "Pearl Harbor." Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. release movies in both formats.

The new dual-format players will work by using optical drives and integrated circuits that can run with both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Developing the drives proved tough because they needed to pull data from two different places on the discs, close to the top edge for Blu-ray and closer to the middle for HD-DVDs.

For now, the dual-format players are likely to carry high price tags, expected to be around $1,200 or higher. That's actually lower than some of the Blu-ray players out there -- Pioneer Corp.'s Pioneer Elite BDP HD-1 costs $1,500, although Sony and Samsung Electronics Co. offer less-expensive players at $1,000 and $800, respectively -- but more than double the $500 it costs for a Toshiba HD DVD player.

Sales of stand-alone DVD players have been slow, but there is an alternative for consumers looking to try high-def discs: game devices. Sony's PlayStation 3, which costs around $500, comes equipped with Blu-ray. And for $200, consumers can pick up an attachment that plays HD-DVD movies for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which costs $300 to $400.

About 695,000 consumers own either a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player, according to Tom Adams of Adams Media Research in Carmel, Calif. But only about 25,000 have purchased stand-alone Blu-ray players. Another 400,000 consumers have Blu-ray because they bought a Sony PS3 game console. Meanwhile, about 120,000 or so have a stand-alone HD-DVD player while about 150,000 have an HD-DVD upgrade kit for their Xbox 360 game consoles, Mr. Adams says. He adds that those numbers are well in excess of the 300,000 DVD-player sales in 1997, when that technology rolled out.

Some consumers have dodged high-definition players because they already own top-of-the-line DVD players that add higher resolution onto regular DVDs so they look crisper on HDTV sets. For those viewers, there might not be much advantage to the newer technologies.

San Francisco computer consultant Tyler Dikman, for example, owns a high-end Denon 3910 DVD player that he uses with a 60-inch Sony Grand Wega rear-projection HDTV set. Mr. Dikman had heard the buzz about next-generation DVDs for a couple of years and shelled out $1,000 for a Sony Blu-ray player in November. After watching movies like Paramount Pictures' "Mission Impossible III" and Columbia Pictures' "The Fifth Element" on the new player, he decided that, although the text was crisper on subtitles and there were fewer glitches like blurring, overall the Blu-ray movies didn't look much better than regular DVDs on his Denon player. The Sony player also wouldn't play his audio CDs. He took it back to a Best Buy Co. store last month.

"I was waiting for this night-and-day difference, and I don't feel I got it," says Mr. Dikman, who says he still plans to buy a high-definition DVD player once the players have overcome snafus like the CD issue. Sony says there may be changes in future models, and overall, consumers have responded favorably to the product. "Of course, performance is affected by several factors, including what other components are included in the home theater system, how they are connected to one another and how the content was encoded," a Sony spokesman says.

...

Via insert credit

A fellow by the name of kent rittenhouse mailed me recently, saying he'd created a USB datalink for the Saturn. This will basically allow you to trade saves between the Saturn and a PC, or load small homebrew games directly into the save RAM...which is something I didn't really know was possible, but stands to reason. It'd be interesting to couple this technology with a little ram-boosing mod. Here's the basic reasoning behind why he made this thing, which runs a little pricey at $50: This project started its life when my Action Replay Plus cartridge decided to die. I lost 10 years worth of game-saves. I looked around to find a device that could transfer game-saves, using current PC hardware/software. Not finding anything, I decided to design my own.

Fair enough. I lost almost-complete Shining Force 3, and Grandia, as well as thrice-completed Panzer Dragoon Saga and completed SotN data once. Shame, shame.

Here's a bit more from Kent on the homebrew aspect: Just to clarify: The homebrew code is downloaded (and then runs from) the system ram (2Megabyte). The '32K game-save ram' is completely seperate, and only used for game-saves. If you are using the Action Replay Plus cartridge (as opposed to a Gameshark), you would also have access to the extra 4MB ram in the cartridge for your homebrews. ...

via insert credit

Speaking of Hudson, the company has an original map creation contest going on right now in japan. Some interesting entries so far, but nothing really amazing. Apparently you have to download this in order to compete...not quite sure how it all works, considering there's an edit mode built into the game, but I do hope some of these maps wind up as extras in any western version that may result. ...

via gamespot

The official story: "We have seen all types of claimed leaked photos like this show up online, and as a standard policy we don't comment on speculative items."--A Microsoft representative.

What we heard: Almost six months ago, Xbox-mod site Xbox Scene ran a blurry photo it had received from an anonymous source. The photo was supposedly of a revamped Xbox 360 motherboard with an HDMI port.

At the time, Rumor Control suggested that an HDMI port-equipped Xbox 360 wasn't imminent but that Microsoft would have to be looking into it in order to ensure the viability of its HD-DVD add-on. Movie studios releasing HD-DVDs have the option of using Image Constraint Token (ICT) flags on their discs, a technology that artificially limits the playback resolution of a film unless the signal is traveling over a secure connection like an HDMI cable (the component cables included with the Xbox 360 don't cut it).

Now half a year down the road, the rumor has returned, this time in the form of a photo on tech blog Engadget that shows an HDMI port sticking out of the back of an Xbox 360 system--something the current crop of Xbox 360s don't have. Aside from being watermarked and having identifying characteristics like a serial number blacked out, the photo doesn't appear to have been tampered with. And while there's no photo evidence of this tidbit, the Engadget report also says the redesigned 360 (code-named "Zephyr"), will be released alongside the also oft-rumored larger Xbox 360 hard drive. Engadget says the hard drive will rack up as much space as 120GB. Finally, Engadget's source is reported as saying that the new hardware will be available "soon."

Depending on what constitutes "soon," it might be no coincidence that the Consumer Electronics Show is just around the corner, since Microsoft has a habit of making game-related announcements at the event. In 2001, Microsoft used CES to unveil the Xbox, its debut entry into the console market. Last year, it announced the Xbox 360's external HD-DVD player. While CES is one of Microsoft's big announcement platforms (along with the Electronic Entertainment Expo and the X0 line of fall events), announcing a significant hardware revision right after a holiday shopping season might not go over well with the (likely) millions of new Xbox 360 owners.

On top of that, Microsoft already has a hardware update planned for this year in the form of a new CPU using 65nm semiconductor technology that will operate at a lower temperature. And while those chips had originally been planned for inclusion into the hardware for the first quarter of the year, Digitimes recently reported that those CPUs won't be produced until mid-2007. It might be in Microsoft's best interest to wait on introducing an HDMI-equipped Xbox 360 until those chips are ready to reduce both the number of times it has to rework the system's innards and the number of different hardware configurations it has on shelves.

While there's no word out of the Microsoft camp on an HDMI Xbox 360 or a larger hard drive, we still think they're both coming, but we're not sure now is the right time for them. Check back with GameSpot this Sunday night for news from the Microsoft CES keynote address; if an announcement is coming soon, that's probably where it would be made.

Bogus or not bogus?: Sticking by not bogus. ...