Blu-ray, DVD, HD, Video info and more at WesleyTech.com

Chinese Blu-ray player spotted

A post over on HighDefDigest guided us to a Chinese manufacturer named Gowell that has specifications and an image rendition of a new Blu-ray standalone player. Here are the player specs and the image, found on the Gowell site.

Features:
·Support Blu-ray driver
·USB 2.0 interface(high speed) & card reader
·Support SD/MMC/MS/XD card
·Support 1G NAND Flash
·DISC Playable: Blu-ray disc /H.264 /MPEG4 /DivX /XviD /DVD /SVCD /VCD /CD /MP3 /Kodak
Picture /Photo CD /WMV9

·Support: DivX3.11/4.02/5.02/5.03/5.05 and later,DivXPro, XviD,Nero digital
·PAL/NTSC/MULTI TV system compatible
·Full function remote control
·Support 4:3 & 16:9 TV mode
·High Definition video(HDMI V1.3) output
·10/100M BaseT Ethernet (RJ45)
·Mini PCI interface ,Support wireless home networking
·SATA HDD socket
·Building in HDD
　
　 ·Component video output (Y,Pb,Pr)
·Composite video output
·S-Video output
·SPDIF Coaxial digital audio output
·Optical digital audio output（optional）
·Scart output
·5.1-CH Surround Sound Output
·2CH Dolby Downmix Output

Is this Blu-ray player for real?

This Gowell Blu-ray player appears to have some very nice specifications and boasts a large assortment of powerful features. At this point though, there has been no concrete proof that the product actually exists. There have been no actual photos of the player and there is no guarantee that it will actually make it to the consumer market.

Nonetheless, there is a lot of excitement and discussion over this device and the possibility that it might bring low-priced Blu-ray players to the USA. Gowell appears to be an OEM supplier, so if we do ever see this player, it will most likely appear under a different brand name. Personally, until I see any official annoucements or price-tags for this player, I will be filing it in the possible-vaporware locker.

Blockbuster Video gets Blu-rayed
Blockbuster Video, the nations’ largest video rental chain, has just announced that they will soon start stocking Blu-ray Disc movies in 1,450 stores throughout the USA. The rival format HD DVD will not be stocked at these same stores.

“Blockbuster Inc. will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores when it expands its high-def offerings next month, dealing a major blow to the rival HD DVD format.”

“Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time.”

As the AP article mentions, Blockbuster has been carrying HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles in a limited capacity at 250 selected stores. These “select” 250 stores will continue to carry HD DVD titles along with Blockbuster online. Even so, the exclusivity of Blu-ray Discs inside the majority of Blockbuster brick and mortar stores will be a major blow to the HD DVD camp. The new Blu-blockbuster will strengthen the presence and market penetration of the Blu-ray Disc format throughout the United States.

Many consumers and industry analysts were surprised by the move, especially because of Blockbusters’ close relationship with Weinstein studios, an independent film studio who releases high definition movies exclusively on the HD DVD format.

New Blu-ray ad from Sony Europe

A member of Sony Europe’s Blu-ray promotion group recently contacted WesleyTech to let us know that they have “teaser footage” of a new Blu-ray advertisement up on their site. Instead of posting the “teaser”, I found the full commercial leaked (or strategically placed?) on to YouTube.

[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/MZRnPWzBK0E”][/gv]

Hopefully, they will eventually make this commercial available online in High Definition so that you can get the true “Blu-ray experience”. If they don’t, I’ll just have to laugh.

CrunchGear also has a post about the “teaser clips”. Hint: they didn’t like them too much.

I agree that “teaser clips” for a commercial was a pretty lame idea, but the final commercial looks pretty cool. What do you think? Do you like this Blu-ray commercial or other Blu-ray ads? Do you like any of the HD DVD ads you might have seen? Do you care?

UPDATE: It appears that some versions of Internet Explorer are displaying the wrong video in this post. On my computer, I do see the correct video in both Firefox 2.0 and IE 7.0. The correct video is here.

5 Free HD DVD’s rebate tips

Toshiba is currently running a $100 instant rebate on their HD DVD players. Along with this instant rebate, they are offering a mail in rebate for 5 free HD DVD’s, which makes it a good time to buy an HD DVD player.

That being said, some people have reported issues getting their Five free HD DVD’s offer fulfilled. Due to this, I decided to post some tips to help you make sure that your five free HD DVD’s actually get to you. These tips are general best practice tips for any rebate offer, including this Toshiba five free HD DVD’s opportunity.

Tip 1, Fill out your rebate form and send it in immediately

Many rebates are never redeemed or fulfilled due to procrastination on the consumers’ part. To make sure you get your 5 free HD DVD’s, fill out the form and mail it in right away! Sending in your submission immediately will also ensure that you don’t go out and buy an HD DVD that you could have gotten for free with the mail in offer.

Tip 2, Make copies of your submission!

A common problem found with rebate offers is that the fulfillment house will mysteriously “loose” your submission or have “no record” of receiving a submission. To protect yourself from missing out on an offer, make sure to make copies of everything! You can even use a scanner and store all of the documentation electronically.

Tip 3, Follow-up on your submission!

Set yourself a calendar reminder to follow-up on your submission a month after you initially mail it out. Call up the Toshiba HD DVD rebate number (1-800-405-7520) and verify that your details are “in the system”. If you need to follow-up additional times, make sure to set yourself reminders to do so in the future.

I hope these tips will be of use to those people that have recently purchased an HD DVD player and are looking to redeem the five free HD DVD offer. If you have more questions on the whole process, you might want to check out this thread on AVSForum.

DVD Fab HD Decrypter guide

DVD Fab HD Decrypter is an easy to use, freeware program that allows you to backup DVD’s, HD DVD’s and Blu-ray Discs. We decided to make a quick guide to show you just how easy it is to backup a Blu-ray Disc using DVD Fab HD Decrypter. We used an LG GGW-H10N Blu-ray/HD DVD drive in this guide, but any Blu-ray or HD DVD drive can be used with DVD Fab HD Decrypter. Thanks to zevia at CDFreaks for making this guide possible.

Step 1, launch the program

After launching DVD Fab HD Decrypter, you might be greeted with the following popup box.

If you are running AnyDVD or AnyDVD HD, you must disable and shutdown the program before continuing with DVD Fab HD Decrypter. Once you are ready, click the Ok button and the initial program screen will load.


Step 2, insert a Blu-ray Disc movie

Once you have the initial DVD Fab HD Decrypter screen up, it is time to put a Blu-ray Disc (or HD DVD or DVD) into your drive. In this example, “House of Flying Daggers” Blu-ray Disc was used. Notice the blue letters “BD” in the source box and the text “Blu-ray Disc” at the bottom of the screen.


Step 3, click the start button

After you click the start button, DVD Fab HD Decrypter will begin ripping your Blu-ray Disc to the hard drive. All of the m2ts movie files and other necessary files will be ripped to the destination.


Step 4, Click the finish button

In our example, DVD Fab HD Decrypter took 27 minutes and 49 seconds to rip the House of Flying Daggers Blu-ray disc to the hard drive (The LG GGW-H10N rips single layer Blu-ray Discs at 4x). This disc has approximately 25GB worth of data.


After you close DVD Fab HD Decrypter, you can verify that the mt2s files and other Blu-ray Disc movie directories are now present on your hard disk drive.


Now that you have your Blu-ray movie files ripped to your hard drive, you can play back the movie using a Blu-ray software player of your choice or burn the files to a blank BD-R or BD-RE.

After reading this quick guide, you can see that DVD Fab HD Decrypter is a very easy to use movie backup utility. Download it for free from DVDFab.

Labelflash DVD media coming to the US
Fujifilm has just announced that Labelflash media is headed to the USA. LabelFlash capable drives will first be introduced via select models of the new Toshiba Satellite A205/P205 Notebook computer series.

So what exactly is Labelflash? It is a technolgy similar to HP’s LightScribe that allows you to burn graphics and text on the top of discs. Where Labelflash differs from Lightscribe is that Labelflash also allows you to burn images onto the bottoms of standard DVDR discs, but only on portions of the DVDR that are not storing data.

“Labelflash™ technology uses an organic dye developed by Fujifilm and specialized for image burning to use the existing laser, pick-up and rotation control, and high-speed image data signal processing to inscribe high-resolution, high-contrast images and/or text into the label-side of the disc. Because the imaging occurs at a depth of 0.6mm below the actual surface, the protective polycarbonate layer not only provides a glossy, attractive appearance but simultaneously ensures durability and scratch-resistance of the images. This provides a more permanent, high quality choice over traditional surface-printed labels which can deteriorate over time due to wear, blemishes or scratches. For more information on Labelflash™ technology, visit http://labelflash.jp/.”

Labelflash could give Lightscribe a run for their money if they decide to introduce enough products into the US market. If they only supply a few laptop drives with the technology though, they won’t be making much of a dent in the US. If the product does come out in full force in the US, I would expect to see new DVD burners from Pioneer and NEC (now Optiarc) that support Labelflash technology. Pioneer and NEC (Optiarc) already have Labelflash capable drives available in the European market.

Personally, I was never too impressed with Lightscribe or Labelflash technologies as the media is more expensive and the labeling process takes a long time if you want a quality image. I would rather stick with a Sharpie. Press release via CDRLabs.

Toshiba HD DVD / HDD recorders announced

This week, Toshiba announced two new HD DVD / HDD standalone recorders, the HD DVD VARDIA RD-A600 and the HD DVD VARDIA RD-A300. These new devices can record high definition television to either an HD DVD-R disc or a built in hard disk drive.

“The new DVR introduce the ability to record two digital HD television programs simultaneously, and also integrate Toshiba’s new “VARDIA engine”, which supports significant enhancements to ease of use and performance, including faster drawing of the graphic user interface (GUI) and improved HD DVD disc operation. The HD DVD VARDIA RD-A600 and HD DVD VARDIA RD-A300 will be rolled out in the Japanese market from the end of June.”

The pricing on these new Toshiba recorders is undetermined at this time, but AV Watch is estimating a price tag of approximately $1,644 for the RD-A600 (600GB HDD) and $1,233 for the RD-A300 (300GB HDD).

One of the coolest features of these devices is the ability to record two different HD programs at the same time. The included HD DVD-R burner will also allow owners of this device to offload content onto optical media to free up space on the internal hard drive. It sounds like a fantastic device, but the high price tag is going to turn off almost everyone except the most hard core AV and home theater enthusiasts. Found via CDRLabs.