Digital Technology for Digital Living.
January 08, 2008
Paramount Drops HD-DVD
UPDATE:Paramount spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone made this statement in response to reports that Paramount is abandoning the HD-DVD format: “Paramount’s current plan is to continue to support the HD-DVD format.” The statement didn’t specify if Paramount would also produce Blu-ray DVDs in addition to HD-DVDs. It will be interesting to see how this story pans out.
I just gave the bad new to one of the guys in the Toshiba booth at CES. He wasn’t happy. Their HD-DVD focused booth looks a little silly now.
According to the Financial Times, Paramount is going to drop their support for Toshiba’s HD-DVD after Warner Brothers pulled out of the HD-DVD camp last Sunday night. This will most likely put the final nail in the coffin of the HD-DVD format and end the biggest home entertainment format war since Betamax vs. VHS.
Why the sudden switch? Why did Paramount go over to Sony’s Blu-ray so quickly? Insiders are saying that a clause in Paramount’s contract allowed the company to drop HD-DVD in the event that Warner Bros decided to back Blu-ray.
methodshop | Comments (0) | DVD
December 13, 2007
USPS Hates Netflix Envelopes
According to an article in the NY Times, the USPS isn’t happy with Netflix because their red envelopes must be sorted by hand. The US Postal Service estimates that the manual sorting of 1.6 million Netflix envelopes per day is costing them about $21 million a year.
As a result, the USPS wants to add a 17 cent surcharge to every package that requires hand sorting - including Netflix DVD envelopes. Tony Wible, a Citigroup analyst who wrote the report, says that the income that Netflix receives per subscriber would fall from $1.05 to 35 cents and that Blockbuster’s return mailing envelopes do not cause this problem. This could make a big competitive difference for the 2 companies.
“We know that Netxflix, which mails out about 1.6 million movies a day, is clever enough to create a redesigned mailer sometime soon.” ~ GearLive.com
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methodshop | Comments (0) | DVD
April 16, 2007
Samsung announces dual format HD player
First it was LG making waves in announcing it was to offer a dual format HD player, now Samsung officially announces that they are hot on their heels with their duel format HD player dubbed BD-UP5000.
The Samsung BD-UP5000 will fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. The LG BH100 has issues with the HDi technology and does not fully support that yet.
Reference for posting: http://www.i4u.com
AndyD | Comments (0) | DVD
April 07, 2007
$1 Million Dollar Apple Remote Control For Sale on Amazon
Amazon.com is currently selling a $999,999.00 1/2 ounce plastic SiK rex remote control that works with the Apple MacBook Pro, iPod Universal Dock, Apple TV, Front Row, iPod Hi-Fi and is Front Row compatible.
No joke. You can see the SiK rex Amazon page here.
Sound too expensive for a little piece of plastic? What if i told you that the remote can be stored in the ExpressCard/34 slot of your MacBook Pro…
Yeah, I’m not convinced it’s worth it. But if Bill Gates is reading this…. hurry dude, there is only one left in stock!
This is obviously a just a typo. So I took a screenshot of the million dollar SiK rex remote page and posted it here on flickr in case Amazon takes the page down.
If you are still interested in the SiK rex remote control but not the million dollar price tag, you can also purchase one used or from a 3rd party on Amazon.com for only $25.
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methodshop | Comments (0) | Music, Wireless, Video, Digital TV, DVD
March 30, 2007
Rembrants Sing Thundercats Theme
Remember a band called The Rembrants? If not, don’t feel bad. The Rembrants were pretty much just a one hit wonder from the 1990’s. Their only hit song was “I’ll Be There For You” (aka the Friends TV show theme song).
Well, if you happen to be a fan of the classic cartoon Thundercats (1985), you might suffer a slight Rembrants flashback. Part of the DVD extras for Thundercats - Season Two, Vol. 1 is music video of the Thundercats theme song sung by The Rembrants. In case you are curious, here’s a behind the scenes promotional video of the music video I found on Vmix.
Where’s Mumm-Ra when you need him?
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