Sales of movies in the Blu-ray high-definition format have accounted for more than 60% of the market since the first week of January, far outpacing sales in the competing HD DVD format, figures from market researcher Nielsen VideoScan showed.
VideoScan declined to draw any conclusions from the numbers, but starting about two weeks after the release of Sony’s PlayStation 3 videogame console, which includes a Blu-ray DVD player, the high definition format steadily grabbed market share from HD-DVD. Sony, which created the Blu-ray format, released PlayStation in the United States on Nov. 17.

From slashdot.org

Emotiv Systems introduces new helmet that could allow gamers to leave behind joysticks and buttons in favor of thoughts and emotions.

The Project Epoc system can move objects based on a gamer’s thoughts, reflect facial expressions, and respond to the excitement or calm the gamer mentally exerts, the company said.
Sensors in the helmet pick up on electric signals in the brain. The system software analyzes the signals emitted by the brain and then wirelessly relays what it detects to a receiver. The receiver is plugged into the USB port of a game console or PC, according to Randy Breen, Emotiv’s chief product officer.
As with handwriting or voice recognition, the machine itself has a learning curve, improving as it better understands what the player is thinking, but there is also a skill level involving visualization on the part of the gamer.
In conjunction with Project Epoc’s debut, the company launched a kit for game developers Wednesday. Emotiv also announced that it is developing its technology for use in other industries, including medicine, security, market research, and interactive television.

Read the review here.

From www.theregister.co.uk

Hardware hackers have developed a technique to hack Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console so that it might be possible to run alternative operating systems on the hardware.
The approach, which only works given physical access to the hardware and is strictly for fun, relies on a taking advantage of a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor. Properly exploited, the bug allows tinkerers to run arbitrary code (even an alternative OS) with full privileges and full hardware access.
The hypervisor on Xbox 360 machines controls access to memory and provides encryption and decryption services. The approach means that all games and other applications running on the Xbox 360, in theory at least, need to be cryptographically signed with Microsoft’s private key and run in non-privileged read-only mode.

Full details here.

A more attractive price isn’t the only thing that sets the new Sony Blu-ray player apart from the current model. I got a look at the new player here, and noticed several differences, cosmetic and otherwise.
The player is much slimmer than Sony’s current model, the BDP-S1. It also lacks the mirrored front found on the BDP-S1, and it has improved button design on the front panel (for example, the power and eject buttons are still near the top of the unit, but these are now softer and easier to press, as opposed to the annoying, hard-to-press slim metallic buttons now found on the BDP-S1.
Other improvements: the BDP-S300 adds support for playing audio CDs and decoding Dolby Digital Plus audio; and it integrates Sony’s new Bravia Theater Sync technology for synchronizing compatible Bravia devices (including LCD televisions introduced today, and new audio/video receivers). Like the BDP-S1, the BDP-S300 doesn’t support advanced audio compression technologies Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master; it only supports the core audio stream contained within those two codecs.
The BDP-S300 is the first dedicated Blu-ray device priced by its manufacturer for sale at $600; Sony’s four-month-old BDP-S1 costs $1000. That lower price matches the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3–a device considered by some as a comparatively inexpensive entry Blu-ry player.

From www.electronichouse.com

Is 1080p resolution better than 720p? Industry expert Greg Nicoloso examines the formats.

“I think that there is a good deal of confusion that arises in comparisons between DLP 720p and 1080p solutions. First, the current assumption that 1080p is always the “better” choice relies completely on the assumption that resolution is the most important indicator of overall performance—an assumption that really does not hold up in many situations.
In fact, a recent SMPTE (Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers) study found that the four aspects of a picture that the human eye “sees”—in order of importance – are:
1. Contrast Ratio/Dynamic Range
2. Color Saturation
3. Colorimetry/Color Temperature or Grayscale
4. Resolution
So, all else being equal, resolution is actually the last item on the list in terms of picture quality and evaluation. High contrast ratio and accurate, deep color reproduction are generally greater contributors to overall perceived quality.
Now, this is not to say that increased resolution is not a substantial improvement in many situations. Particularly in theaters where viewing distance is relatively close—within 1.8 screen widths, say— the increase of resolution to 1,080 lines (1080p) makes the picture noticeably sharper and more detailed.
In the end, you can’t really lose, as both 1080p and 720p products are capable of delivering outstanding picture quality for home theaters, and manufacturers will continue to provide a wide array of models and configurations to meet these demands.”

Sony Corp. said Monday it is bringing out a cheaper player for Blu-ray discs early this summer, a crucial step in its battle to make the high-definition format the replacement for DVDs.
The BDP-S300 will cost $599, yet will have the same capabilities as the $999 BDP-S1 Sony is currently selling, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the home products division of Sony Electronics.

The target of this project was to find the weakest system where you can run Windows XP. Keep in mind, that Microsoft official requirements are a CPU with 233 MHz an 64 MB of RAM.

But that had to be beaten! Full story complete with pictures here.

The new Vaio VGC-RM1 comes with a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, Nvidia GeForce 7600GT graphics, Bluetooth, loads of media slots (and a few inputs too), and, of course a 50GB Blu-ray writer — it’s also got a USB Jog Dial video shuttle.
It’s up for preorder now for a princely sum of $3500.

Sharp just unveiled their new flagship R-series of LCD panels for Japan. The new line-up ranges in size from 42- to 65-inches with each packing a 120Hz ASV LCD panel, 3x 1080p HDMI inputs, 1x DVI, and 2x Firewire and one of Sharp’s line-up of hi-def recorders including their new BD-HP1 Blu-ray recorder.

Don’t waste your time searching dozens of vendor websites every month for the driver updates you need.
Just bookmark this page and come back whenever you need a new driver.

Boingboing.net wrote:

Arnezami, a hacker on the Doom9 forum, has published a crack for extracting the “processing key” from a high-def DVD player. This key can be used to gain access to every single Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disc. Previously, another Doom9 user called Muslix64 had broken both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD by extracting the “volume keys” for each disc, a cumbersome process. This break builds on Muslix64’s work but extends it — now you can break all AACS-locked discs.

AACS took years to develop, and it has been broken in weeks. The developers spent billions, the hackers spent pennies.

BBC wrote:

At the end of last year a hacker claimed he had defeated the protection on a number of HD-DVD titles, leading to fears the entire system was broken.

But the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority has said the breach is limited.

“It does not represent an attack on the AACS system itself,” the group said.

The AACS group has admitted that a hacker had managed to decrypt some discs and other people were now able to make

copies of certain titles.

The hacker, known as muslix64, has been able to access the encryption keys which pass between certain discs and the player. Once those keys have been obtained the disc can be stripped of its encryption enabling the digital content to be played on any machine.

A spokesman for the AACS group said the large size of the files and the high cost of writable hi-def discs made widespread copying of the movies impractical.

As part of the copy protection system on high-definition DVD, content providers can insist that movies will only play correctly if there are HDMI – or in some specific cases, compliant DVI – ports on the player and screen as these two connectors can handle the HDCP copy protection system.

HD Guru has posted a review of Toshiba’s second-generation HD DVD player, the HD-XA2, which they gave top ratings.

The HD-XA2, Toshiba’s latest 2nd generation HD DVD high definition disc player, incorporates a number of “firsts” and offers improved performance compared to Toshiba’s previous top player, the HD-AX1. Among the improvements are faster loading time, better upconversion of standard definition sources and 1080p output availability.

Complete review here.

They have awarded their Product of the Year crown to Toshiba’s first-gen flagship HD DVD player – the HD-XA1.

Samsung offers 2 new TVs in their “bordeaux” range, including a 32 and 40” model. Both LCD TVs are equipped with the Samsung Super PVA Panel allowing a 10000:1 ratio for contrast. Samsung integrated 1 HDMI port in front of the TV and 2 in the back. The design is more stylish and uses a shinier coating.