I wouldn’t cancel my Blockbuster subscription yet but Sony has promised that they will start offering full movie downloads on their Playstation Network this summer. Yes, this summer! The new movie for PlayStation 3 home console will start in the U.S. and later in Europe and Japan! Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony Corp.’s video game unit, mentioned all this on Thursday but said that more detials will only be available next month, possibly at E3.

Hirai said the company will strengthen its network services and further cut costs to achieve profitability in the Sony gaming business in the current fiscal year ending March 2009.

This is great news! We just hope they have moderate prices!

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Pioneer announced the European release of its BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player. It seems to be the tendency now and maybe it has to do with the economic situation in the U.S. but many products are arriving abroad first, usually Japan or Europe. Our European brothers will have the first hand at this profile 1.1 player that includes the latest audio and video technologies. The Pioneer BDP-LX71 will be released this summer across the Atlantic but so far no word on when it might come to America.The new player will support advanced audio formats with the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD and DTS HD Master high resolution audio formats. HDMI 12-Bit Deep Colour is newly implemented to deliver an exceptional range of hues and shades. According to Pioneer the player offers smooth, true-to-the-original performance of film based Blu-ray Disc movies.

Here are the specs announced by Pioneer:

• BonusView (a.k.a. Profile 1.1)
• HDMI 1.3a 12-bit Deep Color
• All Formats Advanced Audio Bitstream
• Decodes Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby True HD/DTS-HD/DTS HD Master
• Wolfson Professional Audio DACs
• Video Encoder 297 Mhz 12-Bit
• Jitter-free HDMI CD Audio with PQLS
• Video Adjust fine-tuning options
• 7.1 Channel Analogue Output
• Gold Plated Terminals
• Aluminium Front Panel
• Capacitance Touch Key Buttons
• New Graphic User Interface

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