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!
Hitachi has released a pretty cool new toy! The DZ-WR90 is a Blu-ray burner that can save all your HD movies on the go…directly from your HD camcorder via a eSATA port. No need for the old buddy PC! Not sure how many people will actualy carry this around but… There is always a looney for everything.
The drive also works with DVD-R discs, and can support double-sided media although you’ll have to flip them yourself. Hitachi is claiming a Blu-ray disc will fit around 3 hours of full 1920 × 1080 footage and burn in 1.5hrs; alternatively, you can fit on up to six hours in 1440 × 1080 resolution. The downside from this gadget seems to be that you won’t be able to edit or fool around much with the videos, it will stay pretty much as recorded on the camcorder.
The DZ-WR90 will be released in Japan in mid-July but no pricing has been disclosed yet.
And it seems that learning how to read Japanese is the way to go…Look at picture to see the video flow, going from the image on your HDTV to the BD media.
Sharp announced three new Blu-ray Digital Video Recorders with different hard drive capacities. The BD-HDW22 with 250 Gigs, the BD-HDW25 with 500 Gigs, and the great BD-HDW30 that will be able to store 1 Terabyte! Even though this sounds exciting the DVRs will not record from BD to HDD, so not ripping Blu-ray discs will be possible with them.
These babies will be available in Japan in early July and have no set prices yet. All three media. DVRs record video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, with three different Bitrates (4.8, 8 and 12Mbps). They are equipped with both digital and analog TV Tuners. and will do not support the AVREC function, which allows recording of High-def broadcasting on DVD. As far as Blu-ray player capabilities, they are pretty ordinary…nothing really cool. The HDMI interface outputs 1080/24p content, and bit stream DTS-HD Master, Dolby NR TrueHD, DTS-HD HRA, and the Dolby Digital plus audio.
As usual Japan is always leading the pack when is comes to new technology and this time is no different! Apparently Sharp has really decided to invest on Blu-ray players and maybe shifting a little its focus on HDTVs to our “Blu” friend. We can’t complain! The more players on the market the more competitive things will get and consumers will see the benefits!
You can see the original press release here! Let me know if you need help with your Japanese…
Sony announced two new Blu-ray recorders (YES! RECORDERS!) for the Japanese market: the BDZ-A70 and the BDZ-T90. Unfortunately, there is no word if they will be released in the US yet. However, we have a feeling that they will as Sony’s intention to rapidly grow its Blu-ray global market share will not come to reality if they don’t put out as many BD products as possible. Both recorders are able to read and write both Blu-ray and DVD media, as well as read any CD media.
The new recorders have a large hard drive (BDZ-A70 of 320GB and the BDZ-T90 of 500GB) and allow recorded content to be easily transfered to other Sony devices such as: PSP and Walkman cell phones (i.e. NW-A820), just by pressing one button. Depending on the video quality you transfer (QVGA 768k or 384) you’ll need no more than 3 minutes to forward a 60 minute video into your PSP memory stick. They also feature 2 terrestrial digital tuner, 2 digital BS 110 tuner, an analog TV tuner to capture programs in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. That’s not all, the recorders can store content on BD-R/RE, and DVD±R/RW media as well.
The devices come with a HDMI output (24p output x.v.color, TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) and an Ethernet connector as well as an i.LINK interface for easy connections with HDV/DV cameras.
In addition to all the features mentioned above included on both recorders, the BDZ-T90 can burn on Dual layer BD-R and RE discs, has 2 digital TV tuners and 2 analog ones, and an HDMI output 1080p/24.
Watch the demo video from Sony on the DBZ-A70 here! Sorry but since the release is for the Japanese market the video is not in English
Konami and Sony announced a limited edition PS3 console to celebrate the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 “Guns of the Patriots”. The console will have a very cool steel gray gun-like color. Buyers will have different bundle choices, which in addition to the console, game, DualShock 3 controller, can include video material on Metal Gear Solid 4. The new console is scheduled to hit the market on June 12th but so far only in Japan. What’s wrong with these people? America is not feeling the love!!
(UPDATE: Sony has heard our plead and is also releasing the machine in America in June as well. If you really want one of these babies, you will need to be quick because there will be very few units available!)
Watch the Metal Gear Solid 4 “Guns of the Patriots” trailer:
Sony announced two new Blu-ray recorders (YES! RECORDERS!) for the Japanese market: the BDZ-A70 and the BDZ-T90. Unfortunately, there is no word if they will be released in the US yet. However, we have a feeling that they will as 
Konami and Sony announced a limited edition PS3 console to celebrate the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 “Guns of the Patriots”. The console will have a very cool steel gray gun-like color. Buyers will have different bundle choices, which in addition to the console, game, DualShock 3 controller, can include video material on Metal Gear Solid 4. The new console is scheduled to hit the market on June 12th 
