Sony’s α NEX-5 and NEX-3 interchangeable lens digital camera captures photo enthusiasts with DSLR quality image. The company has now announced the launch of its next-generation Microsoft Windows 7 compatible Blu-ray disc rewritable drives across India.

Besides offering impeccable image recording and playback quality, the BD-5300S and BDX-S500U claim to be an ideal option to store vital data and back-ups. These offerings manage personal movie, photo and movie collection. In addition, the newest solutions store essential data and frees up space on the hard disk.

These devices support downward compatibility, thereby enabling owners to continue using their existing CDs and DVDs. The internalBlu-ray writer BD-5300S comes in bulk packaging while the external Blu-ray writer BDX-S500U comes in retail packaging.

The internal Blu-ray writer uses standard 5.25-inch form factor and SATA interface. The BD-5300S write single BD-R media at about 12X and dual layer BD-R media at around 8X speeds, recording a full 25GB disc in about 10 minutes. In addition to all this, these new writers burn DVD+/-R at up to 16x, DVD+/- DL at up to 8x, DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, DVD-RAM at 12x and CD-R/RW at up to 48x.

The Internal BD-5300S is tagged at Rs. 11,000 and external BDX-S500U at Rs. 18,500. These drives can be snapped up through Rashi Peripherals.

Sony has really managed to do a great CES this year, rolling out a very large number of new products, including here 3D-enabled solutions (both HDTVs and Blu-ray players). However, since there are a lot of consumers out there that prefer purchasing an entire home entertainment system rather than just a Blu-ray player or an HDTV, the Japanese company also released a couple of interesting solutions of this type at CES, some of them even supporting 3D playback.
The flagship home entertainment solution presented by Sony is the BDV-IZ1000W, displayed by the company as its first all-in-one home cinema system ready to play high-definition 3D content from Blu-ray Discs that can also access online video entertainment content from the BRAVIA Internet Video platform. And since we're on the subject of online, we'll have to add that the BDV-IZ1000W includes Entertainment Database Browser by Sony toaccess disc cover art, actor, and production information, as well as IP Content Noise Reduction technology and Precision Cinema HD Upscaling to improve standard definition and web video quality.

The BDV-IZ1000W sports five ultra slim speakers, using a virtual 7.1 wireless rear speaker system and 1000W of S-Master full digital technology by Sony. Also, unique to the new home cinema systems from Sony, users with an iPhone or iPod touch can control the players using a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. The app allows an iPhone or iPod touch to function as a remote control and includes the ability to access a Blu-ray disc’s details such as jacket artwork, actor, and production information, as well as search for additional video clips online.

Besides the BDV-IZ1000W, Sony also unveiled at CES the 850W BDV-E370 entertainment system, which features the same Monolithic Design Concept, and DCAC for simple set-up and flexible speaker placement. The system is wireless-LAN ready and supports upscaling of the played DVDs, and integrates four satellite speakers.That's also pretty much the case with the 1000W BDV-E870 system that, however, sports two tall speakers with 1,000W total output. The BDV-E970W also offers a 1,000W output, but features four tall speakers, two of which (the rear ones) are wireless.

Last, but certainly not least, Sony released two 2.1 entry-level home entertainment systems, namely the BDV-F700, which uses two ultra slim floorstanding speakers and a vertical main unit with illumination LED, plus S-Force Front Surround technology by Sony and 400W of S-Master digital amplification, and the BDV-F500, which uses desktop or wall mount speakers, and has 350W of S-Master amplification.

While pricing details are yet to be announced, Sony does inform us that all of these home entertainment systems should make their way onto the market over the course of 2010, starting with BDV-E370 and BDV-E870 in March, BDV-F500 and BDV-F700 in April, BDV-E970W in June, and BDV-IZ1000W in September.

Mouse Computer Japan announced a new LuvBook, the TW600X that will retail at just 99,750 yen(~S$1590) and comes with a Blu-ray drive.

The specifications are not too shabby, it comes with a 15.4” WXGA screen. The laptop is powered by a Core 2 Duo P8700, 4GB of DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM, 320GB of HDD, Blu-ray reader with DVD Super Multi and aan average Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. The OS that comes with it is a Vista Home Premium SP1. Some of the outputs are USB2.0 × 3, HDMI output port × 1 and a Express card slot.

It seems DVD writers are still putting up a fight with the Blu-ray revolution closing in, and ironically, it's the Blu-ray consortium's strongest member Sony, that is still releasing high end DVD products. Sony Electronics has introduced a powerful DVD writer - the Sony AD-7220S/A - with 22x speed.Touted as being one of the fastest DVD writers available today with stable recording quality, the Sony AD-7220S/A series delivers a recording speed of 22x when writing to a single layer DVD+/-R disc. It is available in Serial ATA or Parallel ATA Interface in Bulk Packing.

“We are excited to announce the launch of one of the fastest DVD-RW writers available in the market today. As the sizeof data is increasing day by day, higher speed has become the need of the hour. This is exactly where this new Sony DVD writer fits in. I am confident that this product will raise the bar for 22X DVD-RW drives”, said Rajesh Goenka, VP-Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals Pvt.Ltd.

The DVD writer features several key technologies such as vibration reduction system and heat dissipation method. Automatically adjusting CD-DA/VCD/DVD data extraction for smooth reading, the Sony AD-7220S/A also features buffer under run protection and optimized writing quality by automatically adjusting writing strategy, which provides optimal user experience.

The Sony AD-7220S/A is compatible with DVD+/-R, DVD+/-R DL, DVD+/-RW and DVD-RAM as well as CDs. It supports DVDROM, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-ROM (mode 1), CD-ROM/XA (mode 2, form 1 and form 2), Photo CD, CD Extra, CD-TEXT, CD-I, VIDEO CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, CD-DA, Enhance CD, UDF (fixed/variable Packet mode) and DVD-Audio.

Other technical specifications include Buffer memory capacity of 2 MB and access Time of DVD at 160ms and CD at 140ms.

Sony AD-7220S/A series is available through Rashi Peripherals and its 53 branches throughout India at an estimated retail price of Rs. 1300 and a 1 year warranty.

While the news of the 400GB Pioneer disc isn’t necessarily new, the fact that it’s made it to production is. Just today at the IT Month fair in Taiwan, Pioneer announced that their 400GB Blu-ray disc would be hitting mass production sometime in 2010.

The disc’s ability to pack so much storage is all thanks to a breakthrough in the material used to create reflective layers. According to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan, this also allows the pick-up head of the disc to match that of current Blu-ray technology, allowing the discs to be played using current drives.Pioneer’s plan to release the disc to the public in 2010 is followed swiftly by the release of rewritable discs in 2010-2012. Though, 1TB discs will quickly follow in 2013, according to the current roadmap.

S3 Graphics today announced its next generation Chrome 500 graphics processors, the Chrome 530 GT.

The GPU allows users to enjoy the latest Blu-ray playback, streaming HD video, DirectX 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0 applications on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms.

The Chrome 500 Series suports Blu-ray picture-in-Picture features and 8-channel high fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics' built-in Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound processor. DirectX, OpenGL, and GPGPU applications can be efficiently processed with programmable shader cores to speed-up 3D and non-gaming functions.

Add-in cards featuring the first graphics accelerators from the new Chrome 500 series, the Chrome 530 GT, are available now on S3 Graphics GStore online retail outlet.

S3 Graphics Chrome 500 Series Highlights:

- Microsoft DirectX 10.1+ / OpenGL 3.0 Support: Chrome 500 supports the latest DirectX 10.1+ and OpenGL 3.0 graphics requirements to support the latest applications. Real-life 3D rendering and increased visual quality through improved Anti-aliasing (AA), Image/Texture improvements, higher precision formats, and programmable lighting effects allow users to experience the next level of 3D graphics.

- GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) Technology: Utilizing an array of S3 stream processors, the Chrome GPUs can accelerate parallel data workloads and perform work on thousands of concurrent threads to achieve Gigaflops (GFLOPS) of high-throughput computations. Applications that can utilize S3 GPGPU technologies include image processing, video transcoding, game physics, and many more.

- ChromotionHD Video Technology: Designed to offload video processing from the CPU and save overall system power, the ChromotionHD engine supports the latest HD standards including H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS.- Display and Audio Integration: Chrome 500 Series processors incorporate DisplayPort with HDCP, HDMI with HDCP, dual-link DVI with HDCP, and dual-channel LVDS transmitters for complete connectivity to a full range of digital monitors and panels.

- Integrated Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio controllers are supported natively in the GPU.

- PCI Express2.0: Chrome 500 Series GPUs support the latest high throughput PCI Express 2.0 bus technology for bandwidth intensive applications and games. The faster connection speed also allows users to take advantage of additional S3 Graphics technologies such as AcceleRAM which leverages system memory for image data storage, and MultiChrome Multi-GPU technology to unleash almost twice the 3D rendering performance on games.

S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT Graphics Card

The first product introduced to the market in the Chrome 500 Series, the S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT features an upgraded video core capable of dual-stream, PiP Blu-ray playback at lower power and clock speeds.The video card's GPU is clocked at 625MHz and the 512MB GDDR2 memory onboard runs at 500MHz.

Equipped with HDCP capable DVI-I and HDMI ports, the Chrome 530 GT supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0 applications and consumes under 25W of power, making it ideal as the graphics of choice for HTPC (home theatre PCs), DIY enthusiasts or existing PC users.

The Chrome 530 GT add-in card is available now for $44.95.

The need for healthy holiday sales in a bear market, competitive pressure from movie download services, and media speculation about the future success of the Blu-ray format itself has resulted in falling Blu-ray player prices across a range of current and older models, according to ABI Research.

Tier 2 players and older models (6-9 months) are now widely available under $200. Amazon is offering a Samsung model bundled with four discs for that price. Holiday season prices may be in the $150-200 range. All of this runs counter to many of the industry?s original market forecasts and expectations.

"Blu-ray vendors and dealers are starting to realize that for Blu-ray to become the next DVD, they need to lower player prices in order to generate interest and build volumes," comments ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson."They are also getting more competition than they expected from download alternatives such as Xbox 360 and the Roku Netflix player, TiVo and Amazon. However downloads provide an opportunity as well as a threat: both LG and Samsung have concluded agreements with Netflix that allow some of their players to download movies and TV shows straight from Netflix. The more the Blu-ray players adopt these download capabilities, the better they will be able to differentiate themselves from standard DVD players."

Despite the low proces, Blu-ray sales are also expected to suffer in the fourth quarter, thanks to the shaky economy. Generally, economy dictates the level of investment companies will put into development and marketing, and perceptions of economic health are a critical factor in consumer purchase decisions. And the current economic slowdown could mean that consumers would be cautious in their spendings in the upcoming holiday season and especially for pricey Blu-ray players and discs.

Dell has officially announced two new LCD displays namely S2209W and S2309W.

The 22-inch S2209W and the 23-inch S2309W pack in 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 16:10 aspect ratio, a 5ms pixel response time, DVI with HDCP encryption and VGA.

Both the LCD displays offer full 1080p and let you conveniently play Blu-ray and other HD video.The displays offer amazing viewing experience without the black bars that generally appear with a 16:10 ratio LCD.

Apparently, the key difference between the two displays is the panel type, the S2209W uses lower-cost twisted nematic panel reducing the amount of visible colors while details of the S2309W display is not revealed.

Dell S2209W and S2309W LCD displays are priced at $239 (approx Rs.11,780) and $299 (approx Rs.14,737), respectively.

OCZ has announced a new addition to its Do-It-Yourself lineup of notebooks based on Intel's Centrino 2 platform, the new 15.4-inch DIY gaming notebook.

The new DIY notebook comes with a 15.4-inch display with a native resolution of 1280x800 pixels and can accommodate Intel's latest CPUs including the Intel Core 2 Extreme mobile processor. The graphics part is AMD's Radeon HD 3650 with 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory, which should be more than enough for a 15.4-inch screen.

The rest of the specs include up to 8GB of DDR2 memory, up to 500GB of storage, either a DVD writer or Blu-Ray player, HD surround sound, A4-sized keyboard with a Vista key and a 6-cell battery.OCZ gives one year of warranty for the notebook, as well as the same one year warranty for both LCD and the battery.

DreamStream has signed on to encrypt Royal Digital Media's new optical media format; a "new" red-laser HD format that matches the description of the NME's High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD).

The agreement will allow Royal Digital Media (RDM) to employ DreamStream's encryption in the copyright protection of their high-definition discs.

"DreamStream and RDM's technologies align perfectly, as they both rest exponentially beyond the standards currently being employed," said DreamStream's Chief Development Officer Ulf Diebel, in a statement issued at the signing in Paris.

DreamStream is the first company to implement a 2,048-bit encryption in consumer media. AES encryption, used in Sony's Blu-ray discs, uses a 128-bit system.

"In 2006, a hacker known as "Muslix64" defeated Blu-ray's encryption. Since that time, Sony's system has been faced with continual security breaches and tremendous losses due to piracy," said DreamStream in a statement.

The incorporation of DreamStream's encryption into RDM's system will thwart the piracy of digital content, the company claims, since the content of RDM's discs will only be able to be read by RDM's players.

RDM claims that it has developed a high-definition system that exceeds the capabilities of Blu-ray, at least in terms of capacity. RDM's technology offers storage capacity for up to 100 GB on a single disc.

"RDM's format will transform perceptions of high-definition," said DreamStream's Chief Development Officer Ulf Diebel. "RDM's system is able to display the next generation of high-definition: 1920p. With this advancement in technology, true digital cinema will soon be a widespread reality."RDM's increase in storage capacity could allow for a single disc to hold approximately four hours of video content at 1920p resolution.

RDM's system is based on inexpensive red laser technology and RDM believes that their players will sell for much less than Sony's Blu-ray.

The retail prices for RDM's players and discs are expected to "equal those of the traditional DVD format, greatly undercutting Blu-ray," said Diebel.

"The mission of RDM is to replace traditional DVD technologies with a comprehensive, next generation HD system," said Eugene Levich, RDM's chief executive officer. "The industry's problem, which Sony has been unable to solve with Blu-ray, is how to transition into HD without destroying the existing DVD industry or gouging the pocketbooks of consumers. We have the solution and can solve this without having to drastically overhaul the entire infrastructure of DVD production."

For the record, Mr Eugene Levich has been the Chief Technology Officer of New Medium Enterprises, a London-based company who had promoted the High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD) format some years ago.

RDM's technology can be implemented into existing DVD production processes through the integration of a proprietary software and firmware system. The only potential hardware modification is, "at most, the simple replacement of a single chip," said Levich. As such, existing DVD manufacturers will be able to integrate RDM's technology with only minor modifications to their production processes.

RDM's players are backwards compatible and able to read traditional CDs and DVDs. Moreover, data processing enables RDM's players to "drastically enhance the playback quality of regular DVD content," said Diebel.

RDM's format is scheduled to become publically available by the beginning of 2009. Two retailers have already placed orders for the first run of RDM's players, RDM said.

It's quite a well known fact that we owe science in general and researchers in particular just about everything that we see around us nowadays, especially when talking about electronics. Indeed, it takes a while to translate a scientific discovery into consumer-grade products, but we certainly hope that this will happen in the case of the latest discovery made by Xiang Zhang, a UC Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering, and his team.
They managed to combine metal lenses that focus light through the excitation of electrons – or plasmons – on the surface of the lens with a "flying head" that resembles the stylus or the arm of an old-fashioned LP turntable, thus creating line patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds of up to 12 meters per second.
"Utilizing this plasmonic nanolithography, we will be able to make current microprocessors more than 10 times smaller, but far more powerful," said Zhang. "This technology could also lead to ultra-high density disks that can hold 10 to 100 times more data than disks today."This whole development is based on the optical lithography process, in which light is transferred through a mask with the desired circuit pattern onto a photosensitive material, or photoresist, that reacts chemically when exposed. The material thus obtained is then "dipped" into a series of baths containing various chemicals, the ultimate goal of this process being to etch the circuit design onto a wafer.
What the engineers from Berkeley did was to design a silver plasmonic lens with concentric rings that concentrated the light to a hole in the center where it exited on the other side. In the experiment, the hole was less than 100 nanometers in diameter, but it would seem that it can theoretically be as small as 5 to 10 nanometers. The researchers packed the lenses into a flying plasmonic head, called so because it would "fly" above the photoresist surface during the lithography process. And apparently, this flying head could hold up to a whopping 100,000 lenses, enabling parallel writing for even faster production.
"I expect in three to five years we could see industrial implementation of this technology," Zhang added. "This could be used in microelectronics manufacturing or for optical data storage and provide resolution that is 10 to 20 times higher than current blu-ray technology."