£500 may be a lot to spend on a Blu-ray player in this age of sub-£100 decks, but Onkyo's latest BD-SP809 high-def disc spinner is crammed full of so many high-end features that you'll be looking under the sofa for every penny you can find to nab it.

Using Qdeo visual processing technology from Marvell, the BD-SP809 promises to squeeze the very best out of even your aging DVD collection, with full 1080p upscaling, noise reduction and slick interlacing.

A universal player, the BD-SP809 plays nicely with all types of Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs, recognising DivX HD, Mp3 and WMA files saved to discs, USB drive on the rear, over a home network or using the DLNA 1.5 standard.

Audio is equally well served, with both DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD lossless audio formats supported, as well as separate video and audio circuitry being employed to reduce digital noise issues.

Two HDMI ports for quick source changing round off an impressive package.

Keep an eye out for the BD-SP809, heading your way for the princely sum of £499.99.

Name: BDS 700 (Harman Kardon)

Type: Blu-ray deck and 5.1 home cinema combo

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £1099.99 direct from Harman Kardon

The convenience of one-box home cinema set-ups often make them the first port of call for budding home theatre enthusiasts. Combining a Blu-ray deck with 5.1 surround speakers, Harman Kardon's BDS 700 set is a stylishly designed premium AV solution. But can the sparse feature list do enough to justify its hefty price tag?

As the introduction suggests, in the box you're getting a Blu-ray player which also acts as a simple receiver for an included set of 5.1 home cinema speakers with the BDS 700. For the sake of simplicity, we're going to focus on both aspects individually, starting with the Blu-ray player.

The deck in question is the BDS 5SO. It's chunkier than your average player (as it needs to house all of the 5.1 audio connections) but is in no way lacking in the looks department. A mixture of gloss black with brushed aluminium accents, the large volume knob with its backlight adds a Tron-like air to proceedings, married with a clear blue dot matrix display. The slot-in rather than pop-out disc drive also allows the kit's smooth lines and curved front edges to be maintained, though we're always a bit fearful of what would happen if a disc ever got stuck inside.

In terms of connectivity, the deck has a single HDMI output, a USB port for media playback, an Ethernet port for BD Live functions and an array of speaker terminals backed by two optical digital inputs, two analog RCA stereo audio inputs and a coaxial digital input. You'll also be able to play files directly from an iPod or iPhone via an optional Harman Kardon Bridge IIIP dock (not included).

Despite being a premium bit of kit, we were disappointed to see how underused the Ethernet port is here. Solely for BD Live content, you can't access files stored on your home network, nor any media portals or web video services familiar to owners of Samsung or Sony decks. USB playback fares a little better (compatible with MPEG, DiVX-AVI files, MP4 in HD and even temperamental MKV files with the H.264 codec, as well as MP3, WMA , AAC and FLAC audio files) but shoots its usability in the foot by being limited to drives formatted in FAT32, leaving you with only 4GB of storage to play around with.

Thankfully, Blu-ray playback image quality is very good. We popped in the stalwart Casino Royale disc and were welcomed by sharp images and smooth-moving action scenes, crisp textures and vibrant colour reproduction. Even murkier scenes, such as when Bond is captured and tied up, retained visual clarity, highlighting minute details in the darkened dungeon room and making the purple-y bruises on Bond's face look all the more painful. Boot-times were fast too, taking just 14 seconds to get Bond going. Remember however, that you wont be able to play 3D discs here; another feature now quite regularly found in more reasonably priced sets.

DVD upscaling was equally impressive, pushing our Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back DVD to 1080p. Colours were natural and overall images were sharpened up nicely without any smeary artifacting. The only real weak spot was during the opening yellow-scrolling introductory text, looking a little shakey with slight colour bleeding over the black space backdrop.

On then to the BDS-700's sound capabilities, which are overall very good. In the box you'll find a 200W 353mm x 267mm x 267mm down-firing subwoofer, four 167mm x 100mm x 92mm 80W satellites, and a 120W 102mm x 241mm x 92mm dual-driver central channel. Compatible with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital and DTS-HD / DTS-HD Master Audio formats, it delivered crisp audio, consistently well spaced across the soundscape.

A quick jump to Avatar's massive tree-felling battle sequence really saw the subwoofer working a treat, booming with a ground-shakingly resonate sound every time an explosion went off, easily tweaked with the rear volume knob if it's a little overpowering. The central channel too did very well to keep dialogue clear over noisy action scenes, while the rear speakers blended in with subtle ambient sounds remarkably naturally. Our one complaint with the satellites is they at times felt a little bright, but tended to settle down once they'd warmed up a little.

Verdict:

If you've neither a Blu-ray player nor 5.1 system to accompany your HD TV, the BDS 700 kit isn't a bad shout at all, providing you've got the dough. It looks and sounds great, with sharp HD images from Blu-ray discs too. However, buying a separate Blu-ray deck and 5.1 set up from other brands for the same combined value as the BDS-700 would open you up to far more fully-featured products. Convenient, but not necessarily good vale for money then.

Now that inexpensive HD-DVD players imported from China are very much a reality, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has confirmed it’s begun talks with Chinese manufacturers about licensing Blu-ray technology.

Subsequently, the BDA has formally begun an evaluation of the AVS (Advanced Video System) and DRA (Digital Rise Audio), both Chinese specific codecs, for inclusion into any BD platforms made and sold in China.

Dual format players were supposed to be the best way of hedging your bets while the format war raged on between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. However, as Samsung’s recent delay to its universal model emphasises, there are not too many players to choose from.

That could soon change with the arrival of Horizon Semiconductors’ Hz7220 decoding system-on-a-chip, which enables dual channel true 1080p/60 decoding for next generation players and should lead to more dual format players in the future.

As certified by the Blu-ray Disc Association, any player certified after October 31 must meet Blu-ray 1.1 specifications – bringing all manufacturers under the same guidelines to support Blu-ray features.

Profile 1.1, or the ‘Final Standard Profile’, adds a second audio decoder that allows for interactive commentaries, a second video decoder that allows picture-in-picture features, and requires support for 256MB of memory – either integrated or in the form of a memory card or USB flash drive.

Basically, it’s the same features that have been touted by HD-DVD’s interactive assortment. And, once most Blu-ray players start using Profile 2.0, or BD Live, the two formats will be equal in terms of extra features.

However, there could be a problem as there are very few players that support this latest standard.

In the latest episode of endless self promotion from the competing HD format camps comes the Blu-ray Disc Association’s latest market statistics, which claim it’s format is establishing itself in Europe more rapidly than expected.

The BDA announced that Blu-ray disc sales across Europe are continuing to move ahead of rival HD-DVD – apparently, Blu-ray is outselling HD-DVD by four to one in the UK.

Although adult films were credited with fueling the early adoption of VHS and DVD, distributors have been surprisingly slow to embrace next generation disc formats like Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

In the early months of the high-definition format war, it was expected that porn would play a major part in deciding the eventual winner – but so far there have been minimal releases in both formats.

In its third annual report on the state of the high-definition format war, Forrester Research maintains its long held belief that Blu-ray will eventually prevail over HD DVD – though more guardedly than in the past.

In its two previous reports, the market research company also predicted that Blu-ray would emerge as the next generation format winner. This year, despite Paramount’s decision to exclusively support HD DVD, the report says that Blu-ray is still in a better position but its supporters need to change strategy to risk losing its edge.

Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), A US trade association specialising in custom installation has announced that it will be promoting Blu-ray as its high-definition format of choice.

The group, which is made up of 62 custom installers from across the country, claims that 92% of the players sold by its members are Blu-ray models.

“Based on our member research and observations in the field, it is clear that HTSA customers have made Blu-ray their preferred HD format for movies and other packaged video content,” said executive director, Richard Glikes.

And Jay Vandenbree, Sony’s president of US sales, has voiced his support, “At a time when ever-changing technology tests just how much one can know about everything, the HTSA has chosen Blu-Ray Disc as the format they support. I think it speaks volumes when support comes from those who specialize in home theater, and are closest to the consumer.”

Via
AV Zombie

The final quarter of this year is seen as a crucial time for the acceptance of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats, according to research by Understanding & Solutions (U&S).

There’s still a growing concern that consumers don’t fully understand the high-definition concept – and the confusion is being compounded by the choice of two HD disc formats.

And, there’s now a fear that both formats could be lost completely in a world of competing delivery options and viewing platforms.

Adobe has opted to exclusively support Blu-ray on its latest Premiere Elements package; version 6 of software.

According to Pocket-lint, industry insiders believe that pressure from Sony has led to the exclusion of HD-DVD from Adobe’s software – although an Adobe spokesman has said he wasn’t sure why the rival format wasn’t supported.

Several leading media executives have aired their opinions about the format war gripping the high-definition disc world.

Firstly, Rupert Murdoch questioned Paramount’s decision to ‘switch out’ by exclusively supporting HD-DVD over Blu-ray and suggested that the $150m incentive may have had something to do with.

Then, Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner, gave probably the best consumer answer, by saying that "The consumer doesn't care about the format," and that his company is simply interested in reaching customers.

Microsoft’s HDi has proved to be the best interactive layer in the high-definition format war so the company has decided to flaunt it with a new logo.

Microsoft originally named the set of interactive features, iHD, but later changed it to HDI – perhaps the former was too close to the Apple school of thought.

Pioneer and Mitsubishi have developed a method of creating recordable Blu-ray discs using an organic dye, which will significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing the high-definition media format.

There will be a cut in costs as the new discs can be manufactured on modified CD and DVD production lines whereas, previously, BD-R discs could only be produced using inorganic dyes that required completely new manufacturing facilities.

The unfortunate catch is that existing Blu-ray players will not be able to read the new discs, although it’s though that a firmware upgrade may be able to solve this problem.

In an expected retort, the Blu-ray Association has responded to claims that the HD-DVD Promotional Group will release a 51GB triple sided disc by calling it “a publicity stunt”.

Frank Simonis, chairman of the BDA, told Tech.co.uk, “ We believe they are very much in a reactive mood. Based on their format one would expect that a triple layer disc is three times a HD DVD single layer adding up to 45 GB. Now suddenly they change it to 51GB for promotional reasons.”

Harry Potter fans will be pleased to hear that all five films will be released by Warner Home Video on December 11th in both high-definition formats – just in time for the festive season.

The launch coincides with the release of the latest installment from the Howart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. All four previous titles will be released in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.

A recent consumer study in the US has found that 73% of respondents who owned a HDTV were satisfied with the quality of images from their DVD player and felt no need to replace it with a high-definition player.

The study by The NPD group, also found that 52% of HDTV owners were aware of Blu-ray and HD-DVD but only 11% expressed a desire to buy a player in the near future.
And, about 62% said they would wait for a price reduction before making a change, if at all.

Analysts believe it’s the failure by studios and retailers to educate the consumer would result in failure for both sides of the format war.

Screen Digest is supporting its forecast that the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD will continue until at least 2011 by claiming studios opting to opting to support one format exclusively, will be missing out on significant revenues.

According to calculations, exclusive studios could miss out on over $270m of consumer spending in 2008 alone.

The research includes detailed forecasts of the sales and revenues for Western Europe and the US. But, while Blu-ray is selling more units than rival HD-DVD at the moment, Screen Digest suggests that both formats will form a viable base that will allow them to coexist for the foreseeable future.

There’s no sign of a ceasefire anytime soon in the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD with UK media analysts, Screen Digest, claiming it’s set to continue until at least 2011.

The analysts also claim that any film studio exclusively supporting one format over another is simply hurting their bottom line.

Richard Cooper, Screen Digest video analysts, believes that the forthcoming festive season could be a crucial time for both camps – although with so little hardware available it’s the early adopters that will eventually feel shortchanged.

Warner’s Total HD discs were supposed to be the ideal short term solution for high-definition enthusiasts who didn’t want to get involved in the on going format war.

However, since demonstrating the discs, which are compatible with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players, earlier this year – all plans have been put on hold with no release dates in sight.