The Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player

While shopping around for a Blu-Ray disc player, I read threw a string of reviews on some of the more popular models in the market and discovered there were a lot of buzz on the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blue-ray Disc Player. The Sony Blue-ray player has tones of favorable reviews all over the internet and is the best-selling model on many online stores such as Amazon.com.
Out of curiosity, I went to a store nearby to take a closer look at the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blue-ray Disc Player. The first thing I noticed about is was its new super slim and sleek design. It was much smaller than its predecessors with just over 2" in height and about 9" long. This is a big improvement over the previous models.
I brought some blu-ray movies and DVDs to test it out at the store to check out the image quality of the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blue-ray Disc Player. The start up time of the machine was quick and the visual quality is comparable, if not slightly better than my friend's Panasonic DMP-BD30k. I then tried playing one my DVDs on the blu-ray player and was completely blown away by the video quality. Because Sony's Blu-ray players run on 40 megabits per second, DVDs movies will automatically look better on this blu-ray machine.
Cinema movies are recorded at 24 frames per second and blu-ray movie formats are mastered at this rate. Because of this the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blue-ray Disc Player can output movies at1080/24p, giving you the best cinema-like experience possible.
The user interface and configurations of the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blue-ray Disc Player is similar to other Sony DVD players. The cable configurations are also very simple, where you can easily set up the machine within minutes.

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Blu Ray Movies in 3D - Don't Buy Until You Read This!

For a while now, consumers have been able to enjoy amazing, crystal clear resolution and incredibly crisp sound when watching their favorite movies or playing their favorite video games. This fantastic viewing experience can be attributed to Blue-ray disc technology, offering up to 48 megabits per second of viewing perfection, combined with the availability of High Definition Television (HDTV) sets. But now there's something new to get excited about. Blu Ray movies in 3D are coming soon to a store near you!
After HDTV sets became available to the general public, technology companies raced to create an easy-to-use, consumer friendly way for people to record and playback the high definition data required to capture that all-important sound and video quality. The Blu-ray Disc Association was the first to launch their groundbreaking Blu-ray technology, and the high-resolution, superior sound world of Blu-ray movies was born. This system is even more attractive because regular CDs and DVDs can still be played on Blu-ray specific players. Eventually this technology spilled over into video games as well, making the gaming world even more realistically interactive.
Thankfully for all of us who love our high definition entertainment, technology companies like the Blu-ray Disc Association are always looking ahead to see what's next, trying to find new ways to make our in-home theater experiences even more amazing. And the "what's next" is finally here! In January, Blu Ray movies in 3D will be launched, which will allow the home viewer to enjoy 3D movies in all their three dimensional glory right from the comfort of their own homes. Enjoying this amazing new technology will require a Blu Ray DVD Player 3D, and a High Definition Television (HDTV).
This amazing news is coming at the perfect time, as Hollywood studios produce such groundbreaking productions as Disney Pixar's "UP" and James Cameron's newest blockbuster "Avatar". When these 3D Movies become available to the general public, as long as the consumer purchases their Blu Ray DVD Player 3D, home viewers will be able to be transported to the same magical world that movie-goers in the theaters were able to experience.
Hopefully, as more and more people enjoy the fun of the 3D home theater experience, studios will produce more and more exciting films in 3D, thus leading to even further advances in technology. Maybe someday, viewing a 3D movie in all its glory won't require the use of those clunky 3D glasses anymore. But until then, maybe someone will invent a more stylish, comfortable way to enjoy the 3D movie viewing experience, both at home and at the theater. Exciting innovations always breed more exciting innovations!

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2011 Blu-ray Player Buyers Guide - Find the Very Best Player For Your Home Entertainment

If you are one of the very few who is still hanging on to your old DVD player, the time has never been better to start thinking about upgrading to the superior Blu-ray player. Good, high-quality players cost little more than $100.00. You can even find a whole range of efficient players for under $100.00. Many consumer experts predict that for the upcoming holiday seasons, prices for Blu-ray players will drop as low as $30.00 to $50.00. All these players will play your old DVDs better than your current DVD player. This is the most cost-effective upgrade you can come across. Not only will Blu-ray players play and up-convert your old DVDs, they can handle Blu-ray discs and come with various online streaming services as such as Netflix and Vudu. And if you have a HDTV or plan on purchasing one, a Blu-ray player is a must to get the most out of your HDTV.
For those who have already purchased a player, but did so a few years back, you may want to think about upgrading as well. Your 2007 player, while it still might produce stunning pictures and sound quality, you be missing out on all the new features that have been added to most of today's current models. Features like online streaming media services, built-in Wi-Fi, iPod/iPhone/Andriod app, Skype, DLNA capability and of course the new trend - 3D. Blu-rays over the past couple of years have evolved into a lot more than just playing physical media discs. Players have become the ultimate home theater accessory that provides many entertainment options.
Here is what you get with the current group of Blu-ray Players:
Online Streaming Media Services: Most players come with a host of online streaming content built-in. Every manufacturer has a different set, but you get access to a variation of services such as Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Vudu, Amazon, Slacker, CinemaNow, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and literally hundreds more. They range from online movies to shopping to social networking sites. Some players even come with their own browser so you can surf and search the web. DLNA capability is also a popular feature on certain models, which allows you to access media files on your home network devices like your computer.
3D Technology: The last couple of years all the major electronic manufacturers have made a conscious effort to bring 3D technology home to our living rooms. This trend has continued and even grown in 2011. For we see a lot of new players out this year are 3D compatible. (You still require a 3D TV and 3D glasses to view 3D content). And 3D features such as 2D-to-3D conversion and 3D Effect Controller have been added to give us more control on how we view 3D content.
Up-converting DVDs: Many of us still have a large collection of old DVDs. It would get very expensive to replace all of them. Luckily for us, players have the capability to up-scale standard DVDs to near high-definition levels. Of course they will not have the same quality you get on Blu-ray discs, but your DVDs will look better than they ever have before.

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VLC Media Player and Blu-Ray

The development of the Blu-ray and its spread have given a significant boost to the use of high quality multimedia content. The Blu-ray disc can store huge amounts of data in an optical medium of the same size as a music CD. In a thick disc of 1.2 mm and with a diameter of 120mm is possible to store an amount of data of much higher than that stored from the most common DVD, between 25 up to 128GB, depending on how many layers are written. Yes, because the blue disk is multilayer and burning technology used involves writing on a level or levels of the inner disk. Undoubtedly, technology is really spectacular if we think about everything that can be stored in a single Blu-ray disc, but there must also be said that the Blu-ray on the market often can not read into the deeper layers of the disc thus defeating the use of these optical media so capacious.
Moreover, the Blu-ray players are still very expensive because the technology is still new. However you can use your home PC to enjoy Blu-ray in comfort. Among the best performing video player and above all free and available on the market there is VLC Media Player, VideoLAN project released under GPL and completely free. The program has spread very quickly on the market thanks not only for its generosity but also for the undisputed quality of this small software. With very efficient codecs, which will be in the setup file after you download the program, VLC Media Player can read many formats, both audio and video like MKV, FLV, DivX, Xvid, Mov, Ogg, MP3 and many other yet. If you want to harness the power of this player with your BD extract the contents of the disc and convert it to Mkv format, choosing the language and whether to leave the subtitles. To do this you can use video converter, there are many online and are free. After you create your Mkv file just open it with VLC Media Player and enjoy when you want and where you want your favorite videos. With the latest version of VLC, the 2.0, the quality of audio and video stream and further improved. The program interface is even more essential and clear style, Mac, and hides a set of tools even more refined and effective management of media files. such as video, audio files and more.

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Blu-ray Technology - What It Is And How It Works

Blu-ray is a cutting-edge, high-definition optical disc that can store significantly more data than a standard DVD. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can store approximately 25 gigabytes of data: five times the amount of a standard single-layer DVD. Dual-layer Blu-ray discs can store twice the amount as single-layer discs, and about eight times the amount of a standard dual-layer DVD.
A standard DVD contains enough space for a two-hour, non-high-definition movie, plus a few extra features. A Blu-ray disc allows enough space for 13 hours of standard footage or two hours of high-definition video. In addition, Blu-ray discs allow you to skip instantly anywhere on the disc; record one show while watching another; edit and reorder the footage on the disc; and access the web to download subtitles and other extras.
All DVD's and CD's store information as a series of grooves on the recording surface of the disc. The grooves are written in a spiral that winds from the center of the disc to the outside edge. On one side, the grooves appear as pits; on the other, they stand out as bumps. To read the disc, a player shines a laser over the bumpy side of the disc. The bumps cause the laser to bounce back and register on a sensor.
Standard CD and DVD players use a red laser to read the information on a disc. Blu-ray compatible players use a blue laser. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light. This makes the laser itself more sensitive and capable of detecting much smaller grooves than a red laser can.
Because the blue laser can detect smaller grooves, the information on a Blu-ray disc can be written much smaller than on a standard disc. This is why a Blu-ray disc can contain so much more information than a standard CD or DVD, even though the discs are the same size.
Blu-ray discs are constructed differently than standard discs. These differences in construction eliminate some of the design flaws in standard DVD's. One of these flaws is birefringence. In a standard DVD, the recorded data is set between two polycarbonate layers. The laser must shine through a layer of polycarbonate in order to reach the data.
Occasionally, the polycarbonate can split the laser into two beams instead of allowing it to penetrate, making the player unable to read the disc. The process of lining up the polycarbonate layers must be done with great precision to prevent birefringence. In addition, the laser beam can become distorted if the disc is not perfectly level inside the player, a problem called "disc tilt."

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Blu-Ray Disks: Buying a Player

Blu-ray Disc is the the standard and technology that provides High Definition DVD and significantly greater optical disk storage for computers. A standard DVD typically contains 8GBs of data (some formats contain more); a Blu-Ray disc stores 25GB or 50GB. Panasonic has developed technology that supports storage of up to 500GB on an optical disk. Blu-ray Disc technology uses a 405 nano-meter (nm) blue-light laser which supports much finer granularity when reading the data encoded on an optical disc as compared to a DVD. (For you truly geeky folks out there, it's actually a violet wavelength, but stay with the crowd on this one.) Incidentally, a DVD uses a red-light laser at 650nm. As most of the folks reading this care about the High Definition application of Blu-ray, a standard DVD only contained enough storage space for a movie picture of around 350,000 pixels. Blu-ray, by comparison, supports over 2 million pixel resolution pictures, providing those great, crystal clear pictures we all like to see. So much for the technical geeky stuff -- if you want to know more, Wikipedia has great write-ups on DVD and Blu-ray.
This is a great time to get into Blu-ray. Over the past year, HDTVs and Blu-ray players have drastically come down in price. Most (all?) Blu-ray players are backwards compatible and can play your DVD collection. For you audiofiles out there, some of the mid-range Blu-ray players have better audio sections than many of the top-line DVD players. It just doesn't make any sense now to buy a DVD player. Of course, you need your media, too. Fortunately, you can get Blu-ray discs now at very reasonable prices. New releases still tend to be a few dollars more expensive than DVDs (they should -- it costs more to master and provide Blu-ray). However, you can get Blu-ray discs on sale at prices that are nearly as low as DVDs -- at you local super market, online (Amazon anyone?), and other places.
What are some of the key features you want to look for?
Great video processing -- Processing information from the disc to produce the great pictures you see is serious business, and takes major computational power. Getting a player with a upgraded video processor will provide you with a better, more vibrant picture with fewer artifacts (bugs).
Great audio processor -- One of the big bonuses of Blu-ray is an improved standard for audio information on your movies, too.
Universal disk -- Blu-ray is the state-of-the-art for both video and audio reproduction. However, there are a lot of formats out there with great content. DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, WMA, MP3, and many more. A great Blu-ray player will apply it's fantastic technology to these formats so you have a great choice of video and music.
Connections -- There are four key things to keep in mind for connections -- dual HDMI (high definition media interface) ports is really nice; multi-channel audio out; Ethernet; and SPDIF digital. Dual HDMI is nice because it will allow you have one HDMI interface go to your TV and another to your audio receiver. If you get a great player like the Oppo 93 or Oppo 95, you might want to use analog audio out (5.1 or 7.1 channel RCA audio jacks) to get the full benefit of the audio processing the player provides. Ethernet is critical for Internet streaming (WiFi is nice, but also have an RJ45 jack). And finally, relying on the optical SPDIF digital audio is fine. These four options should provide you great flexbility in how you use your Blu-ray player.
Web or Internet features -- Netflix, Block Buster, Yahoo TV, Google TV, YouTube -- all these great web services can be seen on your TV using a Blu-ray player that supports streaming. Unfortunately, this is an area that still has a lot of evolution to go. Web applications on HDTVs and Blu-ray players can be buggy and proprietary -- these aren't computers and they don't have browsers. To ensure you get the most of your player, you want to get one with upgradeable firmware.

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High-Def Television and Blu Ray - A Match Made in Heaven?

Most people who have not yet forked out a hefty sum of money for an HDTV yet have no idea how much of a better picture they will receive when they finally do make that inevitable purchase. The main reason why HDTV contains a much superior image is because of the many more lines of resolution that HDTV disperses to its screen. The cathode tube TV, on the other hand, only has analog signals to disperse it's much more inferior video signal to its glass screen.
It appears as though LCD will be the main technology behind most HDTV's as it now stands because plasma screens are more expensive to manufacture and consumers don't like the glare that emanates from these TV screens under the harsh lighting conditions of most stores that have LCD and plasma TV screens standing side by side. Another advantage of having an HDTV in your living room over the regular cathode TV screen is the fact that after the digital conversion this country will be going through in Summer 2009, even stations that are not broadcast in HD will look very stellar indeed, but only if you own a plasma or LCD HDTV.
Another element to consider is the fact that Sony has now won the war over which high-definition DVD format will be embraced by both Hollywood studios and the basic consumer for the foreseeable future. Sony developed a DVD format called Blu Ray that essentially upgrades all movies embedded on their Blu Ray discs to 1080i resolutions, the best image possible for the average HDTV screen.
This break-through in technology means that anyone with an HDTV can now watch their favorite movies in true high-definition anytime they want to if they purchase a Blu Ray DVD player, and as long as their favorite movie is formatted for Blu Ray. If you have not yet done so, buying an HDTV will enhance your home entertainment viewing experience like no other component ever made.

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