blu-ray player

Oppo's awesome-sounding Blu-ray player

Oppo Digital's Blu-ray and DVD players have found favor with the most demanding high-end customers. I knew that Oppo has collaborated with a number of high-end audio companies (Ayre Acoustics, MSB Technology, NuForce, and others) on a number of products, but I didn't know Oppo made improvements on its own products based on feedback from those high-end companies.

The Oppo BDP-95 ($999) may have a lot in common with the company's BDP-93 ($499) 3D universal Blu-ray, SACD, DVD-Audio player, but the BDP-95 really is a very different, potentially better sounding Blu-ray player. I say potentially because the $… Read more

Get a Sony Blu-ray player for $69.99 shipped

I'm breaking two of my own rules today: posting a today-only deal on a Friday (meaning it'll be on the site all weekend, even though it's expired), and posting a deal that's likely to sell out before I finish typing this paragraph.

Eh, rules are made to be broken, right?

Today only, Cowboom has the refurbished Sony BDP-BX37 Blu-ray player for $69.99 shipped. This is an Internet-friendly player, able to stream content from Netflix, Pandora, Slacker, YouTube, and other services.

Update: Oh, now I remember why I have those rules: it's already sold out! (… Read more

CES: Philips intros first wireless HDMI Blu-ray player

LAS VEGAS--If you always wished you had a Blu-ray player equipped with wireless HDMI to stream video from across the room to a wall-mounted TV, Philips has a new solution: the BDP7580 wireless HDMI Blu-ray player.

Due out in April with a price tag of $499.99, the BDP7580 offers 3D playback, NetTV, Netflix, and Blockbuster streaming, as well as Philips MediaConnect, which allows you to stream content from your PC to your TV via a Wi-Fi connection. NetTV is Philips' integrated Internet TV feature that offers a built-in browser for accessing standard Web sites, including Facebook and Twitter. The … Read more

Panasonic shows next-gen 3D TVs, ups its streaming game

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic's press conferences aren't known to be all that scintillating, but the good news this year is that the Japanese electronics giant kept things relatively short.

As expected, we got to hear about second-generation 3D TVs and, as usual, several new digital-imaging and home theater-products were announced, many of them featuring some 3D angle.

Perhaps most interesting was the company's decision to rename its Viera Cast streaming media platform Viera Connect. The rechristening was part of a concerted effort of the company to build out its smart TV platform. One of the demos included Gameloft CEO … Read more

Consumer electronics sales rebound

Consumer electronics have staged a recovery this year.

Consumer electronics makers are expected to grab sales of $340.4 billion for 2010, up 6.2 percent from the $320.7 billion seen in 2009, according to data released yesterday by iSuppli. That contrasts with last year when sales dropped 4.4 percent compared with 2008.

"As shown in the early results from Black Friday, consumer confidence levels in 2010 are higher in all regions of the world than they were in 2009, and buyers are more inclined to acquire new devices or upgrade old electronics equipment," Jordan Selburn, … Read more

Sony LCDs build in Google TV, cost $599 and up

Today Sony announced full details on its NSX-GT1 line of LCD TVs and its NSZ-GT1 Blu-ray player, the first products of their kind equipped with the Google TV service.

The TVs range in size from 24-46 inches, in estimated selling price from $599 to $1,399, and will ship starting October 16 (preorders available now at Sonystyle.com and Best Buy.com). The Blu-ray player is available at the same time for $399.

The promise of Google TVs is to integrate all available video content--regardless of whether it comes from cable, satellite, antenna, or the Internet (like Netflix or YouTube)--onto one screen that you can search as easily as Google.com searches the Web. The Sony TVs and Blu-ray player come with a special remote control with a keyboard, can control other devices in your AV system, and even enable you to surf the entire Web with a built-in Chrome browser. Aside from actually hooking a PC to your TV, it's the closest you likely come to converging the two devices.

Google TV's software offering was first introduced on the $300 Logitech Revue set-top box, which still provides the least expensive way to add the service to an existing system. Sony integrates Google's service into the LCD TVs, so no additional box is required--although most people will hook the Sony devices to a cable or satellite box at least. One major difference between Sony and Logitech, however, is that Sony's TVs and Blu-ray player will not allow streaming of music or video files from in-home PCs or other networked devices at launch, although Sony says this feature is in the works.… Read more