Recent Comments:
Engadget HD giveaway: win a copy of Coraline on Blu-ray! {Engadget HD}
Jul 20th 2009 6:23PM I haven't had a chance or occasion to buy Blu Ray for a while, this would be a nice addition to the library.
Cutting Edge update brings multiroom, dual live buffers to DirecTV HR2x / R22 HD DVRs {Engadget HD}
Apr 26th 2009 4:32PM There is a whole forum at DBS talk for it. Yes you have to be a registered member, but that takes filling out a form and clicking a link in an email. Not exactly tricky.
And the CE releases are a kind of beta test release, if you aren't going to do the minimum amount of research to find out about it, D* doesn't want you getting the software as you probably won't follow the correct channels to report issues.
Which leads to an issue in the post: "don't bother calling customer service" - those using CE releases are never supposed to call customer service as the software is new enough that the reps have no info on it, and will have no idea what you are talking about.
Poll: Is anyone still watching SDTV? {Engadget HD}
Apr 25th 2009 1:20PM Until DircTV can get the local channels in HD, a decent chunk of what we watch is SD. Mind you it probably is shot in HD, but we can't see it that way. Same would be true with Dish.
All the other channels D* has in HD certainly helps though. It would be nice to see BBC America and a few other channels finally making the plunge though.
OPPO BDP-83 universal Blu-ray player hands-on {Engadget HD}
Mar 20th 2009 11:58AM SHopkins:
"Including an HDMI cable and BD calibration disc is a very nice touch... I hope that extends to production and isn't just for the beta period. The reusable shopping back for protective material is also a nice departure from throw-away plastics. "
All the Oppo players have included a 6' HDMI cable, so that you can plan on. As far as the disk, I have no idea, but I'd be surprised if it didn't go out in general release. The also have always used the nice bags for their players, although before it was just the right size for the player, not a full on grocery style bag like this one.
"Anyone know if the Anchor Bay processing extends to noise reduction (mosquito) for BD sources? Also, any word of plans to allow the USB ports to playback HD sources like h.264 encoded MKVs?"
The manual is on their website, and according to it yes the noise reduction works for all sources (with video). It defaults to basically being off, but you can turn it up if you want.
And the USB ports do support HD file playback. I'm not 100% sure on the formats, but I believe MKV h.264 is one of the supported formats. A bit of google searching, and the AVS Forum threads on the BDP-83 will answer that one for you though.
I ordered mine on Monday, as I got an invite to be one of the current 300 people given early access. I'm hoping it ships today, but they warned it may be on Monday that they ship out. They are upgrading the firmware in this batch before sending them out as there is a new firmware, which sounds like it may support DVD-Audio out of the box now.
Panasonic aims to skip over low-pricing e-tailers, focus on "value adding" distributors {Engadget HD}
Mar 19th 2009 12:04PM In December of 2007 I bought an HDTV through Amazon.
In April it had a failure, and it took forever to get it fixed. In late May I called Amazon to let them know I was planning on using my Credit Card's insurance policy, and I wasn't sure if they would get dinged at all due to the CC's policies.
A manager from Amazon offered to buy back the TV for the original price I paid for it.
A couple days after that the TV manufacturer finally stepped up and replaced the TV with a new model, so I didn't have to take Amazon up on their offer. But they still offered it. How many Brick and Mortar stores, especially a Best Buy type, would give you a full refund on a TV after 6 months?
OPPO to start BDP-83 Early Adoption Program {Engadget HD}
Feb 25th 2009 9:40AM There is a whole thread devoted to what this is at AVS, but I'll try to sum up:
There is already a beta test team. They have been testing for a while. Oppo most likely wants to open up to a small group of people outside the beta team to get real world testing on configurations that Oppo and the Beta test group may not have.
The EAP participants will not be bound by an NDA like the Beta testers are, and it has been heavily hinted at that the beta testers will still be under NDA and will be getting test firmwares in advance/different than those in the EAP.
It is kind of like a public beta. You pay for the hardware, and you get access to the 'OS' for testing early. After the player is fully publicly released, the EAP members can return the player for a full refund. If they decide they like the feature set, then they can keep it, and have already paid for it. The warranty is also supposed to cover to one year after the full public release, so if it takes one month from EAP to release, those EAP people get a 13 month warranty.
It is certainly an interesting way of doing it. Some of their previous players got out of beta with no known bugs, only to have some show up when it got into the hands of end users with slightly different equipment than any of the beta testers had. I think Oppo is trying to reduce the possibility of that happening with this player.
The price is not bad either. It includes on-board SACD playback with DSD D/A convertors, bitstreaming of just about anything, on-board decoding of just about anything, and a really nice upscaling solution for standard DVDs. Maybe that feature set isn't something that some would care about, but for those that want all those features, the next available player is something like $2000.
According to their notices, the only thing missing right now is DVD-Audio playback, which many people waiting for this want. Everything else seems to be in place, but it may still be buggy. So the EAP is there to help find and isolate the bugs that are left.
I don't blame you if you don't like the pricepoint or the methods they are using. But just because it isn't the right player for you doesn't make it any less valid for those of us that have been waiting for it as it covers all of our bases.
DirecTV records a monster Q4, adds 461,000 new net subscribers {Engadget HD}
Feb 10th 2009 1:03PM I wonder if it is were you are located. I had some trouble a while back where the HD channels started dropping out, and I had a pretty open southern view. I finally discovered that it was a branch from a tree that grew just enough that when it had leaves it was a problem. You might want to re-investigate as the 5LNB dishes need a very wide open path to the sky.
Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter ships next month for under $15 {Engadget HD}
Feb 10th 2009 12:59PM The LED Cinema Display uses the USB connection for the audio. It is still unknown as far as I know whether Macbooks with miniDP can pass audio via that connector or not.
If you don't believe me about the Cinema Display do a bit of Googling.
Digital Copy becoming more prevalent on Blu-ray Discs {Engadget HD}
Jan 4th 2009 11:53AM -- they're almost or are out of the amount of computers to have on their iTunes account --
If you click on the Store menu in iTunes there is an item to de-authorize the current machine. If you have forgotten to do this, or had a machine die where you couldn't do this, and your machine count is up to 5, if you go into your iTunes account there will be a button to de-authorize all the machines on your account, and reset the number to zero.
You can then authorize up to five machines again. I've had to do this myself as I wasn't paying attention during upgrades, and when leaving a job and left a machine authorized.
Digital TV transition spoof video is both informative and hilarious {Engadget HD}
Nov 7th 2008 11:17PM Obviously she was borrowing her grandchildren's PC. I think that was pointed out when she asked 'Is this my new tv?"
Which was my personal favorite line btw. I found this hilarious as my grandmother has been dealing with this recently, and as I live several states away my little sister has been having to go over to deal with it. The stories I hear over the phone sound similar.
