Eastman Kodak Company recently unveiled the next-generation Kodak Theatre HD player that adds new and improved capabilities to the HDTV. The player will allow you enjoy videos in HD via a set-top box.

With the Kodak Theatre HD player you can use your HDTV to wirelessly view pictures, music and videos stored on your PC, stream YouTube videos to your HDTV, check out hundreds of online videos through Net Video and wirelessly send as well as receive photos with Kodak’s Picture Mail feature. The Collage view feature of the player will let you view pictures by random, from the same date, or through the years. In addition, you can also check out the latest pictures and videos instantly by just inserting a memory card or USB storage device or by plugging in your digital camera.

The Kodak Theatre HD player is available for US $199.99 (MSRP) on various online sites such as Kodak.com, Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Buy.com.

Via: Kodak

Sonic Solutions has announced that its CinemaNow service will be offered to you in full 1080p. That’s right, you’ll be able to enjoy some of your favorite titles in “Blu-ray Disc resolution”. Sonic will bring buffer-free playback to its new Cinema Adaptive HD encoding and delivery system. So if you’ve gotten used to buying Blu-ray discs or to downloading only HD content you might want to quit all that and focus on CinemaNow in the near future. As long as you have an Ethernet connection available and a decent home theater setup you’re good to go!

Sonic will be working with Widevine for the adaptive HD streaming so we’ll be looking forward to see how everything works out!

via Sonic

Onkyo has recently taken time away from showcasing their home theater speaker systems to let us in on their latest Blu-ray player; the DV-BD507. If you’re looking for a budget player, look away, but if you’re looking for top of the line, read on.

The DV-BD507 will feature 1080p output, Profile 2.0, HDMI 1.3a, BD-Live functionality and an Ethernet port, along with component and composite inputs, of course. Hell, Onkyo will even throw in an SD/SDHC card slot for use with video viewing.

As for price? Well, like I said above, this player won’t come as a bargain. In fact, right now the DV-BD507’s MSRP is at $449.

via EngadgetHD

The VuNow IPTV box will pleasantly surprise you with some CinemaNow movie streaming capabilities. Verizmo Networks has included Roxio’s CinemaNow video-on-demand service in the VuNow system so you’ll have even more content delivered straight to your living room. The VuNow system will offer you both SD and HD versions and the USB WiFi dongle will help you stream content straight to the VuNow PoD. The SD and HD VuNow IPTV boxes will be available for $129 and $149 respectively.

via Press

HDMI 1.4 has yet to find its way into a wide array of devices but regardless, Panasonic has gone ahead and announced that they will begin offering cables in Japan next month.

These HDMI 1.4 cables will reportedly drop on August 27th and will range from 1-10 meters with prices of $42 - $210.

Sure it’s expensive, but once the technology catches on and is more widely used the prices will drop thus making us, the consumers, happy.

via EngadgetHD

Brando has a new accessory for your home theater, and it’s an HD Media Player Docking Station. The device will bring you H.264 support besides that regular DivX, Xvid and MPEG-4 compatibility. The docking station offers full 1080p output, HDMI connectivity and it will let you connect 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives, and it will also work USB flash memory, SD, MMC and MS cards. The device will cost you $199 so you’re probably going to think twice before getting it, right?

via Brando

MediaGate is proud to announce the launch of their MG-M²TV HD player. This device will a welcoming offering for budget concious consumers as it is currently selling for close to $100.

Spec wise, you’re going to find support for just about every kind of video format you can think of like AVI, Xvid, and WMV9 in addition to just about every audio, and image format out there. The MG-M²TV will also support 1080p output, subtitles and features HDMI and component connections.

While it currently only touts the ability to stream content from a connected USB hard drive or memory card, MediaGate says they have plans to introduce a WiFi add-on at some point in the future making the MG-M²TV a perfect streaming device.

via Engadget

Back at CEDIA we saw what would go on to be Sony’s 400-disc Blu-Ray MegaChanger, but at the time we hypothesized that this thing would cost an arm and a leg. Well today, Sony has announced that it will be officially named the BDP-CX960 and that it will only cost an arm, effectively sparing your leg.

For just $800 you will get a Blu-ray player with the ability to hold up to 400 Blu-ray discs but also touts the ability to play DVDs and CDs. This is a feature that Sony pretty much had to have because who has 400 Blu-ray discs, anyways? Spec wise expect to find 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD/Dolby Digital Plus/DTS-HD High Resolution Audio/DTS-HD Master Audio codecs and an HDMI port.

Additionally, Sony also offers the BDP-CX7000ES essentially the same thing as the above mentioned model but also features an RS-232 port and 12-bit Deep Color output. Oh yeah, did we mention it would run you $1,900?

via Gizmodo

Today’s HD standard is widely recognized as Blu-ray which is the same medium Sony ships their PS3 games on. So why not feature a movie and a PS3 game on the same disc? It seems like a no brainer, but no one has done it before.

Today however we get word that the first hybrid disc will be Watchmen Director’s Cut which will also feature The End is Nights Parts 1 and 2. This is a cool advacement, but just who much will is cost? Well, EngadgetHD reports it will be priced right at $49.99.

Let’s see which studio jumps on board next.

Universal has recently announced that they will be releasing an iPhone/iPod Touch application that will allow control of special in-movie features directly from the device.

The first of such movies to feature said integration is Fast and Furious which will allow users to view 3D cars in the movie’s “Virtual Car Garage” as pictured above. If this feature takes off Universal hopes to expand said functionality and allow users to control video playback and view annotations during the movie.

This really proves how much potential Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch has. What’s next?

via AppleInsider

Here is another one of those innovative ways to watch movies or use media files with a portable drive/system. The latest device is this Olevia HD Media Player (ZP-500) which supports most file media file formats in use today. It comes with a HDMI 1.3 interface so that you can easily plug into most TV sets which provide support for such connections.

One notable feature is its ability to participate on a built-in network. You can access your PC which you can project via your TV set. The device is available at Brando for $177.

(Source) Coolest Gadgets

It seems that Toshiba’s debut on the Blu-ray player market, the BD-18, will make its way out of development and onto store shelves later this year.

There were virtually no details regarding the BD-18 but the source article points towards Toshiba releasing a Blu-ray recorder on the Japanese market. If that pans out, hopefully we will see said recorder hit North American shelves sometime after.

We’ll keep you posted as more details come around regarding Toshiba’s BD-18.

Read (Engadget)

In July of last year we showed you Belkin’s FlyWire wireless HD audio/video transmitter which, at the time, seemed like a pretty cool device. Just imagine, being able to connect all of your electronics to one device and it would then stream the content to any TV of your choice.

Unfortunately for Belkin, it doesn’t seem as if the technology caught on as they have recently announced that they will be discontinuing the product with no plans for a rebirth. Of course, the economy could be blamed for the products failure because due to its $1,499 price tag it could obviously be viewed as a luxury item which consumers are cutting out left and right.

So now let’s take a moment of silence for Belkin’s FlyWire wireless HD transmitter. We barely knew thee.

To anyone who has doubts of Blu-ray’s success, you can now lay them to rest — The Digital Entertainment Group is proud to announce that Blu-ray sales have increased 91% in the first half of 2009 over that of 2008.

Numberwise this means there has been a $407 million increase in Blu-ray sales during the same period. So folks, its become apparant, Blu-ray is here to stay. At least, until another medium becomes the industry standard.

On a side note, digital downloads seems to be

Read (CNET)

Mitsubishi has recently announced that starting on July 16th they will begin offering customers a Vudu HD movie player and $50 worth of credits for use with the service when they buy one of the company’s HDTVs.

HomeMediaMagazine has taken the time to confirm that this promotion does in fact exist and will run through August 10th. For those who don’t know, the Vudu HD set top box allows for the on-demand delivery of over 16,000 movies and TV episodes with most rentals start at just 99 cents.

If your on the market for a new TV, definitely check out Mitsubishi’s offerings as this promotion is too good to be passed up.

We’ve been talking about OPPO’s Blu-ray player offering for some time now but haven’t been able to say that it is actually available for purchase. Well, today OPPO has updated the product’s listing page to show that it is in fact in stock and will ship within 24 hours.

For those who don’t know, this is the universal BDP-83 that supports SACD along with the normal Blu-ray player functions.

OPPO has the BDP-83 listed at $499.

Read (OPPO)

The EMTEC Movie Cube P800 is now available. The device is a multimedia recorder comes with a hard drive that can store up to 500GB. It can easily be detached from your PC which allows you to stream web radio via WiFi or the usual Ethernet connection.

The EMTEC Movie Cube P800 can also backup DVDs, record Freeview with twin tuners, and the EMTEC Movie Cube P800 even offers HDMI output. The device is carries a price of £280.

However, some features like the lack MP4 or AAC support and sorting of MP3 files by tags are absent. You can only sort via filenames.

(Source) Mirror

First announed last month, Oppo’s BDP-83 Blu-ray player has been somewhat of a highly sought after item. It’s SACD/DVD-Audio capabilities made it a perfect device for music lovers everywhere.

Well, Oppo has recently updated their website and made the BDP-83 available for pre-order at $499.99. Of course, it’s stated that it is expected to ship sometime around July 1st - 3rd so if it gets delayed, don’t be surprised.

Pre-order it here.

If you’re looking to get a new looking Blu-ray drive but don’t want to throw down the money for an actual player you should check out ASUS’ recently announced SBC-04B1S-U USB 2.0 Blu-ray drive.

This little device features 4.8x Blu-ray reading and 8x DVD burning, Windows compatiblity and of course, USB 2.0 connections. Furthermore, the blue X on the side of the device flashes and has a bundled app to control its brightness. Do you care? Probably not. Is it cool? Sure.

Unfortunately there is no word on pricing or availability but we’re be sure to keep you posted.

Read (EngadgetHD)

If you’re looking for one of the cheapest Blu-ray players on the market then you better head over to Wal-mart next month as Vizio has just announced they will be launching an exclusive Blu-ray player there.

For just $188 you will get a BD-Live equipped VBR100 Blu-ray player who’s details are otherwise in the dark.

When more information regarding this Blu-ray player comes out we’ll let you know.

Read (Twice)