Most home theater experts have praised Blu-ray as being the only high-quality form for home movie viewing. Luckily, with the price of Blu-ray players dropping, Blu-ray disc price points are falling as well, making all of these following Blu-ray movie suggestions a budget-friendly purchase possibility for the holiday season. Check out our Best Blu-ray players guide as well.
Tag Archive: blu-ray
Sony HDTVs Now Come with a Side of Meatballs
In a bid to sell living room electronics and spur buzz for “Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs,” Sony Corp. is offering the movie for free to U.S. buyers of its Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players starting Monday.
People who buy that equipment will be able to watch the movie in any 24-hour window from Dec. 8 until it is released on DVD and Blu-ray disc on Jan. 5.
Sony’s move highlights the way that movies are increasingly becoming available on TVs that connect directly to the Internet as the entertainment industry strives to come up with new business models.
Microsoft: No Plans for Blu-ray on Xbox 360
During an interview supporting Microsoft’s launch of Windows 7, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a comment about folks being able to buy external Blu-ray players…but Microsoft’s own all-things-Xbox spokesperson Major Nelson is scrambling to clarify that Ballmer was referring to external Blu-ray players for personal computers, not for the Xbox 360 system. According to Nelson, nothing has changed: Microsoft has no plans to bring a Blu-ray player to the Xbox 360. 
Toshiba Jumps on Blu-ray Bandwagon
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Toshiba has changed its tune and is marching to a new beat—the Blu-ray beat. The panel talks about Toshiba’s new full featured Blu-ray player and how its super low price could be a key buying trigger for customers that already own a Toshiba TV from the Regza line.
Samsung Pushes YouTube to Living Rooms with Blu-ray Players
Some folks might buy into Blu-ray players to, say, view Blu-ray discs, but Samsung is going one step further by enabling YouTube on some of their Blu-ray players. The YouTube capability is a free upgrade for owners of Samsung’s BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600—users just press a button on their remote or navigate to YouTube via the player’s onscreen menu.
The selected Samsung Blu-ray players connect to the Internet using a wireless or wired connection to an existing home network with broadband Internet capability. Once within the YouTube interface, users can view the most popular or most highly rated videos, or search for videos using an onscreen keypad feature. The YouTube capability also lists video categories.
Toshiba Unveils First Blu-ray Player
Toshiba BDX2000 Blu-ray player
Toshiba might have been the company that championed HD-DVD technology against Blu-ray a couple years ago in the so-called “format war” for domination of high-definition discs…and when Toshiba threw in the towel on HD-DVD it kinda of licked its wounds, focusing on wringing features and quality from standard DVD players without committing to licensing and making its own Blu-ray gear. However, last month the company announced it was joining the Blu-ray Disc Association, and now the company has officially announced its first Blu-ray player, the BDX2000.
10 Best Online Blu-ray Players
What you see is no longer what you get. With the advent of Blu-ray Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live, the content pressed onto a disc when it leaves the factory no longer represents the limit of the experience. A live Internet connection allows Profile 2.0 players to deliver extra content through the Web: everything from trivia games and extra clips to mini games. And to really take advantage of the Internet connectivity that these players carry, many manufacturers have pushed the limits even further, packing compatibility with Netflix streaming, YouTube, Pandora and other online content into the same boxes.
10 Best Blu-ray Movies for Home Theaters
There is nothing quite like popping a Blu-ray disc or DVD into your new system, hearing that first explosion or the swelling score, and witnessing the opening scenes of a truly great film. No doubt you’ve read many articles about the best discs to show off your system with. Unfortunately, you’d be hard-pressed to actually sit through some of these recommended movies, because despite how great the audio and video may sound and look, the film may suck. So toss your Fifth Element and Speedracer discs aside and enjoy one of these 10 films that feature excellent audio and video, not to mention incredible stories.
