Sony has said this week that the popular VOD service Vudu will launch on PlayStation 3 consoles starting on November 23rd.
Via the PSN, Vudu will offer 1080p HD and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound streaming.
Vudu says the “PS3 will be the first and only system with dedicated gaming functionality to offer this service,” implying a partnership with the Xbox 360 isn’t in the cards, at least for now.
The streaming movie service currently has 4000 movies available in full HD, and new releases are available the same day as their Blu-ray and DVD counterparts.
Rentals cost $2 for 48 hours.
“PS3 is tailor-made for the high-quality, high-speed VUDU streaming experience,” adds Edward Lichty, general manager, VUDU. “Now with VUDU on PS3, we are able to deliver a completely immersive experience to those loyal to their entertainment system when they want, where they want.”
All new Vudu customers get a $6 credit for signing up.
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A look at the minimum system requirements for the upcoming blockbuster Just Cause 2 shows that the title won’t work on installations of Windows XP. This would represent one of the first high profile releases not to be supported by the still-popular Microsoft operating system. The requirements specifies that an operating system newer than XP is required, and provides a hint why.
The game requires at least DirectX 10. Windows XP can only officially go as far as DirectX 9, meaning that gamers would need to be using Windows Vista or Windows 7 to play the game. A recent hardware/software survey from Steam showed that 42.15 percent of its users were in fact still running the Windows XP operating system, although Windows 7 was becoming popular very fast.
Of course, there have been several methods used to install DirectX 10 on Windows XP since it was launched, none of which are supported by Microsoft and several of which have no support from their original authors either. So maybe it is “technically” possible to run it on Windows XP, but it is a shame that users should have to install a hacked DirectX 10 package and probably patch the game files themselves to play it on Windows XP.
Amazon.com incorrectly lists XP as supported in search results.
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Windows XP is unsupported)
Processor: Dual-core CPU with SSE3 (Athlon 64 X2 4200 / Pentium D 3GHz)
Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce 8800 Series / ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB memory or equivalent DX10 card with 256MB memory
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One month after announcing its release in Europe, Harman Kardon has announced it will release its first Blu-ray player, dubbed the BDP-1, in North America as well.
The BDP-1 will also have “advanced audio codec support and will play back 1080/24p videos without pulldown conversion.” A USB slot allows for JPEG and DivX playback from flash drives.
Harman Kardon is known mainly for its home theater A/V products but has been expanding of late. It will support MP3, WMA, LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, and DTS-HD Master Audio audio formats.
A view of the player shows that it has HDMI 1.3a connectors, as well as component and RCA video outputs, an Ethernet jack, coaxial and optical audio outputs and analog audio output.
The player will hit shelves during June with a price tag of $500 USD.
