Sharp has introduced two new LCD HDTVs to the North American market, each of which has built-in Blu-ray burners and a second slot for playback of CDs and DVDs.
Sharp Electronics Marketing Company of America president, Mike Troett added that the “32-inch set features 720p resolution and a 7,000:1 contrast ratio, while the 42-inch set has a 120Hz panel with 1080p resolution and 15,000:1 contrast ratio. The new AQUOS DX-series HDTVs are meant to appeal to people who want or need a clutter-free appearance, minimizing the amount of hardware, or want a clean-looking, wall-mount installation.”
The Japanese models of the TVs, which were released in October, have built-in dual digital HD tuners which allow users to watch a program in HD while recording a second program to Blu-ray.
Sharp added that using H.264 encoding with high bitrate would allow for 21 hours of TV to be recorded to a dual layer BD-50.
Prices have not been announced but it is estimated the larger model will retail for $1899 USD
Result for: DVD
Denon Electronics has announced that they will be introducing the world’s first “universal” Blu-ray player.
The BD-Live capable DVD-A1UCDI will retail for $3800 USD when it ships in two months and will support DVD Audio, SACD along with standard DVDs and CDs.
Users
can use an SDHC memory card to play files in popular formats such as WMA, MP3 audio, DiVX 6 video and JPEG images. A “built-in audio-restorer function improves the quality of compressed music.”
The 4th-generation Link port means the player will integrate with any Denon amplifier.
As for inputs, there are a pair of HDMI 1.3 inputs, component video, S-video, composite video, optical and coaxial digital audio, balanced two-channel stereo analog audio and an Ethernet port.
The player also notably supports Dolby TrueHD decoding and DTS-HD Master Audio, each with full analog 7.1-channel audio.
Result for: DVD
Expected to be the largest anti-piracy campaign ever, the MPA and other anti-piracy groups have vowed to make London a “a fake-free zone” by the beginning of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The clearly impossible goal to completely eradicate DVD piracy was initiated by Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy.
The groups involved are The Motion Picture Association, U.K. Film Council, UK Intellectual Property Office, Federation Against Copyright Theft, London Councils, Trading Standards and the Police.
Lammy added, “Legislation alone will not combat counterfeiting and piracy. Good law is great but enforced law is better.” He noted that the campaign should send a strong message to citizens that piracy is a huge problem and will be tackled.
