Vudu, the movie streaming service, has announced that Toshiba and Sanyo have begun shipping HDTVs and Blu-ray players with Vudu-support built-in, meaning the service has now followed through on their promise of being available on a plethora of players and TVs from different manufacturers.
The service will be available on the Toshiba BDX2500 and BDX2700 Blu-ray players, which will also give access to CinemaNow and Netflix. Vudu movies can stream in up to 1080p resolution. The player is BD-Live, has analog and HDMI-based 7.1-channel surround, and can playback locally stored media, including H.264, says Electronista.
Toshiba’s BDX2500 costs $180, and has Internet connectivity via Ethernet or an optional Wi-Fi dongle that costs extra. The 2700 costs $230 but has built-in Wi-Fi.
Additionally, the service will be available via the Sanyo DP55360 55-inch HDTV, which has Internet connectivity via Ethernet. The display is LED-backlit and has a 120Hz refresh rate.
There is still no pricing set for the TV.
The company says Vudu-enabled players and TVs are now available through LG, Mitsubishi, Samsung, SANYO, Sharp, Toshiba and VIZIO, with only one company left to make a deal with; likely Sony.
The Blu-ray players are available at a number of retailers, and the Sanyo is available at Wal-mart, which recently purchased Vudu.
Result for: mitsubishi
Mitsubishi has announced that it has developed the world’s first in-car Blu-ray player.
At 50 x 178 x 180mm, the company says the player is only 1/3 the volume of its home standalone BD player.
The player will support BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE and the company plans to commercialize it at some point in 2009.
Tech-On adds that “there are two main factors that contributed to the small size. First, Mitsubishi Electric increased the board density by 1.5 times. Second, the company reduced the thickness of mechanical parts while improving the anti-vibration performance of the equipment.
Specifically, the level of disc runout was reduced to 1/5 that of the company’s existing products. By reviewing the mechanical design with the use of a vibration analysis technology, the company made the improvements without adding a damper.”
Result for: mitsubishi
Dolby Laboratories, the company best known for its audio technologies, has proposed a new 3-D video technology for Blu-ray movies, following recent proposals from Panasonic and Philips.
The company will give a “first peek” of the technology at the upcoming CES show.
According to CDRInfo, “the technology, which uses a checkerboard pixel pattern similar to techniques employed in current 3-D-ready digital TVs from Mitsubishi and Samsung, can be used with active or passive 3-D glasses. It would work on any 3-D enabled TV with a standard Blu-ray player.”
There was no word on when Dolby would release any consumer products using the 3-D technology.
