The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has revealed the new logo for the Blu-ray 3D standard, which was ratified in December.
The specification allows for 1080p resolution delivery to each eye while wearing stereoscopic glasses, and will work on any compatible 3D display, including LCD, OLED and Plasma.
Blu-ray 3D also specifically calls for PlayStation 3 consoles to have full BD 3D content playback. Says CDRinfo: “Additionally, the specification supports playback of 2D discs in forthcoming 3D players and can enable 2D playback of Blu-ray 3D discs on the large installed base of Blu-ray Disc players currently in homes around the world. The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players. The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.”
The new logo:
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Electronista is reporting today that Syabas, the company behind the Popcorn Hour media hub, will be showing off the newly dubbed Popbox at the upcoming CES event, a media hub that should surpass the Popcorn Hour in every way thanks to a newly finished user interface overhaul.
The new interface includes “infopops” which show off the weather, Twitter feeds, and other data. The interface also includes a cover-flow-esque visual thumbnails selection for videos, music and other data, as well as universal search.
More notably, the interface can handle Flash, Java and QT meaning Netflix is now available. Also available is Hulu, CBS and ABC content, which can now include the in-video ads required for playback. Facebook, Twitter, Shoutcast MP3, Revision3 and other Popcorn Hour content will rollover to the new box.
For video, full 1080p at 100Mbps is now supported, along with the standard MPEG formats, H.264, VC-1, WMV, MKV, XviD and other containers. The player can also support most subtitle files, including Microsoft’s proprietary one. For streaming, the Popbox can recognize iTunes via Bonjour, and DLNA and UPnP sources.
The device has no built-in storage but has USB ports and an SD slot.
The Popbox should be available in March and will cost just $130 USD.
Pics via Electronista:
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Netflix has announced that it will finally add subtitles to its video streaming library, however, not until next year.
CEO Reed Hastings says the lack of subtitles has been one of the biggest complaints about the service’s “Watch Instantly” streaming library.
Netflix will finish creating the text files that will “give customers the option of enacting captions on digital titles on devices using Microsoft’s Silverlight components sometime in 2010, adds Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt.
“Captioning is in our development plans but is about a year away,” Hunt finished.
