Audio Video News

You gotta love Blaupunkt's mettle for coming out with a portable active speaker system that can shuttle between the car, the home and the street. It's a clever engineering feat, but you'll need a lot of muscle to lug it around. Dubbed Velocity...

It's been less than a week since we <A href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/208badhd/">reported</A> that Netflix will stop renting HD DVDs in favor of Blu-ray discs and Best Buy will promote only Blu-ray, even though it will still carry HD DVD products in its stores. Now, an <A href="http://checkoutblog.com/entries/2008/2/15/wal_mart_chooses_a_hi_def_plat... blog</A> by some Wal-Mart Associates reveals that the &#252;ber retail chain will carry Blu-ray discs and players exclusively as of June, 2008. As blogger Susan writes, "If you bought the HD player like me, I'd retire it to the bedroom, kid's playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies."

A Hollywood trade publication suggests that the end may be near for HD DVD, quoting a combination of on- and off-the-record sources. Update: That report has been confirmed by two other news outlets. See last graf.

It was a blow to Apple TV owners when they realized their beloved extenders couldn't tap into the hot new rental service from iTunes that was announced at Macworld Expo last month. A fix is now available, according to Macworld, which says "if...

Despite Toshiba's attempts to keep HD DVD alive by cutting prices on their players, the format received two crushing blows today. First, Netflix announced it would drop its support for HD DVD and offer only Blu-ray titles to those seeking to rent high-def discs. The existing stock of HD DVDs will continue to be made available until their life cycle is over.

Two cable systems are trying new methods of movie distribution in an attempt to achieve same-day parity--or better--with DVD release and on-air broadcast dates.

Kaleidescape, the world-beating home video server system, will soon support Blu-ray discs, according to information passed from the company to the Kscapeowners website.