Audio Video News

Maybe HD has finally hit the big-time. According to reports around the web, tomorrow consumers will be offered the inestimable opportunity to trample one another at Wal-Mart to buy an HD DVD player on the cheap. How cheap? Really cheap.

Panasonic has announced the introduction of its next generation Blu-ray player, the $499 DMP-BD30. It is claimed to be the first Blu-ray player to support the Blu-ray Final Standard Profile (BD-ROM Profile 1.1). This will enable it to access and play streaming picture-in-picture special features in upcoming Blu-ray titles, as well as audio mixing enabling switching between main- and sub-windows.

Shame on you, RadioShack. And you too, HH Gregg, FYE, Fred Meyer Stores, Ultimate Electronics, and Boscov's. You've been selling analog televisions without adequately warning consumers that these sets are about to become obsolete with the end of analog broadcasting on February 17, 2009. That's why the Federal Communications Commission has just slapped you with $96,000 in fines. Not much, admittedly, but it's a start.

Samsung sent over information earlier today confirming its plans for its next-gen disc players throughout this year. The BDP-2400 Blu-ray Disc player has been officially "removed from the 2007 Holiday Line-up," but the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Blu-ray/HD DVD combi player remains on track for a mid to late December debut.

In the beginning, there was Napster, and it was good, albeit illegal. Over the years the file-sharing pioneer went legit and became a subscription service. Now Napster is looking to improve its game by untethering its 770,000 subscribers from its proprietary software. Soon Napsterites will be able to access a library of five million tracks from any net-connected computer without downloading the Napster application itself. Welcome to Napster 4.0.

Say goodbye to outmoded TVs that stand in the way of progress. Best Buy is taking out the garbage, becoming the first big electronics chain to banish analog TVs from its stores. You go, mega-retailer!

What are all those corporate logos doing on the BitTorrent homepage? Isn't this bastion of P2P technology a den of thieves? Apparently Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Comedy Central, MTV, and other movie and TV studios are willing to entertain a different idea.