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The price of a dedicated Blu-ray player has remained high - too high - even after winning the HD war against HD DVD but, Tesco has teamed up with German PB big-shot Medion to sell a performance PC with Blu-ray drive for just £600. The PC in question is the shiny, black Medion Akoya P36888 and, despite the attractive pricing, it's no slouch. The P36888 is powered by the Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, has a 1TB 7200rpm hard disk drive, 3GB of RAM, a hybrid TV tuner and the all-important Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter. Here's the full line up:* 3GB DDR2-SDRAM * 1000 GB Hard Disk - 7200rpm, interface Serial ATA * Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter o Max: 4x DVD+R9 (DL), 4x DVD-R9 (DL), 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM * NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300GS o PCI-Express Graphics card with 256MB, DVI-I, 1 x D-Sub VGA and 1 x TV Out * Integrated Memory Card Reader o reads from and writes to all standard memory cards** * DVB-T/Analogue TV tuner card*** * Network controller Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbit/s * IEEE 1394 FireWire * 8 Channel Audio * PS/2 keyboard and mouse * Remote control The PC will be available in Tesco Extra and Tesco Homestore outlets around the country, as well as online.-Martin Lynch PC blu-ray news

from @ Gizmodo UK

Having been sent packing with its tail between its legs in the high-def format war by Blu-ray, Toshiba has stubbornly maintained that it will not build a Blu-ray player. Instead, it announced that the best way to beat Blu-ray would be to build an uber-DVD player that upscales really well. It might sound bizarre but since a huge number of regular Joe consumers don't know what Blu-ray is, or think it's something to do with the porn industry, it might make some sense. And, it doesn't hurt that the new XD-E500 only costs £75 [in the US for now]. The XD-E500 uses XDE, "eXtended Detail Enhancement," technology, which Toshiba says offers more than just normal upscaling. Alongside upscaling images to near-1080p, XDE throws in 3 picture processing mode settings. They are: Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it's needed. Colour Mode makes the colours of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Colour Mode combines the improvement in colour with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes. Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical "washing out" that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience. Other features include HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, JPEG capability, MP3 and WMA playback. Considering just how many DVDs people already have, and if the cheap XD-E500 is any good, Toshiba could be onto a winner. It's still a shame it won't swallow its pride though and make a Blu-ray player that doesn't cost the earth.-Martin Lynch dvd blu-ray HD DVD movies

from @ Gizmodo UK

Having been sent packing with its tail between its legs in the high-def format war by Blu-ray, Toshiba has stubbornly maintained that it will not build a Blu-ray player. Instead, it announced that the best way to beat Blu-ray would be to build an uber-DVD player that upscales really well. It might sound bizarre but since a huge number of regular Joe consumers don't know what Blu-ray is, or think it's something to do with the porn industry, it might make some sense. And, it doesn't hurt that the new XD-E500 only costs £75 [in the US for now]. The XD-E500 uses XDE, "eXtended Detail Enhancement," technology, which Toshiba says offers more than just normal upscaling. Alongside upscaling images to near-1080p, XDE throws in 3 picture processing mode settings. They are: Sharp Mode offers improved detail enhancement that is one step closer to high definition. Edges are sharper and details in movies are more visible. Unlike traditional sharpness control, XDE technology analyzes the entire picture and adds edge enhancement precisely where it's needed. Colour Mode makes the colours of nature stand out with improved richness. Blues and greens are more vivid and lifelike. Colour Mode combines the improvement in colour with the detail enhancement of Sharp Mode and is ideal for outdoor scenes. Contrast Mode is designed to make darker scenes or foregrounds more clearly visible without the typical "washing out" that can occur with traditional contrast adjustment. Recommended for dark scenes where detail may be difficult to notice, Contrast Mode is also combined with Sharp Mode to provide a clearer viewing experience. Other features include HDMI-CEC, DivX certification, JPEG capability, MP3 and WMA playback. Considering just how many DVDs people already have, and if the cheap XD-E500 is any good, Toshiba could be onto a winner. It's still a shame it won't swallow its pride though and make a Blu-ray player that doesn't cost the earth.-Martin Lynch dvd blu-ray HD DVD movies

from @ Gizmodo UK

Anyone who has shopped online at the likes of Play.com and HMV.com knows [or maybe not] that many items are cheaper because they exploit [thankfully] a VAT-exemption loophole. HMV though is planning to make the same offer available to all shoppers in its 250 stores via kiosks that will offer lots of products - from games to DVDs - exempt of the 17.5% VAT.The in-store 'HMV Delivers' kiosks will offers CDs, DVDs, games and Blu-ray discs cheaper than you'll get them in the store. The items will then be delivered free - just like online purchases - from the company's distribution centre in tax haven Guernsey. The tax loophole allows for a tax exemption on goods priced under £18 and which are imported into the UK from outside the European Union. The kiosks would allow High St. shoppers to get the same deal as online shoppers, as long as they don't mind waiting a day or 2 for the goodies to arrive in the post. HMV told the Guardian that its VAT-free sales topped £50 million for the last financial year, with a tax loss to the Treasury of £8.75 million. Her Majesty's Government is not amused.-Martin Lynch [Guardian] games CDs shopping

from @ Gizmodo UK

If you were hoping that Microsoft would find it in their hearts to offer a Blu-ray drive to loyal Xbox users, it's not good news I'm afraid. Despite slashing the prices of its HD-DVD drives this year for anyone who's hanging on to the dead format, Blu-ray will stay with the PS3 while Microsoft focuses on gaming and its Xbox Live service.T3 managed to catch up with David Gosen, Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Europe at the E3 event in Los Angeles, who stated that the company isn't looking towards Blu-ray as a long-term format. Instead it'll concentrate on distributing media through its Netflix rental service in the US, which should also be pushed into Europe in due course. Though we can see why Microsoft has adopted this stance, we can't see any harm in releasing an external Blu-ray drive to at least help you keep your home cinema equipment a bit more organised. - Paul Lester [T3] Blu-ray XBox Microsoft

from @ Gizmodo UK