Walmart has the Philips HTS3251B/F7 Blu-ray Home Theater System for $198, which is one hell of a bargain deal. An Ethernet cord will be required to run to it, so you can take features like BD-Live 2.0 and Netflix streaming. More »

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Blu-Ray players are basically the epitome of portable data storage. Just about everyone knows that those players can store much data. But this newest player, the LG BD670 player also throws in an extra punch - it supports WiFi. Radical! More »

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When your head stops spinning from the shockingly saccharine finale of Lost, and you decide that the mysterious ABC television series is worth revisiting in all of its 6-season splendor, then prepare for August 24th because the Blu-Ray Complete Collection arrives at $280, the DVDs for $230. More »

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From Ningin: In most American high schools, May is the time to bust out the yearbooks, go to prom and maybe say your final goodbyes. Everything done this month has to be memorable. It’s no different at Mixr High. Only, we’re not saying goodbye to you — nor are we an actual high school. We’re also probably won’t go to prom with you if you ask us. (We’ll sign your yearbooks though.) We just want you to have a Memorable May with Mixr. More »

That is not an extra zero added by mistake: $15,000 is Krell’s asking price for its Evolution 555 Blu-Ray player, which is shipping soon. While 15-grand is a colossal sum, Krell’s player is likely the most advanced in the world –there is an HDMI 1.4 transmitter installed, and “the the Sigma VXP video processor is located on a plug-in card for in-field upgrade to HDMI 1.4 with full support for 3D and 4K x 2K Resolution.” More »

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Denon is the mid-fi of audio and video, a notch above consumer grade stuff from Japanese companies but below boutique brands like Ayre and Krell. The $1,999 “reference” Blu-Ray player from Denon does not display 3D out of the box! More »

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Best Buy is back at it again with its shady moneymaking machinations. This time, the scheme involves a nonexistent Geek Squad service that is part of a $150 installation package offered to customers who buy the Samsung 3D bundle of HTDV, Blu-Ray player, 3D glasses, and Monsters versus Aliens movie. More »

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James Cameron loves the environment and abhors global warming. For years, he, along with many Hollywood VIPs, and Al Gore have been leading the crusade against pollution and carbon emissions. Avatar, Cameron’s $2.6 billion goldmine is being released on Earth Day because, well, the film is so environmentally friendly since the good guys in the movie tell us as much. The DVD and Blu-Ray versions of Avatar that are due out April 22nd will be unadorned releases, with no extras and no 3D. Cameron wants people to buy the 2D edition now, so that he can get all of them to buy the 3D special cut in November (or December) as well. The great news is that Avatar is magical and its millions of discs and plastic wrappers will contribute no pollution to the environment whatsoever. More »

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Coinciding with Earth Day, the North American release of Avatar is Thursday, April 22nd. A number of other countries will have their copies by the 21st. Unfortunately, there will not be any bonus material on the Blu-Ray or DVD discs. More »

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Put aside the $2900 package price for a moment and just consider the technology itself: only a handful of movies and shows are in 3D, and among them, about two or three are actually good, and none of them, except Monsters versus Aliens, is even for sale. More »

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Famed hacker, George Hotz has cracked Sony’s PS3 –no mean feat considering that no one has been able to hack its copyright protection up until now. Geohot is responsible for hacking iPhone 3.1 as well. More »

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Continued from part one… Although CCFL backlit LCDs cannot match plasma for black levels, the best LED LCDs have some tricks to compensate for the technology’s inherent weakness. Local dimming allows LEDs to adjust individual lights (which illuminate parts of the screen rather than the entirety of it) to different levels of brightness. Side-lit LEDs and CCFL bulbs cannot accomplish this and suffer poorer blacks and lower contrast as a result. Still, ignoring the numbers, I purport that the best plasma displays produce deeper and better blacks than the best LED LCDs. More »

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Once merely toys for the wealthy, large 1080p plasma displays finally became affordable in 2009. Samsung has a new line of suspiciously inexpensive HDTVs, one of which is the PN50B530, retailing for $1299.99 Canadian. Presently, Americans have the PN50B550 at $1399.99 (although regularly discounted to the $1200 range), but specs on both models are identical except for the number of inputs, and the latter’s internet connectivity. At its price tag, the PN50B530 is an entry-level 1080p TV, but it has image quality that is far from low-end. More »

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From Ningin: A big surprise from the Sony and Panasonic team. Each of the two 25GB layers has been refined to 33.4GB per layer. They have been working on a refinement for a while now, as the weakest chain in their technology is NOT their lasers. Why fix the body when you can fix the brain? How does this work, without buying any additional parts? A firmware update (FREE DOWNLOAD) to your blu-ray player or PS3 will tell your lasers to read more precisely and pack data more closely within the same space efficiently. (Improving error check.) More »

A sobering number for consumer electronics companies is 7.8, which is how many percentage points revenue dropped in 2009 from the previous year: from $179 billion to $165 billion. However, tech analysts are hopeful for some key products to emerge and bring sales back up. More »

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