Media Devices

Sanyo claims to have produced a new development for laser technology that if it proves commercially viable will be capable of increasing storage space on Blu-ray discs up to 100GB.

To put that into perspective that is enough storage capacity to hold an entire series of Kiefer Sutherland's "24".

According to the company, their new blue laser diode gives off a sharp beam of light at a rate of no less than 450 milliwatts. Because of that, a disc would be able to add an extra two layers onto a standard BluRay disc giving it that massive additional capacity.

Sharp brings its latest High Definition Blu-ray player. The outer design of this player is very simple but stylish. The facade is covered with a plate of both reflective and transparent materials. All instructions are via the remote control, there are no control buttons, which is great until the batteries of the remote run out at one am.

If we ignore the missing Ethernet jack that could lead to bonuses available on some movies on Blu-ray. You can count on HDMI 1.3, three RCA YUV, an S-Video, one Composite, audio output 5.1 analog and two digital audio outputs (one coaxial and one optical). It is observed that the player BD-HP20 offers integrated audio decoders: Dolby True HD and DTS HD.

It is a regret that there is not compatibility with DivX, MP3 and JPEG files with this model. Indeed, the BD-HP20 can read Blu-ray, DVD and audio CD and CD-R/RW only.

It takes about 33 seconds for the drawer to open when the machine is off. Count 1 minute to see displayed the first image of a disk placed in the drive. It's a very long time but conversely the readers are the fastest in this field.

The setup menus could have been much tidier, also the screen icons not very attractive or clear in terms of what they represent. This is overall a disappointing outing from Sharp, not one of their best devices.

Watching a movie in High Definition is a unique experience, the picture is much finer, more detailed and even the soundtrack gets a little bit of benefit from a better definition. Indeed, high definition requires storage capacity far beyond what DVD can offer, thus the birth of Blu-ray.

The LG BH100 is one of the latest offerings in the new medium. The top of the deck is embellished by a brushed metal surface in black. The LCD has a bit disappointed that we would have appreciated it to be grander and more eloquent in terms of information.

The display is indeed very discreet and lacks any panache. There are connections to the back of the LG BH100, there is a complete set of connectivity that misses little. Thus, in addition to the classic YUV output and HDMI 1.2, an optical output is also present with S / PDIF. Stereo outputs are also present, and a 5.1 output in CAR. Therefore, you can connect directly to the pad on a 5.1 speaker kit indeed; the deck features a Dolby Digital Plus and DTS decoder, DTS HD.

A network is also made available, it is there to access certain menus provided on Blu-ray over the Internet very surprisingly there is no SCART connection, which comes as a big surprise.