Media Devices

After the never ending uncertainty is finally over BluRay manufacturers are now looking forward to the upcoming Christmas business of film and mass storage for the next generation players, with many great films soon to be offered and sophisticated, attractively priced players about to hit the stores it looks like this system may shine at last.

The evolution of optical disk caught on CD and DVD has reached its limits, with the Blu-ray now there is a higher standard of quality available. Here is the BluRay breakdown, infra-red laser 780 nm, aperture: 0.5 track distance: 1.6 m μ Pit size: 0.8 μ m storage density: 0.41 Gb/in2 DVD (middle): 650 nm red laser, aperture: 0.6 Track distance: 0.74 m μ Pit size: 0.4 m μ storage density: 2.77 Gb/in2 BD (right): 405 nm blue laser, aperture: 0.85 track distance: 0.32 m μ Pit size: 0149 μ m storage density: 14, 74 Gb/in2.

In 2003, the first units on the market and there were no players, but only recorders their task was solely to record Japanese HDTV, as this was the only country where they were available. The big HDTV push initially helped HD DVD, but it has a big problem it has two data layers capable of storing 30 GB.

The Blu-ray can hold 50 GB that is what is swinging the market in its favour more space equals higher quality and it is more compatible with current MPEG4-AVC compression techniques than DVD.

On the surface DVD and BluRay look basically the same, they are the same size and thickness one big difference is that DVD stores its data half way through the disk the BluRay has its Data just below the surface this allows the laser to focus ion the information more precisely.
This does give BluRay its big disadvantage light scratches or even fingerprints can ruin the stored data. The film content, menu navigation data, bonus materials and copy protection mechanisms need to reach clearly and closely specified standards, so that each player's hardware can play everything this is far more effective with the added data storage of BluRay.

The professional creation of a media memory is called authoring and this is performed in a studio with complex programs. As a file system for storing data was elected UDF (2.6 for BD-R). Films are in an MPEG transport stream structure (TS).

There can be up to nine video and 32 audio tracks introduced. Even with the Blu-ray, there are recordable (BD-R) and rewritable (deletable) media (BD-RE), including the right PC burner all already stretched even with 50 GB.

All this may lead to the gradual adoption of BluRay as the standard player, it took many years for DVD to replace video the same will be true of BluRay.

After two years of announcements and a launch date that has been moved back countless times, the manufacturer promises Dream Multimedia will be released the end of September.

The launch of the long-awaited S2 receiver with its exiting range of ports features and applications that are diverse as never before. On the back of the DM 8000 Dreambox you immediately see the available connection diversity, two DVB-S2 tuners for the reception of two HD satellite television signals simultaneously and DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S or even one for DVB-S2.

In addition there are no less than four DVB common interface slots and two smart card readers. Three USB ports are available for connecting USB memory sticks or hard drives, from which, recorded multimedia files and can be played. 0/100 Mbit Ethernet network port and (optional) wireless streaming to the receptor as well as direct streaming broadcasting pick-up.

If all that was not enough there is an Integrated Compact Flash and SD card reader.
Connections for S-Video, RGB video, 2 x Scart, S / P-Dif (digital audio, optical and coaxial) and a DVI connector with HDCP decryption, such as Blu-ray playback.

Whether the Dreambox DM 8000 PVR HD DVD achieves the almost cult status of its predecessors will depend on the new Premiere encryption and how successful the launch is now that it has finally arrived.

The Xoro HSD 8430 not only plays DVDs it also shows photos, videos or music from a USB storage device, which it converts from your audio CDs into MP3s, and saves it on the integrated card reader on a memory card.

In addition to normal signals up to 720p or 1080i it has the HDMI connection to the TV. Thanks to HD JPEG technology, according to manufacturer you can also view high-resolution images (1920 x 1080 pixels). This feature, however, must be on the menu, and works only on the HDMI port on the device.

This is a low-priced multi-function device that the manufacturer claims is the best equipment on the market. If the equipment for works correctly they could be right but some users claim that the lack of functionality with almost all the features is unacceptable, sometimes USB devices are not recognized.

To rip audio CDs takes a long time and provides only moderately sound results. Many DVDs will not play at all, sure, the Xoro HSD 8430 is really cheap, but it seems you need some luck in finding a unit that lacks unacceptable faults.