For what it's worth, Buffalo just announced the world's fastest Blu-ray recorder capable of burning through your data at an 8x clip. The only problem is that BDA-approved media maxes out at 6x, assuming you can even find it. Available in Japan starting next month, the external USB 2.0 and eSATA BR-816SU2 and internal SATA BR-816FBS models hit that 8x recording speed on single-layer BD-R media only -- 2x for dual-layer BD-R, BD-RE, and LTH BD-R. CDs and DVDs are supported too naturally, with a max 16x burn to DVD±R or 48x/24x for CD-R/RW. Each drive comes bundled with Cyberlink's PowerDVD 7 suite and are priced at ¥46,700 (about $435) for the external drive or ¥41,000 (about $380) for the internal optical spinner.

[Via BIOS and CDRinf]

So much for early 2008 or even July for that matter. Sony's David Reeves now confirms that PlayTV -- the €99 PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on -- will hit the UK on September 10th. The service will then march onto the continent before completing the European rollout in December -- Australia and New Zealand get theirs in January or February. Notably, the service will in fact record television in the background without interrupting your regularly scheduled gaming regimen thanks to the recent 2.41 firmware PS3 update. Phew, for a moment we felt threatened by a lack of manufactured distractions.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

The New York Times is reporting that Amazon is scrapping its Unbox service in favor of a new online TV and movie store called Amazon Video on Demand. Unlike iTunes and Unbox, Amazon's new digital store-front will stream any of 40,000 movies and television programs to customers. According to Bill Carr, Amazon's VP for digital media, "Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can't help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button." In this regard, the first 2 minutes of every video will begin to play when customers visit the video's product page. Movies can be purchased and downloaded to your hard drive or stored in an Amazon video library allowing you to stream the content to other (any?) Internet connected devices. Films and TV shows from "almost all the major studios and television networks" will be available for sale or rental in the US at undisclosed prices -- only Disney and its ABC subsidiary are holding out for uh, obvious reasons (Steve Jobs is Disney's largest individual shareholder).

Amazon also plans to bring the service directly to the living room through a deal with Sony (and others) which will ultimately embed store access into future Bravia TVs. For now, Amazon's VoD store will be available through Sony's $300 Bravia Internet Video Link device. The store goes beta-hot today for a limited number of "invited" US Amazon.com customers before going a live later this summer.

Several Japanese tech giants are teaming together today in a quest to make 40-inch and larger OLED panels for televisions. Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp and others will participate under a joint development project initiated by the Japanese government. All of this is of course meant to help the Japanese companies compete with South Korea's chaebols, particularly Samsung and LG, as the industry giants maneuver for an advantage over the next, next-generation flat panel technology to dominate the living room.

[Via OLED-info]

The term "widescreen" is one of the most notoriously confusing monikers this side of Full HD used to describe a display's specifications. Widescreen generally translates to a 16:10 aspect ratio when discussing computer LCDs (monitors or laptop displays) or 16:9 if your talking about the living room TV. Of course, it can also refer to the 2.35:1 ratio often used for films or something entirely different if you're Apple touting the wonders of your new widescreen iPhone. Fortunately, we're trending towards at least some convergence around the 16:9 aspect. DisplaySearch predicts that by 2010, 16:9 panels will make up 90% of new laptop displays and 67% of new monitors. Acer has been at the forefront of this transition with products like its Gemstone Blue laptops and the Acer P224W monitor pictured above. The move is being driven by panel manufacturers' desire to maximize production efficiency -- something they should have realized before the glass sizes diverged in the first place. Regardless, the end result should be more pennies saved by you, Joe Consumer, and that's a good thing.

Sony just released a rambling update to it corporate strategy through fiscal year 2010. An interesting read for fans and competitors alike as Sony lays bare initiatives intent on moving Sony from recovery to the "leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment." Most notable in the near-term however, is word from Kazuo Hirai, chieftain of Sony Computer Entertainment, that Sony will make a movie download service available to US PlayStation 3 owners this summer -- Japan and Europe at later dates with details coming "next month," presumably at E3. Moreover, Sony expects its gaming business to achieve profitability by March 2009, the end of the current fiscal year. Of course, we already knew that Sony was prepped to deliver full-length TV shows and movies sometime in 2008 via its North American PLAYSTATION Network. But summer, eh? Judging by the increased molecular agitation of sidewalk effluence, we'd say that Sony's season of movie downloads is already upon us.

Read -- 2010 plan
Read -- US summer launch

No, really... more rumors of Panasonic shifting R&D yen into OLED televisions? Oh you betcha, albeit this time with the specifics of a 37-inch OLED targeted for a retail launch in the next three years. Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbu, is reporting that the OLED panels will be produced on a parallel assembly line at Panasonic's new IPS Alpha factory. Without offering any specifics, Panny did have the decency to confirm that it's working on OLED technology -- something we already knew about. With consumers and editors alike awestruck by OLED display technology and Sony and Samsung already official committed to delivering medium to large panels in 2009/2010, only the chatter of Panasonic not pursuing OLED as a future panel technology would surprise us.

Looks like NHK brought a prototype 33 megapixel, 8K Super Hi-Vision projection system to the auditoriums of CommunicASIA. Using a pair of LCoS projectors, NHK threw 7,680 x 4,320 pixels illuminated at 8,000 lumens onto a screen measuring 6.6 x 3.7 meters. The images were recorded from a prototype 8K studio camera -- as good as it gets until the first live SHV television broadcasts are demonstrated in September.

Sony just outed its newest HD camcorder dubbed the HDR-CX12. We're looking at 1,920 x 1,080 AVCHD video from a 10 megapixel ClearVid 1/3.13-inch CMOS sensor, BIONZ image processing, image stabilized Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T 12 optical zoon lens, a 2.7-inch LCD, 5.1 surround sound mic, and Memory Stick PRO Duo (4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo (Mark2) in the box) storage. It's not the world's smallest, but it's only the size of a soda can, AKA, pop can for you mid-westerners. This camcorder also packs Sony's Smile Shutter tech which automatically throws the shutter (even when in standby) when your subject smiles... or grimaces at having to stand around taking yet another family photo. Smiles can even be prioritized by children or adults. $900 starting tomorrow or early August for brick-n-mortarers.

Update: Another glamor shot and now video of Smile Shutter working on the Japanese CX12 posted after the break.

[Via Akihabara News]

It's not pretty (what Sanyo projector is?), but it is the world's first 4LCD projector. The 25-pound "portable" PLC-XP200L pumps 7,000 lumens across 1,024 x 768 pixels at a 2,200:1 contrast ratio in exchange for your $9,995. The new 4LCD optical engine adds what Sanyo calls a "color control device" to control the amount of yellow light in the projected image. The results are supposedly images which are "clearer, richer, and more beautiful" than those of 3LCD projectors. Sanyo also dropped in some new silicon allowing for 20% more color space. Ships in September -- full press release after the break.

So, you picked up a 6x Blu-ray burner earlier this month did you? Too bad there isn't any media available to cope with that write speed. Oh sure, TDK has been kicking a 6x disc around trade shows for years, but Panasonic will apparently be the first to market when its 25GB and 50GB 6x BD-R discs hit Japan on July 10th. Unfortunately for our Japanese brethren, Panasonic says that, "Blu-ray disc drives compatible with 6X write-once Blu-ray discs are planned to be commercialized in Japan by the end of September 2008." Funny, with those 6x BD-R burners from LG already released in the US, could it be that US (and Korean) Blu-ray interests have finally jumped ahead of Japan's -- the birthplace of Blu? Perhaps, but Panasonic hasn't provided a date for its Stateside 6x media release... yet.

Meet the greenest 32-inch TV on the planet, Sony's BRAVIA KDL-32JE1. The set achieves a 232% efficiency rating -- that's just 86kWh/year -- to easily best the 164% rating required for Japan's highest five-star "Energy Saving Label." Spec watchers will find a WXGA (1,366 x 768) LCD, 2,500:1 contrast, 178-degree viewing angle, and range of in/outs including 2x HDMI and 2x component. Yours in Japan starting July 30th for around ¥150,000 or about $1,387.

[Via Akihabara News]

JVC's disk-based Everio lineup of HD camcorders are being met by a trio of newcomers this morning. The 120GB GD-HD40 ($1,300) and 80GB GZ-HD30 ($1,000) offer 10- and 6-hours of full 1,920 x 1,080 / 17Mbps AVCHD recordings, respectively, from a 1/3-inch, 2.68 megapixel CMOS sensor -- a first for the previously all-CCD based family. They can also record in an editing software-friendly 27Mbps MPEG-2 TS format if desired. The AVCHD-only GZ-HD10 ($800) model scales back the disk to 40GB, the lens, LCD, and sensor to achieve the lower price tag. All three offer 10x, Konica Minolta HD optical zoom lenses, an accessory shoe, up-converted 1080/60p HDMI out, and a microSDHC slot. Available in August, that's when.