When Sony unleashed its BRAVIA BDV-IT1000 Blu-ray HTIB back in August, we were given no indication of a price or release date. Clearly the time has (almost) come for prospective buyers to buy in, as Home Cinema Choice has procured the bundle and posted up a thorough preview. Upon testing, the crew found that it performed much better with movies than with music, and given that a BD deck comes packaged in, we suppose that's the point. The surround experience was also dubbed satisfactory, with "perfect channel separation" and a subwoofer with plenty of oomph. Hit the read link for the hands-on writeup, and get ready to pony up a staggering £1,500 ($2,168) when it ships in the UK this Spring.

We hate to harsh on Toshiba here, we honestly do, but what in the world is it thinking? As if its clearly unimpressive Super Resolution Technology wasn't embarrassing enough, we're now hearing that the outfit is expected to release a line of prototype players at CES next week that tout SD card slots. Why, you ask? To accept the flash card movies that -- you guessed it -- no one on the entire planet is interested in. Okay, so maybe a handful of people (you know, the same characters who thought slotMusic was a solid idea) will buy in, but seriously, this has failure written all over it. The move comes hot on the heels of a Toshiba / Mod Systems tie-up to establish kiosks that sell films on SD cards, though we're still curious as to whether these SD card players will be of the standalone variety or integrated into upscaling DVD decks. We'll keep an open mind 'til we see the final product(s) at CES, but it'll take a belated Christmas miracle for this to be even halfway awesome.

[Via Video Business]

If Sherwood's BDP-5003 were a buck fifty or so, this thing may actually be worth buying. After all, critics loved the quick start-up and disc load time, appreciated the "very good" image quality and stellar audio performance and bowed to the easy-to-use onscreen menu system. So, what's the problem, you ask? For starters, there's no internal decoding of high-resolution formats nor a 5.1 analog output, so unless you've got a receiver that'll decode for you over HDMI, we wish you the best of luck squeezing any surround out. Furthermore, it's not upgradeable to Profile 2.0, the remote wasn't backlit, DVD upscaling was just so-so and the reds and blues were "slightly oversaturated." In other words, this here player does a decent job with the basics, but for $299 (list), it's about time we started demanding more from our BD decks.

It's always fun to look back and see which predictions were spot on and which were utter failures, so it's with that same fervor and excitement that we present our top ten predictions for the HD arena in 2009. We'll go ahead and warn you that some of these aren't entirely -- how do you say? -- serious, but surely your deductive reasoning skills aren't that badly hampered after last night's romp.

1) Blu-ray player prices will reach $79 before the year's end.
2) First medium-to-large OLED TV will ship to consumers.
3) SED will still be spinning its wheels.
4) HTPCs will become all but forgotten as media streamers and BD decks gain functionality.
5) Wireless HD will still remain insignificant to the general populace.
6) A consumer-level 2K flat-panel will see development.
7) Mayhem will ensue on or around February 17, 2009.
8) 3D HDTVs will reach critical mass at the consumer level, material will still be tough to acquire.
9) 720p video recording will appear on several cellphones.
10) Blu-ray players will be able to effectively replace HD streamers / HTPCs by having access to networked media, Hulu, Netflix Watch Instantly and the entire world of internet-based content.

We can't possibly explain how difficult it was to narrow this down to ten, so do us a favor and mention the predictions we couldn't in comments below. Here's hoping '09 is a banner year for high-def.

Merely weeks after Samsung rolled out its v2.1 firmware update to enable HD Netflix streaming on the BD-P2500 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players, in flies an update just before the dawn of 2009. As of right now, users can surf on over (courtesy of the read links provided below) in order to download version 2.3, which officially acts to "improve playback compatibility of some movie titles." Fire up the download and give it a go, and feel free to report back with any other, unnamed changes that you discover.

[Thanks, Vivek]

Read - BD-P2500 download
Read - BD-P2550 download

Denon's format-lovin' DVD-A1UD universal Blu-ray player has already notched prices and release dates for Japan and America, and now those in the UK can start counting their pounds as they await a launch of their own. The beefed-up deck -- which handles Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio discs -- is slated to go on sale this March in the UK for a stiff £3,299 ($4,808), and to-be buyers can go ahead and start thinking about whether they prefer silver or black.

Scads of individuals thought the BDA was crazy / lying / joking when it granted 11 China-based manufacturers with Blu-ray licenses earlier this year, but now we're beginning to see some fruits of that labor. China Hualu Panasonic AVC Networks -- a joint venture between China Hualu Group and Panny -- has just launched a trio of BD decks in China, the BDP0801, BDP0810 and BDP0821. Not much is known about the middle child (ain't that always the case?), but the first deck is the most basic of the bunch while the latter one handles BD-Live interactivity. Apparently, all three units are available now for 1,999 yuan ($292), 2,299 yuan ($336) and 2,499 yuan ($365) in order of mention, which is probably vastly more expensive than any of you were imagining.

[Via DigiTimes]

Oh, brother -- yet another high resolution audio format to worry over. Just when you thought you could pick up Denon's forthcoming universal Blu-ray player and be done with it comes HRx. The format, which is hyped up by Reference Recordings and is literally high-res WAV files toasted onto DVD media, cannot be played back in traditional DVD / DVD-Audio decks. Instead, you'll need PS Audio's PerfectWave Transport Memory Player. Until now, folks (all three of them) have simply been ripping the files onto PCs or music servers for playback, but the item you see above will indeed handle CDs and HRx DVDs, the latter of which delivers 24-bit, 176kHz sound. There's no mention of a price or eventual release date, but something this specialized just can't be cheap. We mean, it just can't be.

Never satisfied with offering only a Blu-ray disc player (see 2007's BH100 Blu-ray + HD DVD combo and 2008's Netflix-streaming BD300), LG is upping the ante for '09, promising support for YouTube and CinemaNow videos on its next gen decks. Along with the now-standard Netflix, owners can browse CinemaNow pay-per-view offerings (or other stores powered by the service) abd thumb through YouTube's catalog directly from the device. Unmentioned in the PR fluff is additional info like price and more detailed specs, but expect all to become (hopefully) clear January 7 in Las Vegas.

We're not even going to front -- prior to this article, we hadn't heard of Bush (the consumer electronics manufacturer) nor the BD01. According to reports from the UK, though, the Bush BD01 has become the nation's first widely available sub-£100 Blu-ray player. At least at Argos, the deck -- which typically sells for £146.80 -- has just dropped to £97.86, and while the specifications aren't anything to write home about, it'll certainly handle the BD basics. You won't find BD-Live support and it won't help those in NTSC territories (PAL only), but it will upscale vanilla DVDs via HDMI and it won't totally demolish your savings. Better get a move on though, as we're told that stock is "very limited."

[Via ITProPortal]

LG's DVS450H may be "just" a DVD player, but it's a fanciful one. Register Hardware was recently able to acquire one of the units, which handles upscaling and DivX playback without a hitch, and they were mighty impressed with both the form and function. To be honest, though, our interest in this player hovers around the design -- why can't Blu-ray players be fashioned after this? Are manufacturers waiting for market proliferation before thinking outside of the proverbial box in terms of design? Practically every Blu-ray deck that has ever been introduced looks completely typical, with no one willing to take a chance and offer up a stylish, if not unorthodox, alternative. We know, there are inherent risks in pulling such a trick, but won't someone gather up the courage and try? People love to buy shiny new toys, you know.

[Via Slashgear]

We're not too sure why you'd pass on the opportunity to pick up one of Yamaha's phenomenal soundbars, but those who just have to have their speakers and upscaling DVD player match should find oodles to appreciate in the DVX-700. The 2.1-channel HTIB system includes a DVD player that upconverts to 1080p via HDMI along with 210-watts of power spread evenly over the subwoofer and two satellites. Each of the front two speakers include a 2.125-inch driver and 1-inch tweeter, while the subbie houses a 6.5-inch bass blaster. The system's claim to fame is its supposed ability to "deliver fully convincing surround sound performance without requiring multiple speakers to be installed throughout the room." Given just how well it has accomplished that in the past with its soundbars, we don't doubt that this bold claim is accurate; it's just that we're a tad hesitant to cough up $1,199.95 (MSRP) in order to find out.

Whoa, shocker of the century here. DigiTimes has it that OEM Blu-ray Disc player manufacturers in China and Taiwan are seriously feeling the burn after a number of companies decided to deeply discount their decks in order to get them moving from store shelves. Imagine that, right? What's interesting is that the source also mentions that these very OEM companies "have received almost no orders from the US so far in December," signaling that current inventory channels are likely clogged up. Eh, they can gripe and moan all they want about their dwindling profit margins, but we the consumer are quite thrilled with all this price slashing. Can we get an amen from the congregation?

[Image courtesy of HDTVUK]

LG's BD300 can handle both Blu-ray Discs and HD Netflix, though PC Advisor's recent review focused squarely on the disc spinning abilities of the deck. Overall, critics were fairly pleased with the offering, though they didn't hold back their criticism for its lackluster DVD upscaling performance. The good news, however, is that it did look pretty good when playing back bona fide BDs, though we get the sense that the image quality wasn't anything phenomenal. Critics did take time to praise the relatively quick load times and the nice build quality of the remote, but the omission of a backlight made the keys difficult to see with the lights down. The bottom line? It's a feature-packed player that has more than a few tricks up its sleeve, but these reviewers still expected better looking images for the money.