HD DVD breathes again. Rumours of Microsoft bringing out a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 have been well a truly quashed

As far as rumours go it was up there with the 'Apple will use Intel chips', 'Palm will switch to Windows Mobile' and 'Sega will stop making consoles' type – all of which, er, came true. So while we weren't holding our breaths on reports that Microsoft was considering an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive, we still weren't prepared to stake a dinner date with our hats on it.With Microsoft and its bargain, if slightly flawed, HD add-on (pictured) being one of the key partners in the HD DVD camp it was hardly likely. Still, with HD DVDs taking a hammering in the States and BD discs outselling them by m…

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No surprises here, but Philips is finally getting official on their BDP9000 Blu-ray player, along with that SPD7000 TripleWriter Blu-ray burner and their 25GB Blu-ray media. We saw the Philips player back at CES, but haven't heard much since. Available in the third quarter of 2006, the unit has a suggested retail price of $999, and, well, it plays Blu-ray discs. The burner is slater for Q3 as well, and we had heard of an August launch previously, so we're guessing we'll see both of these devices around then. Philips is prepping Blu-ray media as well, and they're planning on releasing their 25G…

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No need to wait 'til Christmas for your dual HD DVD and Blu-ray player kicks from Samsung. LG's BH100 hybrid player is on its way right now

Well that format war was fun while it lasted, but now we've settled it, with LG's BH100 dual disc spinner.First spotted at CES in January, John Lewis has just announced that it's shipping in consignments of the hi-def peacemaker to hit the shelves around the middle of next month – well ahead of Samsung's similarly bi-lingual BD-UP5000.So now Blu-ray and HD DVD can scrap it out all they want, it matters not one jot for the BH100. Also known as the 'LG Super Multi Blue', it’ll play both formats in all their 1080p loveliness. Oh and toss in a few of your old DVDs while you're at it &#…

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The Blu-ray Disc camp just unrolled another: the BD-HP1 AQUOS hi-vision recorder from Sharp. Yes, it records, to single-layer (only) BD-R/RE in MPEG-2 format with AAC audio for about 2-hours and 10-minutes of 1080p video at 24Mbps. Of course, it will also playback DVD±R/RW and DVD-RAM discs as well. It comes packing 1x HDMI (presumably with Familink support), Japanese D4, S-Video, and composite video outputs; optical/coaxial digital audio; and support for 7.1ch sound. It also brings 2x Firewire allowing the BD-HP1 to augment your existing hard disk recorder set-up for BD dubbing. Hittin…

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Blu-ray gets a mini side kick in its battle for hi-def world domination. Suddenly HD-DVDs look like bloaters

Mini Cheddars, Mini cars, mini skirts and now mini Blu-ray. The pint-sized disc comes from TDK and is designed to go in the next generation of HD camcorders, mini-DVD style.The digi-cams themselves are still at the concept stage with one or two mock-ups doing the rounds at Far East trade shows. The discs that will slot inside them measure little more than a coffee mug in diameter and pack in a mighty 16.5GB. Dual-sided versions could boost that to 33GB for several hours of luscious 1080p footage.EssentialsTDK Mini BD-RPrice: £TBAOn sale: TBAContact: TDK…

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We've seen a couple of these “Blu-ray factory-in-a-box” setups already, but thought we'd run another set by you just in case you missed the first wave. The ReflexBlu2 and ReflexBlu4 go for $3000 and $5000, respectively, and can burn Blu-ray, DVD-R and CD-R discs. ReflexBlu2 does up two Blu-ray discs per hour, while the Blu4 manages double that. Both systems hook up to your computer via USB, and sport 250GB HDDs for holding on to nine Blu-ray disc images at once. Sure, the price might sound steep, but your extended family will be thanking you later for those 1080p editions of “Family highlights…

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Stuff your hi-def format war. Samsung's bringing us a second-generation BD-UP5000 Blu-ray player – that'll also do HD DVD

After pitching its shiny black lacquer tent firmly in the Blu-ray camp, it seems Samsung's now ready to start straddling the hi-def format war fence.It's confirmed rumours of a dual HD machine in its second generation line-up, that'll accept both flavours of hi-def disc.We haven't seen any pics of the BD-UP5000 yet but word is it'll have a similar look to the existing Blu-ray-only, BD-P1200 (pictured).It won't, of course, be the first dual player – that accolade goes to LG's BH100 – but it will be the first to have both BD-J and HDi support to unlock the special features on both fo…

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While the HD DVD camp is busy with its 51GB disc, the Blu-ray side has a new creature of its own to talk about. Co-developed by Pioneer and Mitsubishi, the LTH (Low to High) BD-R reportedly utilizes an “organic dye recording layer,” and is said to be a recognized format within the Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format v1.2 standard. Additionally, the two companies boast that this disc won't require “large-scale plant investments” to manufacture, which is music to the ears of anyone who enjoys lower costs. Regrettably, it sounds like existing Blu-ray drives won't play nice with the LTH BD-Rs as-is, bu…

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Blu-Ray, the next-generation movie disc format that rivals High-Definition DVD, has another powerful new backer. But does the world need a DVD replacement?

The war over the format for next-generation DVDs has taken another interesting turn, with Warner Brothers defecting from the HD-DVD camp. Well, not quite defecting. More a case of hedging its bets by announcing it'll support both Sony's Blu-Ray format and its previous disc of choice, Toshiba's HD-DVD. Warner's decision follows a similar move by Paramount last month.You see, there's currently a big spat over the future of video discs. Why? Because you can't fit a full movie's worth of high-definition video onto a normal DVD – and the increasing popularity of high-def TVs means that a new disc…

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One of the chief copy protection mechanisms employed by Blu-ray discs that is unemployed by HD DVD is called ROM-Mark, which basically uses unique identifiers that can only be hard coded on discs by authorized duplicators — in other words, it's that per-disc physical watermarking that makes copying (although not necessarily ripping) Blu-ray movies just that much harder, Which is partly why we're a little dubious about this new app, BRDGen, which claims to be able to make and edit (and export for recording) PlayStation 3 compliant disc images. Anyone with a Blu-ray recorder, PS3, and a healthy…

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