Blu-ray Disc (BD) News

DivX Announces the Panasonic 'UniPhier' as the World's First DivX Certified® Blu-ray Chip to Support Full HD Playback
Sep 24, 2008 – DivX (NASDAQ:DIVX) has announced that Panasonic's UniPhier® System LSI (MN2WS0043DA) has achieved DivX Certification™ for 1080p high-definition playback - the first chip announced to have achieved DivX HD Certification for use in Blu-ray devices.
News categories: DivX, Panasonic, Blu-ray, Digital TV, Media Player, Semiconductor

Blu-ray Wins the Race - But it Won't be Smooth Sailing
Sep 17, 2008 – The HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war ended in early 2008, with Blu-ray the winner, reports In-Stat. But do not expect a quick ramp up of Blu-ray player sales to standard DVD player levels any time soon, as prices for Blu-ray players are still high.
News categories: In-Stat, Blu-ray, Digital TV, DVD, Market Research, Optical Disc Recorder

High Definition on track in Ireland
Sep 17, 2008 – For the Republic of Ireland, the road to HD started with the introduction of the HD-ready Flat Panel TV. In the last 12 months, 450,000 Flat panel TVs were sold to consumers. Of these, 81% are capable of receiving and processing an HD signal.
News categories: GfK, Blu-ray, Camcorder, Ireland, Market Research, Smart TV

DivX Strengthens Presence in Blu-ray Disc Market with Broadcom Chip Certification
Sep 16, 2008 – DivX (NASDAQ: DIVX) has announced that it has significantly expanded its influence within emerging Blu-ray players through the DivX Certification™ of Broadcom's BCM7440 chip.
News categories: DivX, Broadcom, Blu-ray, Digital TV, DVD, Media Player, Semiconductor

Osmosys & HitachiSoft Announce First Commercial Deployment for Interactive Blu-ray Software Platform
Sep 11, 2008 – Osmosys (SWX:ADBN) and HitachiSoft (NYSE: HIT; TSE: 6501) have announced the first commercial deployment of the companies' integrated Blu-ray Software Platform embedded in chipsets from Renesas in a new product introduction in the USA.
News categories: Osmosys, HitachiSoft, Renesas, Blu-ray, Digital TV, Middleware, USA

Sharp Selects ViXS XCode™ Video Processor for Three Blu-Ray Disc Recorders BD-HDW30/25/22
Sep 11, 2008 – ViXS Systems has announced that its XCode™ 3000 series advanced MPEG4 AVC (MPEG4 Part 10/H.264) Transcoder/Encoder/Decoder System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been selected by Sharp (Tokyo: 6753) for three new Blu-Ray Disc (BD) Recorder products.
News categories: ViXS Systems, Sharp Corp, Blu-ray, Digital TV, Optical Disc Recorder, Semiconductor

ViXS XCode™ 3290 Video Processor works with Bluestreak's MachBlue Flash® Player
Sep 11, 2008 – ViXS Systems has announced that its XCode™ 3290 MPEG-4 AVC Transcoder/Encoder/Decoder SoC has been enabled with Bluestreak's MachBlue TV product. MachBlue offers a complete application environment, including Flash®, for CE and STB manufacturers.
News categories: ViXS Systems, Bluestreak, Blu-ray, Digital TV, DVR, Home Server, IBCShow, Media Player, Middleware, Semiconductor, Set Top Box, Smart Home

Philips shows 3D over existing infrastructures with 3D IPTV, 3D VoD and 3D on Bluray demos at IBC 2008
Sep 10, 2008 – Philips (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) will demonstrate 3D IPTV, 3D VoD and 3D on Blu-ray at IBC 2008. Each of the three demos will show how the company's 2D-plus-Depth content format can be distributed easily over existing infrastructures.
News categories: Philips, Blu-ray, Digital TV, IBCShow, IPTV, Metaverse

Switzerland digital TV: growth accelerates
Sep 8, 2008 – In Switzerland, about 22% of all TV households, or just under 700,000 homes, are equipped with digital television, however according to a Demoscope survey for Swisscable, digital TV is expected to experience strong growth in the coming years.
News categories: Swisscable, Demoscope, Blu-ray, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Market Research, Satellite, Streaming, Switzerland, Terrestrial