[CEDIA 2008] Sony Delivers Ultimate A/V Experience with New ES Blu-Ray Disc Player

BD-Live Enabled Model Features New Technologies for Unsurpassed Picture Quality

Sony today announced the new BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray Disc™ player, featuring the company’s newly developed HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping technologies that deliver even sharper and more vibrant images from today’s Blu-ray Disc movies.

The model, which is fully BD-Live capable, features an Ethernet connection that allows users to connect to the Internet via their existing service provider to access BD-Live features and easy firmware updates. It also is equipped with an external flash memory port and includes a 1GB Sony Micro Vault™ Tiny flash storage device.

The BDP-S5000ES also features Quick Start mode, improving boot-up times to approximately six seconds, which is seven times faster than previous models.

“Sony’s Elevated Standard, or ‘ES’ products stand for the very best Sony has to offer, and the BDP-S5000ES is no exception,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Video Division. “Featuring the incredible build quality found on all Sony ES products, the S5000ES goes above and beyond traditional Blu-ray Disc players to deliver the ultimate home theater experience.”

Sony Adds Video Compatibility to Digital Imagining GPS Receiver

Sony GPS-CS1KASP device able to trace video footage with GPS coordinates

To update an announcement made last year, Sony today said it will bundle new versions of Picture Motion Browser software and Image Tracker software with its GPS receiver for digital imaging products.

With this new software, the GPS-CS1KASP device can trace the GPS coordinates of your video footage to an online map, courtesy of Google™. The product will continue to support GPS tagging of digital still photos.

Benefits of the new GPS-CS1KASP device include:

•    The GPS receiver records your location every 15 seconds so you can trace your course while recording video or pinpoint the loacation where you took a photo.

•   The updated software pairs the GPS recordings with your video and still photos so you can trace your video, or plot your photo, to an online map, courtesy of the Google maps™ mapping service.

•   The cylindrical 12-channel receiver is only 3.5-inches long and weights just two ounces.

•   Compatible with virtually any digital camera or camcorder, the product is able to store 360 hours of coordinates on its internal memory.

Sony includes two new attachment accessories so you can secure to the GPS receiver to your arm when running or hiking or to your bike when cycling.  The product continues to offer a carabiner to attach the receiver to a backpack or a belt loop.

The GPS-CS1KASP device will be available next month for about $150 at sonystyle.com, at Sony Style® retail stores
 

Sony’s quarterly profit seen rising 16%, but outlook murky

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Sony Corp. (6758.TO) is expected to report Thursday that net profit grew by double digits in the October-December quarter on strong sales of electronics and smaller losses at its game division, but analysts remain wary about the company’s prospects in the near term.

The electronics icon will likely book a group net profit of Y184.81 billion ($1.73 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, up 16% from Y159.9 billion a year earlier, according to the average forecast of three analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Sony watchers say the strong results will come mainly from a continued turnaround at its core electronics division, which accounts for more than 60% of group revenues. The division was hurt in the previous quarter by losses in its TV business, which is widely expected to have regained profitability as it updated its product line.

“We don’t see any change in strength in digital cameras, camcorders and personal computers from the second quarter, and feel that the recovery in LCD TV share means there is little chance of it weighing down” the result, said JP Morgan analyst Yoshiharu Izumi in a report.

Mainly on robust holiday sales of such gadgetry, group revenues are expected to have climbed 10% to Y2.870 trillion from Y2.608 trillion.

Sony Introduces Home Theater Media Stand with Surround Sound System

Delivering a custom home theater installation look without damaging walls, Sony Electronics today unveiled the Sound Wall RHT-S10 home theater stand with an included surround sound system.

The Sound Wall includes Sony’s first 5.1 channel surround sound system to offer built-in speakers, an amplifier and a subwoofer in one slim speaker package. The sound system is attached to a free-standing wall facade that also serves as a mount for a television. Wires are hidden behind the wall and connected to an integrated A/V rack anchored at the base of the media stand.

“Today, consumers want TVs and home theater systems mounted flat against a wall, blending in with the home’s décor,” said Brennan Mullin, vice president for audio products for Sony Electronics’ Digital Imaging and Audio Division. “The RHT-S10 is a great solution for those who want the custom installation look without damaging walls to hide the wires.”
At 350 total watts of power, the system delivers high resolution surround sound with five speakers, an S-Master® digital amplifier and a subwoofer built into the unit. Sony’s S-Force® Pro front surround sound technology generates realistic surround sound from the system without the need for rear speakers, providing flexible placement options regardless of a room’s existing elements or shape.

Plasma and LCD TVs getting thinner

Ultra-thin flat panel displays were the highlight of this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, with many vendors showing thinner and sleeker high-definition TVs, giving users a peek of what LCD, plasma and OLED screens will look like in a few years.

Visitors thronged the booths of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer and Hitachi, where the companies were showing larger flat-panel TV prototypes with reduced thickness, ranging from 3 millimeters to 39 mm, depending on the screen size.

The thinnest perhaps was Sony’s 11-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV, the XEL-1, which is 3 millimeters thick. At $2,500, the panel is much thinner than LCDs, which start at 24 mm in thickness. The XEL-1 went on sale in Japan in December and was launched in the U.S. this week. Sony also showed off a 27-inch prototype OLED TV at CES.

Samsung showed off a thin OLED display prototype with a 31-inch screen, the largest of its kind on display at CES. Measuring around 4 mm thick, it is thinner than LCD panels and displayed vivid pictures than LCD TVs.

With hi-def war, it’s 1975 all over again (Blu-Ray vs HD DVD)

Wrong. High-definition DVD technology has been retro, forcing consumers to choose one of two formats, Blu-ray or HD DVD, bringing back memories of VCRs and the VHS vs. Betamax wars.

That’s because movie studios and technology companies have lined up on two different sides of high-definition DVD technology.

“I’d like to spank both sides on the fanny because they left it up to the consumer, and they shouldn’t have,” said Dale Cripps, publisher and founder of HDTV magazine.

“Either way the consumer is facing some kind of loss, based on the choice they make: ‘If I choose Blu-ray, and it turns out that HD DVD sprints off to success, do I have movies and equipment that can play it?”

An HD-DVD video disc of “The Bourne Supremacy” is seen at left,

with a Blu-Ray disc of “Superman Returns” at right

Most movies are available in both formats. Still, you’re going to find yourself with an extra chore to do in the video aisle: doublechecking whether the movie you want is available in the format that will work with your high-definition DVD player.

And it helps to keep a scorecard of which movie studio is backing which format or both, something that seems to be changing every week.