LG Releases BD370 And BD390 Blu-ray Players

LG also does not want to be left out of new Blu-ray player releases, featuring CES 2009 debutants BD370 and BD390. Both models are new Network Blu-ray players equipped with NetCast Entertainment Access as well as Wi-Fi connectivity, featuring extensive content-on-demand options for instant access to Roxio CinemaNow, Netflix and YouTube content for instant entertainment right out of the box. Let’s just hope that you will find something interesting enough to watch with all these scintillating options placed before you. Some of the shared features among both units include :-

• 1080p up-scaling for standard DVDs
• Dolby TrueHD surround sound
• DTS-HD Master Audio Essential
• USB 2.0 Media Host
• 1GB built-in memory (BD390)
• Wireless capability (BD390)

The LG BD370 and LG BD390 can be found at retail stores near you, retailing for $299.95 and $399.95, respectively.

Your TV can grind to a halt: Flash comes to the boob tube

Adobe has announced an HD-optimized version of Flash that will be available on TVs, Blu-ray players, and other set-top boxes. With a number of industry partners already on board, the Flash-capable products could be available for your YouTube-watching pleasure by the second half of 2009.

Adobe’s Flash will soon be making an appearance on your TV, the company announced today at the 2009 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show. The company said that it has optimized Flash to deliver HD video and rich applications to Internet-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, and other set-top boxes, and that the technology is already available to OEMs. Adobe expects the first devices with support for the HD-optimized version of Flash to be available in the second half of 2009.

Flash built into a set-top box or an Internet-capable TV will allow consumers to flip between normal TV programming and streaming Web content without having to go to a browser. And don’t go thinking that this is just an Adobe pipe dream that will never become a reality—a number of industry partners have already signed on to support the optimized version of Flash, including Comcast, Disney, and Netflix.

“Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions,” Adobe’s Platform Business Unit VP David Wadhwani said in a statement. “Consumers are looking to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens. We are looking forward to working with partners to create these new experiences and deliver content consistently across devices whether consumers view it on their desktop, mobile phone or television.”

Anecdotally, there’s nothing more fun than coming home tipsy (what?) and watching ridiculous YouTube videos on a 50-inch HDTV screen, made possible (for me) through the Apple TV. Having a TV that could do that without relying on external parties to deliver the content would make it that much more entertaining. Let’s just hope that the optimized version of Flash won’t bring our TVs to their knees like its desktop counterpart occasionally does with our browsers.

Source: http://www.arstechnica.com