Generally speaking, Oppo has stuck to its bread-and-butter: decently stylish PMPs and a well-received family of upscaling DVD players, respectively. Now, however, we're seeing a trio of concepts which allude to a future unit (or three) boasting gaming functionality. Unfortunately, details beyond that are……

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Oh yeah, Onkyo’s definitely going to dish out a Blu-ray player of its own later this year, but it can’t just sit idly until that one has spent adequate time in the oven, now can it? Say hello to the DV-SP406, a 1080p upscaling DVD player that delivers upconverted content over HDMI. You won’t find……

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A solid-state drive is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. Unlike flash-based memory cards, an SSD emulates a hard disk drive, thus easily replacing it in most applications. There are two kinds of SSDs: flash-memory based ones and SRAM or DRAM based ones (often called RAM-drives). The RAM-drives data persistence can only be guaranteed thanks to a battery, but for a limited time.

It’s called solid-state drive because it uses semiconductor devices, and it doesn’t have any moving parts, unlike hard disk drives which consist of a motor, rotating platters with magnetic surfaces, and mobile read/write heads.

- left: hard disk drive. center & right: solid-state drive from above & under -

Comparison with hard disk drives:

+ Faster start-up (no mechanical delays);
+ Fast random access for reading (no read/write heads to move);
+ Low read/write latency times;
+ No noise (no mechanical movements), except for some high-capacity models which have cooling fans;
+ High mechanical reliability (no moving parts);
+ File fragmentation has almost no impact on performance, since the seek time is almost constant and is not dependent on the physical location of the data;
+ For low capacity SSDs, lower power consumption and heat production;
+ For low capacity SSDs, lower height and size.
- Price (as of mid-2008, around USD 3.50 per GB for flash memory, and around USD 0.40 per GB for mechanical drives);
- Capacity (currently far lower than that of usual hard drives, but predicted to swiftly increase, with experimental SSDs of up to 1 TB);
- High vulnerability to certain effects, such as abrupt power loss, magnetic fields, electric/static charges…..
- Limited write cycles (but the problem is improved all the time. Today’s SSDs can last up to 20 years with average usage). SSDs based on DRAM do not suffer from this problem;
- Slower write speeds (except for SSDs based on DRAM);
- Lower storage density (but is expected to rapidly increase in the near future);
- Higher power consumption (SSDs also take more power per GB).

The advantages of SSDs are interesting for mobile computing and are becoming increasingly popular in markets such as notebook PCs, Ultra-Mobile PCs, and electronics sectors. The capacity currently varies from 12GB to 256 GB. Decreasing prices in raw flash material costs, and in the mean time increasing capacities make SSDs tend to be the next hard disk drive generation.

More information on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

The BBC has begun DVB-T2 test transmissions today, from the Guildford transmitter southwest of London, in preparation for HD on Freeview.
The transmission facilities are provided by National Grid Wireless and Arqiva as part of their support for the DVB standardisation process and the UK project for the launch of DVB-T2 services.
This follows the approval by the DVB Project of the DVB-T2 specification and this will be the first time signals compliant with the DVB-T2 specification will be broadcast.

DVB-T2 is the next generation digital terrestrial transmission standard for new HDTV services on Freeview.
Currently, Freeview services use the DVB-T standard which was defined more than 10 years ago.
DVB-T2 can provide significantly more capacity and this will be essential for HDTV services to be launched on Freeview, currently planned for the end of 2009.
BBC Research & Innovation has been leading the work of the DVB group.

In parallel, it has been developing a modulator/demodulator (”modem”) compliant with the new specification.
Justin Mitchell, leader of the DVB-T2 modem development team at the BBC, said: “We are delighted that our team, in collaboration with our partners, has been able to deliver such a key piece of technology in such a short timescale.
“This is a big step forward in enabling the introduction of full HD terrestrial on Freeview by the end of 2009.”
DVB will be showcasing the DVB-T2 technology at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam in September 2008 with papers, hourly talks and live demonstrations.

Notes to Editors
The DVB-T2 specification will shortly be available as a ‘Blue Book’ on the DVB website. It will now enter the European Telecommunications Standards Institute standardisation process under the reference EN 302 755.

About DVB Project: The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of over 270 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers and regulatory bodies in over 35 countries committed to designing open technical standards for the global delivery of digital television and data services. Services using DVB standards are available on every continent with more than 170 million DVB receivers deployed.

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The only thing to report here is that Sharp's first Blu-ray player, DV-BP1U, is not going to be out by years-end. They're shooting for a 2007 Q2 release and we just couldn't get a price range out of 'em but let us assume $999-$1499. Fair?……

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We're not exactly savvy on what's so special about October 2008, but Onkyo has just become the second manufacturer in the last week to announce a Blu-ray player that will ship in that month. Granted, the firm hasn't made this official or anything just yet, but according to an on-the-scene report ……

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Tsinghua Tongfang has managed to produce at least one mildly interesting MP4 PMP in the past, so we’re not too surprised at the company’s new PMC-M880, which features semi-high-def nice-looking PAL video out at 720 X 576 resolution in addition to the usual array of MP4 features. On the go, you’ll……

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We heard that Pal Technology’s REEM-B would be “fully revealed in Q1 2008,” and while things seem to be running ever-so-slightly behind, we can’t gripe too much. The creature was recently shown off in Abu Dhabi, where onlookers swooned and secretly crushed on the totally macho being. Its creators hav……

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Like the beginning of every great science fiction movie, experts claim that they've discovered a cure for our fuel-dependency woes that only requires an army of genetically modified bacteria… that eat wheat straw and excrete crude oil. You read that right: scientists have created bugs which are able to……

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You're going to have to sit this one out, Americans — unless you own a vacation cottage in Europe, that is. ASUS' latest PCIe TV tuner is aimed squarely at those in DVB-T territories, as the My Cinema-PE6300 hybrid card tunes both digital (DVB-T, obviously) and analog (PAL / NTSC) signals. There'……

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