BLU-RAY FORMAT TO PREVAIL
Toshiba Corp., in a statement released on Monday, February 18th, acknowledged that it had started a review of its’ HD DVD strategy, in response to long-standing market trends indicating upwards of a 96% market share for the sale of new disc players going toward the Blu-Ray format.
With retailers like Walmart, Blockbuster, and NetFlix ceasing availability of the HD DVD format, the shift comes as little surprise to industry insiders, despite what appears initially to be a blow to the prestigious Toshiba reputability. Regardless, Toshiba’s stock soared 5.7% in Tokyo as investors cheered the company’s likely decision to abandon the format as lessening the damage in losses in HD DVD operations.
As Warner Brothers Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Company, and Twentieth Century Fox are backing the Blu-Ray format, only Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures are left as exclusive supporters of HD DVD.
Reminiscent of the “tape wars” of the 1980’s, where VHS prevailed over the Sony-backed Beta format, the current format see-saw is likely to go in Sony’s favor. “If true, this will be good news for the next-generation DVD industry in cleaning up the confusion for consumers because of the format competition that had curbed buying.” said Koya Tabata, electronics analyst at Credit Suisse in Tokyo. “This will work toward a profit boost for Sony, and other supporters of the Blu-Ray format.”
This scenario has played itself before, as in Macintosh vs. Windows. The content makers will choose one format, and retailers and custom installation facilities will provide their clientele with the widely available, dominant format. Formal word from Toshiba is expected as early as Tuesday, February 19th.
http://www.blu-raydisc.com/
JUDGED BY THE COMPANY WE KEEP
Furthering our relationships with some of the finest companies in South Florida, Magical Media takes pride in announcing it’s affiliation with Styline of Ft.Lauderdale, masters of world class interiors with high quality cutting edge designs. Providing contemporary furnishings for living and dining areas, bedrooms, offices and family rooms, Styline maintains customization as their guiding light, and has done so for over 15 years. “Their compliance with the demanding specifications of our systems is uncanny” praised Scott Adams, president of Magical Media. “Styline’s talent and eye for detail make our systems as beautifully unobtrusive as they are performance-oriented.”
Offering furniture, lighting, area rugs, upholstery and accessories, color coordination and space planning, Styline earns the designation “Furniture of Distinction” every day, and with every cooperative effort with Magical Media.
www.stylinefurniture.com
FUJITSU TO CEASE MAKING HDTVs
Draw a chalk outline around a video company who couldn’t compete in the commodity driven world of video displays. Japan’s Fujitsu announced they would cease selling their high-end plasma HDTVs effective March 2008. The company, in a written statement says it will return to their core businesses, which include heating and ventilation, and would still make displays for the medical industry but would no longer make or market plasma HDTVs for consumer consumption.
Fujitsu’s move comes as prices for flat HDTVs are dropping faster than home values in many American neighborhoods this holiday season. Consumers struggle to understand how an added value brand like Fujistu can demand as much as 20 to 40 percent more per HDTV set than comparable, competitively-priced brands. Fujitsu's distribution model and marketing plan was never as strong as other value-added companies like Samsung and Sharp, who offer competitive margins and more complete support, which earns the “push” from the custom integration dealers.
One thing is for sure, Fujitsu's move out of the HDTV market will not be the last in 2008. As HDTVs increasingly become a low profit margin commodity and mid-level retailers struggle to find a way to add value to consumers versus the generic big-box players, expect other companies to follow suit with Fujitsu before the dust settles.
www.professionalavbuyersguide.com/fujitsu_01_11_08.php
PRESS RELEASE – April 6th, 2008
Solid State Drives Available On Cannon PC Media Centers
April 6th – Cannon PC announced Monday April 6th, they will be offering solid state disk drives on their Media Center systems.
Media Center PC innovator Cannon PC announced Monday they will be offering solid state disk drives on all their Pro A/V line of Media Center systems.
The solid state disk drives contained in Cannon PC Media Centers are based on Flash memory and SATA connectivity technology and offer tremendous performance and reliability over standard hard drives. They also are up to 5 times faster than conventional hard drives so any restart of the system is much faster. And because SSD drives require less voltage and have no moving parts, the Media Center runs cooler and quieter.
“Reliability, stability and performance are the key factors when we design our Media Centers.” said Gregg Cannon, President of Cannon PC. “Since there are no moving parts, the MTF (mean time between failures) rate is 1,200,000 hours. This means less worry about system down time due to hard drive failure and means much faster performance.”
Currently the SSD Drives are only available on the Cannon PC Pro A/V Series of Media Centers. These high end units are designed for the custom A/V installer market. The Vista Ultimate operating system is stored on the SSD drive and the data is stored on separate Seagate ultra quiet DB35 Drives in an array of different storage amounts and configurations from 500 GB to multiple terabytes.
To learn more about Cannon PC and their Pro A/V line of Media Centers visit them on the web at their website.
www.cannonpc.com
TOUCHPANEL CONTROL ENHANCES MAGICAL MEDIA SYSTEMS
As the demands of our clients become more exacting, and as our systems become more capable than ever before, Magical Media resorts to the credo “ease of use” when it comes to controlling these systems. It’s only natural that we choose Crestron touchpanels when it’s time to design an easy to use interface by which our customers control their systems. Crestron started an industry when it introduced the world's first touchpanel. As the global leader of control and automation solutions, they continue to innovate the technology they invented, creating more opportunities for Magical Media to make our client’s lives simpler.
With Crestron, our customers have come to expect effortless performance. Bright, high-contrast displays with ultra-wide viewing angles is only the beginning. Magical Media offers models with Ethernet connectivity, voice prompts, and a series of touchpanels featuring an embedded Windows XP Operating System providing onboard PC functionality for Web access via Internet Explorer, streaming media using Windows Media® Player 10, and popular file viewers including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint®, and Adobe® Acrobat® securely in a locked down environment - all while providing easy control of AV distribution, lighting, climate control and security.
With distinctive features for every application, Crestron's broad range of over 100 touchpanels delivers maximum value to our customers. Only Crestron offers touchpanels with embedded PCs, built-in MediaMarker™ annotation and 802.11g capabilities. From 3.6" to 17" widescreen displays to handhelds, FlipTops, wall mounts and tiltcase designs, there's a Crestron touchpanel for every room and every budget.
www.crestron.com
