The news
Next month's Berlin Radio Show - the International Funkausstellung (IFA) - running Sept 1-6, is shaping up to be a massive event and the European launchpad for the two competing next-generation, high-def DVD formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. We'll bring you all the news from the show floor but Hong-Kong-based AMEX DIGITAL is promising Blu-ray availability even before IFA kicks off.
Although AMEX will be showing at IFA, it says that August 28 is the in-store date for the product it will be pushing in Berlin, the M505-BDR - a Core 2 Duo media-centre PC fitted with a Blu-ray Disc burner. Also featured are an integrated HDMI-compliant ATI X1600 GPU, 4GB of DDR2 RAM and 1.5TB of SATA hard-disk space. Price will be "from $2,000" (£1,100) and include one free Blu-ray Disc movie.
As well as burning Blu-ray Disc blanks, the M505-BDR is said to play out BD movies natively through HDMI at the highest possible resolution - 1080p - and also up-convert standard-resolution DVDs to 1080p for output through HDMI..
The PC's extensive list of features includes a dual hybrid digital TV tuner with P-i-P (Picture-in-Picture); WiFi 802.11b/g; Gigabit networking; FireWire IEEE1394a; and digital audio (S/P DIF) in/out.
Specs - click for close upAs well as handling Blu-ray and DVD movie discs, the M505-BDR is reckoned to support CD and all DVD writable formats, including DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R.
Thoughts? Share them without us in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum but first check out AMEX's own press release on page two.
HEXUS.links
HEXUS.community :: discussion thread about this articleHEXUS.events :: IFA - Internationale Funkausstellung - Berlin 2006
External.links
AMEX DIGITAL - home pageInternational Funkausstellung (IFA) - home page
