HD Deals: Video Game Sale (2 for $30)

If you need to fill some wish lists this holiday season and video games are on the top of the lists we have the perfect deal for you: Buy two games for $30 on a variety of platforms. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump you could grab right now.

"Bioshock 2 Special Edition" comes with vinyl

2K Games has just unveiled the contents of its upcoming Bioshock 2 Special Edition release, and it has something for the audiophiles. Along with a soundtrack CD, 3 posters, and an art book, it comes with the orchestral score of the original Bioshock on a 180g vinyl LP.

Yes, a video game coming out in 2010 is shipping with a vinyl LP. It only comes with the $99 ($89 on PC) limited-run special edition of the game, but it's still vinyl where you would not expect vinyl to be. Considering the old-timey, art deco style of the Bioshock games, a vinyl record is an appropriate bonus for the long-awaited return to the underwater dystopia of Rapture. Both the regular and special editions of Bioshock 2 ship February 9, 2010.

— Will Greenwald

[Source: The Cult of Rapture via Kotaku]

HD Deals: Vizio Blu-ray Player For $99

If you've been waiting to get your hands on a sub-$100 Blu-ray player, your wait is nearly over. Cnet is reporting that Costco will be selling Vizio's entry-level model on Black Friday for $99. But if you can't wait to get your hands on that great deal, we have more HD and gadget deals* after the jump you could grab right now.

A remote that doesn't use batteries

We've become a remote-controlled world. When was the last time you actually pressed a button on your HDTV or Blu-ray player? Of course, this means when you're caught with dead batteries, you have to wrestled with your gadgets just to change the channel. Fortunately, NEC and Soundpower have developed a prototype remote control that doesn't need any batteries; it gets all of its power from button presses. Using a mechanism developed by Soundpower, the remote uses the very force of pressing a button to power the circuit linked to that button, so when you hit "volume up," your thumb is providing just enough juice to send the volume up signal to the television.

According to Tech-On, NEC and Soundpower hope to have a commercial version of the remote ready by 2011.

HD Deals: Prototype for the PS3

It might not be Modern Warfare 2 or Halo ODST, but we thought this video game deal we found on Prototype for the PS3 was too good not to share with you: Get the game that lets you pretty much have any super power in the world and then go around using those said powers to destroy things. Definitely sounds worth the sub-$40 price tag. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

WB's DVD2Blu Lets You Trade DVDs (and Money) for Blu-ray Discs

Warner's Red2Blue program, which let consumers trade their obsolete HD-DVDs and a couple bucks for brand new Blu-ray discs, must have been a success. Now the program works for DVDs, with upgrade prices starting around $8. If you want to participate, you'll be asked to mail your DVDs to Warner (there's a $4.95 shipping charge per order, which gets waved when you go over $25). Then, four to five weeks later, you'll get the same titles in the mail in Blu-ray format. There are currently only 55 titles available right now, but hopefully that will increase in the future. While it's definitely a cool program, the whole four to five week turnaround is kind of a turn-off. If I have to be without my copy of The Shining for that long, I'll be in serious danger of buying another copy in the meantime and blowing my whole profit margin.-Stan Horaczek

DVD2Blu

HD Deals: Always Sunny seasons 1-4

If you're a fan of the hit FX comedy "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" we have the perfect deal for you today: Get seasons 1-4 for the normaly price of one season on DVD. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

HD Deals: James Bond Blu-ray Collection

This deal we found today will give you three Bond movies on Blu-ray for nearly the price of one. This collection includes Mooraker, Goldfinger and The World Is Not Enough for $31.99. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

Want to rent 'Up?' No closed captions for you!

You'll be in for a disappointment if you decide to rent Disney/Pixar's Up instead of buying it, especially if you're hard of hearing. According to the Consumerist, copies of Up distributed to rental chains like Blockbuster, Netflix, and Redbox are missing nearly all special features, including closed captioning.

Stripped rental versions of movies aren't unheard-of, but there's a pretty big difference between cutting out commentary and featurettes, and cutting out subtitles. If you're hard of hearing, this is a pretty big problem. It's bad enough to not hear the fantastic voicework of Ed Asner and Bob Peterson as Carl and Dug, but to not be able to get any of the dialogue in any form? That's a low blow.

Of course, this only applies to rental versions of Up. If you buy the movie, it'll come fully-equipped.

— Will Greenwald

Sezmi launches innovative TV service: L.A. first, U.S. to follow

A Silicon Valley company today announced the launch of what it called “the third TV service.” The company and the service are named Sezmi. Sezmi service is slated to begin today in Los Angeles, and roll out gradually in most parts of the U.S.

Sezmi sources content from digital TV broadcasts and the Internet. It’s not just tuning in local digital broadcasts, though. The company says it has struck deals with local TV stations across the nation to use their multicasting capabilities to transmit a variety of programming normally available through cable or satellite, such as CNN, Comedy Central, and Bravo. These broadcasts will be scrambled so they can be received only through Sezmi.

Next week: 1080p video on YouTube

Straight from the "getting blood from a stone" files, YouTube has announced that it will begin streaming 1080p video next week. Until now, the highest resolution YouTube could stream was 720p, and that was only a minority of videos. The move to true, modern HD is a significant change for the service.

Don't expect a sudden jump in quality for all YouTube videos, though. Video quality is constrained by the original footage and the display used to view the end result. If the video was shot on an SD camcorder, or an HD camcorder that can only record 720p (like the popular Flip UltraHD), it won't take advantage of 1080p streaming. Even if the footage was recorded in 1080p, if you watch YouTube on your computer, on an ordinary monitor, you probably won't see a difference. If you watch YouTube on an HDTV and the video you select was shot on a decent 1080p video camera, you'll probably see a nice bump in quality.

HD Deals: $200 Rebate On Best Buy Purchases

If you are one of the lucky ones to own an American Express card then this deal will get you to save some serious cash while you are shopping. The catch ... you have to do it quick: Be one of the first 50 AMEX users to purchase $500 or more at Best Buy between November 18th and December 31st and you will receive a $200 rebate. And for those not lucky enough to get that mega discount, the credit card company is also giving $40 back when you spend $100 or more to 125 registered users. But even if you aren't quick enough to get in on those deals we have more HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

HD Deals: Army of Darkness on Blu-ray

With Zombies being such a hot topic recently we thought this deal on one of the best to ever play a member of the walking dead, Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness, was a can't miss. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

Microsoft Bans Up to a Million Modded Xbox 360 Players

For obvious reasons, Microsoft has never been a big fan of people alter their Xbox 360 consoles to play copied games. Their standard punishment usually comes in the form of a quick swing of the Xbox Live banhammer, which disallows modders to play online or access any of the other Xbox Live amenities, like Netflix streaming. This week it's being reported that up to a million users suffered that exact fate as part of a mass-banning, which was timed to coincide with the release of Modern Warfare 2. In the past, the bans have been permanent, making the only way to access online content to buy an entirely new console. It's not clear if MS will hold to that for this wave of executions, but if they do, gamers with no interest in going online will probably be able to get a very good deal on an a used, modded Xbox 360 over the next couple of weeks. Now that we got that blog post out of the way, it's back to playing MW2 on my unmodded Xbox 360.

Source: CNN

-Stan Horaczek

Boxee Coming to a Set-Top Box

If you haven't at least given Boxee's open-source media center utility a chance, you have seriously been missing out. The ambitious little project took a hit earlier this year when they were told to stop serving up Hulu content [You'll find some interesting commentary regarding that decision in this article from Fast Company], but it doesn't appear to be slowing them down one bit. This morning it was announced on the Boxee blog that the platform will be making its way into a set-top box to be revealed on December 7th. Until now, you had to be running a dedicated HTPC in order to use it. The announcement is very light on specs (none, in fact) but the prospect is an exciting one. I hope to see Boxee making its way into all kinds of devices the way Netflix has.

Source: Boxee

-Stan Horaczek

PerfectLock HDMI cables can hold 25 pounds

You're probably not going to use a locking HDMI cable as a leash for your pug, but it's nice to know the option is there. PerfectPath, one of the cable companies that isn't Monster, showed off its new PerfectLock HDMI cables at the CES Unleashed preview event in New York on Tuesday. According to the company, the cables' locks can handle up to 25 pounds of stress.

On one hand, if you're exerting 25 pounds on your cables, something is probably wrong with your home theater. On the other hand, a couple of those cables and I could become the nerdiest mountain climber ever.

— Will Greenwald

HD Deals: LG 50-Inch Plasma HDTV

The Holiday season is just around the corner and today's deal is a perfect gift for anyone looking to upgrade their small HDTV. We found this LG 50-inch plasma for close to half-off at $969.99 (normally $1,699.95). More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

HD Deals: 50% Off All Criterion Movies

If you were searching for that perfect gift for the movie fan that has everything, today's deal from Barnes & Noble might give you the chance to find a rare classic they might not have. Not only is the store offering a variety of deals on DVDs and Blu-ray discs, but it is taking 50% off of any Criterion Collection movie in its library. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

3D inches towards a standard

It seems like everybody is trying to do their own thing when it comes to 3D video. Since there's no specific standard, different HDTV makers are all implementing 3D in slightly different ways. These differences might not seem apparent to most consumers, but they're still individual technical approaches which means you can't mix and match 3D glasses to fit whatever 3D-compatible HDTV you have. Fortunately, that might be changing soon.

The CEA is looking at the 3D@Home Consortium's developing 3D standard as a possible one-size-fits-all 3D tech template for most HDTVs. 3D@Home is a group consisting of several movie studios and electronics manufacturers, who are all working together to eventually produce a single standard for 3D technology in HDTVs. The consortium has already released several documents describing possible universal standards for 3D video, active shutter glasses, and passive lens glasses, and the CEA is considering them for integration into its own set of technical standards.

Creative Zen X-Fi 2 First Hands-On

The original Zen X-Fi player is an excellent little portable media player. Loads of supported video codecs and expandable storage made it a definite contender, even if its button layout could be a little challenging for those of us with fat fingers. It seems almost a given that the next step would bring Creative into the touchscreen game and that is exactly where the X-Fi 2 comes in. Having spent ample time with its main competitors, it's fair to say that the X-Fi 2 is a different experience.

We have been playing with the 16 GB unit, which carries with it a price tag of just $179. That's $40 less than a Zune HD with the same amount of storage and $20 less than an iPod Touch with half that amount. There are two other models available, including an 8 GB version for $129 and a 32 GB model for $229. That gives Creative a significant advantage in the price-per-GB contest, especially when you factor in the built-in MicroSD card slot that can accommodate more storage on the fly.

The Dolby Truck hits Los Angeles

Over the next few months, Dolby is driving a tricked-out surround sound truck around southern California to promote its surround sound technology. The Dolby Truck features Definitive Technology speakers, Toshiba HDTVs, Pioneer Elite receivers, and even some Nokia and HP cell phones and notebooks to demo.

The tour started today at a Torrance Best Buy, and tomorrow the truck will be in Los Angeles at a Weyburn Avenue Best Buy and later at the Lakers-Memphis game. For a full schedule of the truck's various stops, check Dolby's web site. The truck will be zig-zagging all over Los Angeles until January, when it will head to Los Vegas for CES 2010.

— Will Greenwald

[Source: Engadget HD]

HD Deals: Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard

For all you hardcore gamers out there we found a deal to update your current keyboard to this Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard for only $41.22. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

Blu-ray's future glimpsed at Blu-Con 2.0

Yesterday’s annual Blu-Con 2.0 conference in Los Angeles delivered a progress update on Blu-ray Disc and many of the advanced technologies associated with it. The conference took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, and was organized by the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association whose members include movie studios and consumer electronics manufacturers.

Some of the sessions were enlightening, although a few focused rather heavily on marketing data. Rather than give a blow-by-blow of each session, I’ll just cite the most interesting comments.

A Look at Some of the Freshest Beatles Tribute Albums

There are tribute albums, and then there are Beatles tribute albums, ever sprouting like mushrooms. And boy, do we love to consume those ’shrooms! Some fresh ones picked for your pleasure after the jump.

 

Boston Acoustics announces Reflection Series

Speaker makers Boston Acoustics has introduced its newest line of satellites, the Reflection Series. The new series includes 6 models ranging from compact bookshelf to floorstanding tower models, all of which us fiber-ceramic woofer cones that Boston Acoustics claims produces a consistent response across its entire frequency ranges.

The series consists of the RS 230 compact bookshelf satellite, the RS 260 bookshelf speaker, the RS 223 LCR satellite, and RS 244C center-channel, the RS 334 floorstanding tower, and the RS 1000 subwoofer. The bookshelf models respectively feature 3.5- and 6.5-inch woofers, while the LCR offers dual 3.5-inch woofers, and the center channel and tower speakers each feature quadruple 4-inch woofers. The subwoofer boasts a 10-inch driver with dual 8-inch passive radiators, and is powered by a 500-watt (1000-watt peak) amp. The RS 260, RS 244C, and RS 334 also feature dual sets of binding posts for bi-wiring/bi-amping.

HD Deals: This Is Spinal Tap on Blu-ray

If you haven't seen the rock comedy This Is Spinal Tap, this deal we found is the perfect early Holiday gift for yourself. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

What Happened To OLED?

 

Some electronics industry observers may be wondering if OLED TVs should be lumped in with the flying car, the food synthesizer, and other technological no-shows. After the first OLED TV, Sony’s XEL-1, showed up in spring 2008, the cognoscenti assumed we’d see larger models by that fall, and OLED TVs in all shapes and sizes by Christmas 2009. But almost 2 years after the XEL-1 was first demonstrated, the $2,500, 11- inch set remains the only OLED TV ever to make it to market, despite countless teasers from Sony and other manufacturers about larger sets to come.

HD Deals: Save $950 On A Sony 55-inch HDTV

Need to upgrade your small HDTV to something much larger? Then check out this deal we found on this Sony 55-Inch HDTV for  $1649.99. More HD and gadget deals* after the jump.

Guidelines To Buying An HDTV

Question: My wife has approved the purchase of a big TV to watch the World Cup next summer. Reading S+V has proven invaluable in the search. What guidelines can you offer when shopping for a 50-inch HDTV that will produce a decent (not soft-looking) picture when watching standard-def channels on Comcast cable? Will the cursed Motorola DCT2000 set-top box provided by Comcast help at all? | Bill Holloway | Alameda, CA

Wall of Sound defines iPod overkill

Sometimes a cigar is just of cigar, and sometimes a "Wall of Sound" is just a... wall of sound. At over 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall, the Brothers Wall of Sound is one of the largest iPod docks on the market, and at almost $4,500, it's certainly one of the most expensive.

This massive slab of speaker boasts 28 different drivers producing a range of 40 Hz to 20 KHz, powered by a built-in 125-watt tube amplifier. Each Wall of Sound is hand-crafted, which contributes to the speaker's hefty price tag.