"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]

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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]

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.

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.

$200 Blu-ray players from JVC and Toshiba

If you've been holding off on getting a Blu-ray Disc player until the prices go down, you might want to start shopping. JVC has just announced a new budget-priced BD player, and Toshiba's long-awaited player has been spotted at Best Buy with a price tag of $50 less than previously announced.

JVC's XV-BP11 is a bare-bones Blu-ray player with a $199 retail price. On one hand, it supports several different media codecs, including AVCHD and WMV videos. On the other hand, it only has Profile 1.1 (Bonus View). The player lacks an Internet connection, and as such it can't access BD-Live features. That's a pretty big feature to not include in a late 2009 Blu-ray Disc player. Still, if you don't want to go online with your discs, the XV-BP11 is available now for just two bills.