Christopher

The STR-DA5500ES, also known as the TA-DA5500ES in Japan, is Sony’s latest powerhouse ES series multi-channel network A/V receiver capable of distributing high-quality audio and video throughout your home. This Elevated Standard (ES) 7.1-channel receiver delivers all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology including Full HD 1080p picture quality, HD surround sound and DVD upscaling to near HD quality via Faroudja DCDi Cinema technology. It can also connect to the internet and access even more entertainment including music and videos, and share them in multiple rooms of your house. Plus, with built-in DLNA support you can access and share music, photos and movies from a compatible PC. In this picture courtesy of Sony Japan, we can finally see the true internals of this $2,000 juggernaut – click to enlarge. Want to help me identify all of the chips and stuff inside? Leave a comment. View the full article

The STR-DA5500ES, also known as the TA-DA5500ES in Japan, is Sony’s latest powerhouse ES series multi-channel network A/V receiver capable of distributing high-quality audio and video throughout your home. This Elevated Standard (ES) 7.1-channel receiver delivers all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology including Full HD 1080p picture quality, HD surround sound and DVD upscaling to near HD quality via Faroudja DCDi Cinema technology. It can also connect to the internet and access even more entertainment including music and videos, and share them in multiple rooms of your house. Plus, with built-in DLNA support you can access and share music, photos and movies from a compatible PC. In this picture courtesy of Sony Japan, we can finally see the true internals of this $2,000 juggernaut – click to enlarge. Want to help me identify all of the chips and stuff inside? Leave a comment. View the full article

Here are a few pictures from Sony’s booth at CEDIA EXPO 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. Sony has been very helpful to me during the show, allowing me free reign around their setup and letting me take as many pictures as I want. I was able to meet up with VP of Corporate Communications Dave Migdal, Greg Belloni, and many other friendly people in Sony. I really have to say that these guys treat me like a million bucks whenever I meet up with them. Here is one of the 3D displays they had going, where users could wear RealD CE4 glasses. They are basically 3D glasses, but with an active shutter system. We will be covering this in another post. Some of the demos included movie clips, and video game segments such as Uncharted: Drakes Fortune 2. I forgot to mention – Sony was stopping just about everyone from taking pictures after a competitor was spotted taking suspicious pictures of some of their equipment. Wow! Talk about lack of professionalism. I can’t name who the company was, but it is a huge brand and I have lost a lot of respect for them. Keep an eye out for more pictures and hands-on media from Sony’s showing at CEDIA EXPO 2009. Here is another setup where Sony had multiple televisions, one 60hz, one 120hz, and another 240hz. It was so much more obvious to understand the benefits of the technology this way. I’ve been able to detect the difference on my own in the past but I think I finally understood the real clarity of 240hz in extremely detailed fast moving scenes. While the source components for each of these televisions was locked away, I was confident that Sony was truly showing no false representation here. There was another segment after this one that did a quick scrolling motion over a zoomed in map. It was so much easier to read the various cities and so forth on the map in the 240hz even compared to the 120hz. It was truly outstanding and I will be recording this soon with my camcorder. Here is a poster for Sony’s latest marketing campaign. They had various images for this everywhere. Great job to the marketing team on this effort, and I will cover that in another post. View the full article

We’ve obtained this picture from the Sony Dealer Convention 2009 in Japan of the unannounced addition to the S-Series Walkman line that we know will be referenced as the S740 series (most likely to be known as the NWZ-S745, etc). We can’t reveal too many details, aside from the fact that it will be available in 8gb and 16gb capacities. Judging from the picture, we can also assume that it will also have a two inch LCD screen, FM radio, noise cancellation, and possibly most of the clear audio technologies found in the X-Series Walkman. There is also a new icon we’ve never seen before on the GUI, which could mean that this Walkman has a new feature. Any guesses? We also have word that this will probably be announced within the next two weeks. This would not replace the already announced S-Series Walkman with built-in speakers, but rather compliment it with a speaker-less design and more features. View the full article

It was always assumed that core characters within the DC Universe would be included (especially with Jim Lee at the helm), but it?s always nice to have confirmation. According to the Official MySpace Blog, Hal Jordan has been confirmed for DC Universe Online (DCUO) Not only is Hal Jordan a legendary member of the Green Lantern Corps, but he has overcome adversity many times,

Sony USA introduced its XBR10 line up in the form of 46 and 52 inch ultra slim panels aka KDL-46/52XBR10. Its beauty will definitely win a lot of hearts and its slimness will awe those who like the glass floating design. Talking about its design, these models definitely resemble ZX1 model released early this year and newly announced ZX5 series in Japan definitely look the same.

During CEDIA 2009, Sony showed off it’s latest addition to the Blu-ray player family due in October – the BDP-N460 ($250). What differentiates this Blu-ray player from everything else in Sony’s line-up is the addition of various streaming options. While other Blu-ray players in the past have had Internet capabilities, none have the absolute convergence that the N460 carries. This is the true union of the Bravia Internet Link and a Blu-ray player into one device. Aside from enjoying the crystal clear picture/audio quality of 1080p/60p Blu-ray (as well 24p True Cinema), you can also watch (and search for) thousands of movies, TV programs, and music from YouTube, Slacker, and, later this fall, Netflix. I can already hear the PS3 owners out there clamoring for this streaming functionality on their systems. Sony is also touting that this device has 802.11g/n compatibility, which is designed for use with the Linksys by Cisco Wireless-N Ethernet Bridge with Dual-Band (WET610N, sold separately). The bridge helps ease the connection between the Ethernet–enabled player and a wireless router in either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio band for optimal streaming. Notable audio features include 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio. The model can also output 7.1 channel L-PCM via HDMI after decoding. As for picture enhancement, the N460 supports Deep Color video output and x.v.Color (xvYCC) technology. It can also play just about anything on a disc, including BD-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), AVCHD, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on BD/DVD/CD recordable media. It also appears to have two USB ports (one front, one back), according to the press release. I assume it also has the same I/O as their other similarly priced Blu-ray players. We’ll be on hand at CEDIA tomorrow and check out the N460 in more detail. Any questions you want answered about this device, please let me know. View the full article

Sony Japan updated one of its Elevated Standard (ES) Audio Video Receivers and replaced TA-5400ES with TA-5500ES. Most likely the US will see a refreshed AVR line up this fall as well and we may hear more about it pretty soon at CEDIA. The updated version of the current US flagship model STR-DA6400ES (which I enjoy a lot at my home theater) will most likely inherit all the new features that this new Japanese model has for us, and they are: APM – The world’s first Automatic Phase Matching technology that will match the phase characteristics of the front speakers and the center speaker, is ideal to keep things in both frequency and phase of sound pressure using the same speakers for all channels. Sony’s unique automatic sound field correction function. “Advanced DCAC (Digital Cinema Auto Calibration)” is included as well. “DCAC” is measured by using the included microphone is a technology that can be measured by the automatic correction with high accuracy and fast acoustic characteristics of the room. DCAC has been available pretty much on a number of Sony’s AVR and Home Theater products as well. Newly developed “HD-DCS” (HD Distinctive Cinema Sound) Re-enforced body of the AVR -

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, under a new business unit headed by Tony Ishizuka, is set to distribute four anime series produced by Japanese animation studio Madhouse.

The sonic quality of the DR-BT21G headphones aren't astonishing, but the fact it is wireless and very portable is the biggest enjoyment factor. They fold up into nearly nothing, have excellent battery life, and also work as a bluetooth headset for phone calls. It is incredible to be listening to music, get a phone call, accept, the music pauses automatically and I talk via the headphones, and once I finish the call the music starts again. Plus, when using it as a bluetooth headset for phone calls, the talk time is incredible because of the larger battery compared to smaller bluetooth headsets.

All of the topics have been restored. You don't understand how awesome it is to say that. Believe me. One slight error - all of the MD product reviews/pictorials were moved to the Hi-MD forum. I am in the process of manually moving them back to the right place, which should be done today.

DCUO continues to be on my short of list heavily anticipated titles right up there with Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Onelastcontinue had an opportunity to talk to Wes Yanagi, Senior Producer at Sony Online Entertaintment at Gamescom 2009, go hands on with the game, and came away impressed despite the game still being in pre-alpha. Wes revealed several details on gameplay, character creation, and one big suprise: no subscription fee. From an interaction perspective, Yanagi stated he wanted it to be more action based in the vein of God of War than World of Warcraft. Character configuration continues to gain detail, but at the same time being true to the world of comics in regards to how abilities are represented. In building your character, you have 3 main areas to customize: Power: This defines your character?s main power. Ashram learned mimic skills like Connor Hawke, or telepathy like Saturn Girl? Source: This defines the source of your characters powers.

When the PS3 was launched Sony included support for what was called The Open Platform. The Open Platform supported the ability to launch a Linux bootloader via what was called the Other Os from the XMB. Although the Hypervisor (GameOS) prevented full access to the system components when the Linux OS made a hardware call (i.e. such as the Reality Synthesizer) , it did allow access to the Cell Broadband Engine and 7 of the 9 processing elements being made available for use (1 reserved for system use, 1 is disabled) which for the technology involved was unheard of at the price point. Over a relatively short period of time, the PS3 Linux side of things went from being a utilized as a secondary computer with various distributions being available, (such as YDL by Fixstars formerly Terra Soft Solutions being available at launch) to

Sony Ericsson announced the launch of its Extra Man campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. The campaign aims to deliver the ultimate football experience to all World Cup supporters across the globe, made possible due to Sony Ericsson’s unique position as Official Mobile Handset of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Reflective of how the media landscape has changed and new ways that people now consume their media, Sony Ericsson will ensure that handsets will be at the heart of the first social networking and media sharing World Cup. From now until June 2010, Sony Ericsson aims to reward all fans with exciting activities both before and during the 2010 FIFA World Cup enabling fans to create and share their own content. “Our aim is to provide all fans of the 2010 FIFA World Cup a rich and diverse experience including giving away tickets to 2010 FIFA World Cup matches. All of our marketing investment will be used to enhance and improve the fan experience as we believe this is an absolute priority. We will be working closely with our colleagues at Sony to make this happen and help fans realise their dreams,” said Stephan Croix, Head of Global Marketing Partnerships, Sony Ericsson. The centerpiece of the fan focused mission will be the launch in 2010 of a unique football application which will deliver the best football experience on a handset. This will provide fans with instant access to football action videos from the best action from the World Cup qualifiers and the friendly games in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, football news and games. Fans will also be able to share all their football moments directly with their friends using social networking site applications built into the handset. Launching today is the action-packed website – Extra Man – the home for all fan content needs, will host WorldCupedia, the world’s very first football focused search engine with content accessed through Kosmix. This impressive new application will arm fans with all the football knowledge they could ever need. The site will also let fans view highlights from FIFA World Cup qualifier matches, iconic moments from past tournaments and enjoy exclusive football content and football mobile downloads. From Canada to Australia, Russia to the UK, Sony Ericsson will ensure football followers can experience the very best moments of past FIFA World Cups at their fingertips. Sony Ericsson’s commitment to providing fans with exciting football focused activities has already seen the launch of the Golden Ticket promotion, which offers consumers, from France to Mexico, Taiwan to Australia a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to follow their team all the way at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. “We are in a unique position to provide fans with more ways to support their team, be heard and get involved. By listening to these fans, Sony Ericsson will be able to energize and innovate their experience, becoming the channel for fan-generated opinion and content on a global scale”, continued Croix. Sony Ericsson is the Official Mobile Handset of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which arose through Sony Corporation, as the Digital Life Partner of FIFA. Sony Ericsson agreed to sub-license the category from Sony Corporation and the agreement includes all FIFA events until 2010 including the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The Digital Life category includes mobile handsets as well as consumer electronics, professional and broadcast AV and other equipment, personal computers, movies, music and gaming. View the full article

Sony Ericsson has revealed the next phone in the XPERIA line naturally called XPERIA X2 (YouTube ). The specifications are an impressive upgrade from the first version, but many critics will wonder if this device can truly penetrate the market. Considering the XPERIA X1 never really had a carrier in the USA, and has had mediocre success worldwide, Sony Ericsson really has alot of weight on its shoulders to turn around. Sony needs the company to be successful to strengthen their portfolio and stop the critics from barking about dissolving the company. Can the XPERIA X2, along with the Satio, Aino and Yari, bring Sony Ericsson back to the forefront? It’s hard to tell, but let’s look at some specifications. With a 3.2 inch screen (65,536 color TFT LCD WVGA, 800×480 pixels), the new XPERIA X2 in Black or Silver with slide-out QWERTY keyboard will surely be a top-tier Windows Mobile 6.5 device when it debuts. It is interesting to see Sony Ericsson once again go with Windows Mobile, when the momentum going forward seems to reside with Android. I still think Windows Mobile is a great operating system but has definitely fallen behind in terms of overall presentation as of late. Other features include Wifi, and an impressive camera at 8.1 megapixels (16x digital zoom) with photo light, auto focus, geo tagging, image stabilization, touch focus, and video recording. Memory card support once again is for microSD and microSDHC (up to 16GB), keeping good on Sony’s part to embrace open formats and shed proprietary solutions. " />" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"> With 14 specially designed preloaded XPERIA panels and 16 more to download, users can work with no boundaries with the XPERIA X2. From Skype, Mytopia and Google, to games, CNN and Windows Live, the panels ensure users are up-to-date with what matters most to them. With an improved touch interface and new 3D signature panel users also benefit from flexible desktop panels designed to categorize business, fun and communication features. Just set favorites to appear during certain times of the day and can get the latest news in the morning, YouTube at lunchtime and games for the journey home. As for the music side of things, it is also fully featured with displayable album art, custom EQ, Windows Media Player/Sony Ericsson Media Player, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) and more. With Windows Mobile 3rd party applications, virtually any codec is supported. The XPERIA X2 comes with several accessories, including a stereo portable handsfree MH500, USB cable, TV out cable, and 4GB SanDisk microSD memory card. Those are thoughtful additions, but what is most interesting is the XPERIA Services, a bespoke and unique after sales package designed to help XPERIA X2 users get the most out of their mobile phone. With a specialized technical team standing by to support busy users and talk through the outstanding features the XPERIA X2 has to offer users can get help from troubleshooting to how to access their favorite websites. And if their XPERIA X2 stops working while they are abroad, XPERIA Services can replace the mobile phone via a simple phone call. Talk time GSM: Up to 10 hrs Standby time GSM: Up to 500 hrs Talk time UMTS: Up to 6hrs Standby time UMTS: Up to 640hrs! Music listening time: Up to 20hrs View the full article

At a recent business update meeting, Sony Ericsson showed the new Xperia Pureness, a simple design phone which brings together beautiful craftsmanship and the concept of “talk, text, time – a holiday from technology”. The Xperia Pureness will be officially launched in November 2009 through selected retail distribution channels in key cities around the world. The handset was shown to media attending an event to launch Sony Ericsson?s new brand direction where the company also confirmed its alignment under the Sony make.believe brand message. Xperia Pureness approaches the mobile phone as a work of art rather than technology. The company?s designers aimed to sculpt an object of design that reflected the purity of water and a sense of calmness when not in use. More details on Xperia Pureness will be available when the phone launches in November 2009. ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"> View the full article

Not many people are aware that the co-founder of the Sony Corporation, Akio Morita, was on the cover of Time Magazine. I was able to find a nice high resolution image of this cover, and also the full article to accompany it. Here is an excerpt from section 8 of 11 in Japan, Inc.: Winning the Most Important Battle, printed May. 10, 1971: “Son of a manufacturer of soy sauce and sake, Morita started out as an engineer. As a wartime navy lieutenant he was assigned to help an engineer named Masaru Ibuka develop a heat-seeking bomb. After the defeat, Ibuka opened a communications-equipment business in a Tokyo shed, and Morita joined him. The two begged and borrowed $500 to start Tokyo Telecommunications Co., later Sony. Ibuka, who was Mr. Inside, developed the products and became president; Morita, Mr. Outside, specialized in marketing and became executive vice president. Sony succeeded because its chiefs were among the first Japanese businessmen who did not copy Western products but used Western technology to develop new products of their own. Ibuka read about transistors and, in 1952, went to the U.S. to look at them. He became convinced that they could be used to make a radio. Morita visited the U.S. the next year and returned certain that the radios would sell fast in the U.S. He was amazed by the number of American radio stations and concluded that “everybody in the family will want to listen to his own program on his own radio.” The radios were an instant success abroad. A long string of Sony products followed: the first small transistorized TVs, the world’s smallest AM radio, even the video-tape cassette recorders used by U.S. astronauts on Apollo moon flights. Their development is a tribute to Ibuka’s inventiveness and Sony’s highly flexible operating methods. The company, says Morita, is not constricted by a formal research and development budget; it simply pours as much money as seems necessary into a promising idea. Sony’s top managers also frequently tear up the organization table, assigning people from throughout the company to work on what looks like the next hot new product.” Twenty-eight years later, Time Magazine would go on to name Akio Morita as one of the twenty most influential business leaders of the 20th century. View the full article

That will take some time, but it will come here as well. No ETA.

Here is the link TC is speaking of - Hi-MD Music Transfer for Mac Ver.2.0

The Equipment Browser is still and will always be hosted at Minidisc.org.

Licence To Kill Suite, The Ski Chase, and Kung Fu Fight Lets Go get Em - The James Bond Collection (40 Years Of Films)

I think that the technically savvy users of this forum will also enjoy this content. I don't think it's MD specific whatsoever! Another favorite "museum" site if you will is "The Vintage Knob," which is truly an outstanding resource for Home Hi-Fi and other audio memories of the past. http://www.thevintageknob.org/

The WM-Port is the closest Sony has ever been to a common connector between its MP3 players. I honestly believe that Sony would have been better off if they had went with the standard Mini-USB connector. They are starting to move back in that direction, I believe. I have been in the same situation myself in the past where it was troublesome to try and locate the appropriate cable for my NWZ-A808. Just until recently did I find my connector for the NW-HD1, a MP3 player I hadn't used in forever because of the missing cord.

The only headphones I use these days are the Logitech G35 gaming headphones for my PC, and the Sony DR-BT21G bluetooth headset with my iPhone.

The PCM-M10 is a sweet machine. We covered it before, here.