The War Is Over!

This post is excerpted from Terry White's Tech Blog if you're into tech gadgets, digital photography and all things Adobe, it's a must regular read.

It’s finally over! No, not that war. The High Def, format war has come to an end. Toshiba has announced that they will stop making HD-DVD players clearing the path for Sony with Blu-ray. The company held a press conference in Japan this morning, announcing that it will aim to stop shipping HD DVD products by the end of March 2008.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba president and CEO. So that's the official word. Now you can focus your attention clearly on Blu-ray and later in the year start outfitting your HDTV’s with Blu-ray players. At the moment the Sony Playstation 3 is still the best bet for a Blu-ray player. You not only get a good gaming machine, but you also get the only Blu-ray player that is upgradeble via firmware updates to the new Blu-ray features slated for release later in the year. Newer players could be released that are just as upgradeable, but if you’re looking to finally get on board with a Blu-ray player now, I would strongly suggest looking at the PS3.

2008 Sioux Empire Home Show

As usual Foss-AVI will be exhibiting our custom products at this years Home Show held at the Sioux Falls Convention Center from February 28th through March 2nd. This year we'll be featuring the concept of Distributed Audio & Video for the Home. Our featured products will be Runco Displays, Paradigm Speakers, Integra and Escient Electronics. If you're at the show be sure and stop by booth E-9. Look for the big overhead Foss-AVI banner. We hope to see you there.

LG press conference from the CES Show

A late posting from the CES Show. This slide show from CEPro Magazine is a press conference from LG. Foss-AVI has found the LG brand of Plasmas and LCDs to be very popular and reliable with our customers. Here's a link to the slide show.

Fun Stuff - The 8 Biggest TVs ever made

This entertaining bit of fluff comes to you courtesy of CEPro Magazine. Click on the link to view the show.

A slideshow guide to custom lifts for your display

The Ultimate guide to mounts and lifts from CEPro Magazine. Click on the link to view.

Toshiba Hints at moving to Blu-Ray

Excerpted from an article appearing in CEPro Magazine
By Jason Unger of CEPro Magazine
Filed in: News, Product News, Blu-ray/HD DVD

02.15.2008 — Toshiba is planning to abandon HD DVD in the next few weeks, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, which cites “reliable industry sources.”

The Hollywood Reporter quotes Toshiba’s Jodi Sally as saying that recent developments are shifting the company’s outlook.
“Given the market developments in the past month,” she is reported as saying, “Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players.”
The story also quotes an HD DVD source saying the move could come soon. “An announcement is coming soon,” the source is reported as saying. “It could be a matter of weeks.”
Toshiba isn’t commenting on the story, calling it “rumors and speculation.” So please, take it with a grain of salt until any official announcement is made.
Just this week, Netflix and Best Buy both announced that they will be supporting Blu-ray.
At CES, Toshiba said they were committed to HD DVD despite Warner Bros.’ decision to release its discs solely on Blu-ray starting this May.
Since the January event, both sides have announced incentives for buying hardware and software, with Toshiba cutting prices of players significantly.