Gizmodo: disc

Star Trek Season 1 on Blu-ray is the Best Way to Watch

Jason Chen — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:40:00 EDT

This Blu-ray release of Star Trek: Season 1 is the best way to watch the original Star Trek if you haven't seen any episodes, ever. It's also great even if you have.

Here's what's new: they cleaned up the video so it looks nice in 1080p, and they added slightly improved special effects like the 3D models of planets when the Enterprise is in orbit. They might have made smaller touchups here and there, but you probably wouldn't notice unless you watched the "enhanced" and "original" versions back to back (both are included on each disc).

What they didn't—and couldn't—change was the goofiness of the original series. Not to get into actually critiquing the show, but it's very much a product of the '60s. It's dark, psychedelic and all the guest stars and red shirts are creepy beyond belief. But that's the point. It's Star Trek. You know what you're getting into, and this is the best way to watch the original series today. If you just caught the movie and want to see what the hell's going on in the original take, this is the way to go.

It is slightly expensive, at $65, but hardcore TOS fans will be old enough by now to spend that much on lunch.

When are they releasing TNG on Blu-ray? [Amazon]

Sanwa CD-RE1AT Puts Shine Back on Scuffed-Up CDs, Automagically

Kit Eaton — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:17:00 EDT

CDs and DVDs tend not to last long in my house... but since I just fling them in a pile in the cupboard, that's entirely my fault. The Sanwa CD-RE1AT might be just the ticket, though: it works on 8cm or 12cm CDs, DVDs and BDs. With a push of a button it removes dust, fingerprints and "oily spots" from discs, and with the "repair" button it solves skipping problems and coats the discs with a protective layer, without grinding. Available now for $79. If only it found missing CD case inserts too, it'd be perfect. [Akihabaranews]

Delkin Archival Gold Blu-Ray Discs Keep Your Data Good for Two Centuries

Kit Eaton — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Manufacturers are powering up on their Blu-ray disc development, now the format war's over: just two weeks ago we had the 6x speed ones, and now Delkin has these archive-quality discs. According to Delkin they're the first BDs "guaranteed to preserve data safely for over 200 years" and they use some sort of patented phase-change tech to make the discs resistant to UV degradation. They're also 25GB, 4x speed burnable and have an anti-scratch coating. You're only going to want to preserve really important stuff on them though: a ten-pack will cost you $250. Now, to find a Blu-ray player that'll last two centuries... [Reghardware]

Microsoft Offering Disc Replacements For Scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition

Jason Chen — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:42:19 EDT

If your Halo 3 Limited Edition discs are scratched—like ours were—you can get a replacement disc by filling out a form and sending your disc back to Microsoft. Of course, this will take up to two weeks for delivery—not counting the time it takes for your disc to get to Microsoft—which may be too long to go without your Halo fix. Either way, it's free until 12/31/07. [Xbox - Thanks Joseph M!]

Microsoft Offering Vista-to-XP Downgrade Option to Anyone, Not Just OEMs

blongo3 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:14:25 EDT

While many sites today are claiming that MS is only offering Vista-to-XP downgrade discs to OEMs, CNet Asia found out that Microsoft support will allow anybody with a copy of Vista Ultimate or Business to call and request a downgrade disc themselves, just like it says in the license terms. So there you have it, any Joe Schmo can pick up a Vista downgrade disc as long as they have a nice enough version of Vista. [CNet]

Talking CD Cases From Pre>Vu

msparkes — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:21:32 EDT

These talking CD cases allow you to record a 60-second message, which can be played back to your heart's content. There's plenty of applications for this, like annoying marketing material, and, um... annoying marketing material.

It was invented by Morag Hutcheon, in order to allow people to listen to 60 seconds of an album before buying it. However, this doesn't seem like it would work because you could only hear part of one track, and record stores would be a mess of noise, with all the clips blurring into one. [Pre>Vu]

Spinning Disc CD Player Cuts Like a Saw

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:31:58 EST

If you're still not quite enamored with online music stores like iTunes and prefer to get your music in hard copy format, here's a ridiculous CD player design. Called The Spinning Disc, this player simulates an electric table saw with your CD, which means you're getting a visual as well as an audio show. Kinda.

They come with two other wooden walnut speakers, and have only three buttons for playback control. Just a design for now, these would have to overcome some design constraints before actually being produced. Constraints such as the CD snapping into thousands of pieces if you accidentally bump into it. – Jason Chen

Spinning Disc [Idealist]

Toshiba Creates Three-Layered Disc

Charlie White — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:20:22 EDT

Toshiba has been tinkering with the HD DVD and DVD disc formats, putting together a hybrid format with three layers that contain both formats. The DVD section will be playable on conventional DVD players, and with a firmware update, standard HD DVD players can play both formats.

So it looks like we'll be seeing either a single-layer 4.7GB DVD along with a dual layer 30GB HD DVD, or conversely, a dual-layer 8.5GB DVD and a single-layer 15GB HD DVD, all together on one disc. One more layer, lots more content.

This idea could add more capacity to those already-existing single-layer hybrid discs, where a movie is offered on DVD for use today and also includes a high-def HD DVD copy on the same disc for those who think someday they may be suckered into buying an HD DVD player. However, this is at cross purposes with movie studios, who prefer the idea of selling the same content over and over. – Charlie White

Toshiba Hybrid DVD and HD DVD [Akihabara News]