Marantz is showing off its new BD8002 Blu-ray player. The company has described the Blu-ray player as “an-ultimate-quality reference standard High Definition source component,” which doesn’t make it sound all that sexy, although completely useful. The player is only available with profile 1.1 (so much for that “ultimate” label) so you can’t get the same experience as you could with a Profile 2.0 player, or BD-Live.

The player is the flagship model for the company and features 1080p HD video, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, HDMI 1.3a, DVD upscaling, and a SD memory card slot.

There’s still a market out there for DVD players and recently, Samsung has introduced the new DVD-H1080 which is a follow-up to the previously released DVD-F1080 player. Sporting a similar compact factor as the F1080, the H1080 is a great upgrade option for those who are thinking of replacing their old DVD player. If portability is what you’re looking for in a DVD player, then the H1080 has a small form factor that is almost the same diameter as a regular DVD disc. This player is light, weighing in at only 2 pounds.

Christmas is for the kids, right? Better get them crossed off the shopping list first. I checked out a few of the wish lists floating around and thought I would share them with you. Wouldn’t you know, they are filled with electronics. We have plenty of shopping days til the holidays. That is, unless your kids want Elmo Live, which is already selling out.

What are your kids asking Santa for? Keep reading to see.

Toshiba is releasing a new DVD player called the XD-E500 in Japan today. If you recall, Toshiba is one of the many companies who strongly opposed the Blu-ray disc format as a replacement to our old DVD’s. It was suggesting the HD DVD format as opposed to the Blu-ray disc but eventually lost over Sony. more »

Sony Europe has announced the DVP-NS708H upscaling DVD player. Touting this new DVD player as a perfect complement to BRAVIA LCD TV or any other HD Ready TV, the DVP-NSH708H transforms your standard definition DVDs into a better 1080p at 1920×1080 maximum full HD resolution, which suits perfectly for viewing in a larger TV screen more »