Usually when we review drives we focus mainly on the recording quality, and media quality scans. However in the case of Pioneer DVR-215 it quickly became obvious that it wasn’t the most interesting way to go, as it seems to deliver identical results in terms of recording quality than the recently reviewed Pioneer DVR-115D. This being the case, we decided to take a different angle to this “review” and study the impact of the different connection methods of these two drives. Consumers today have one more selection to make when they are purchasing DVD recordable drives: Whether to choose a SATA (Serial ATA) or a PATA (Parallel ATA) connected drive. Even thought the benefits gained by using a SATA connection seem quite obvious and significant, there is more than one side to this story.

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The mkv2vob is a real Swiss Army knife of video conversion for the Sony PlayStation 3. It is a front-end application for a number of audio and video conversion tools that automates the process of converting Matroska .MKV files into a PS3 compatible format. Unlike tsMuxer, which we have covered in our two recent guides (here and here), the mkv2vob does not require the source file to contain audio and video streams be particular format. In case the audio and video streams are of suitable format, the mkv2vob will just remux the .MKV file into .m2ts, .vob or .mpg file that PS3 can succesfully play. On the other hand if the streams need to transcoded for PS3 the mkv2vob performs these tasks automatically. Read on to learn how to use this excellent tool and get ready to watch high definition content on your PS3 console!

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This article is a sequel to our previous guide, which explained how to convert .MKV files to .m2ts for PlayStation 3 playback. Absolute novices are recommended to read it before continuing with this one, as we intentionally leave out some basics covered in the previous guide.

This time we show you how to convert .MKV (Matroska) files into Blu-ray or AVCHD format. The AVCHD is a fairly new format introduced by Sony and Panasonic mainly for video camera recording, but the PlayStation 3 has native support for this format. Most likely some Blu-ray players also support, or will support the AVCHD format. Generally the AVCHD is nothing new - it is basically a Blu-ray file structure and content recorded on a regular DVD media. The media capacity is lower than with Blu-ray, so the quality is not as good but still AVCHD can store high definition 720p movies on a single DVD-R.

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Besides gaming, the Sony PlayStation 3 is an excellent device for high definition video playback. Besides Blu-ray disc playback support, the PS3 can also play high definition video files, which can be downloaded from the Internet. The most common HD video file format is currently the Matroska (.MKV) file format, which the PS3 does not currently support. The .MKV files however in many cases contain AVC encoded video with AC3 audio, which are PS3 supported formats. In order to play the files a simple process of converting the .MKV files to .m2ts files must be performed, but with the free tsMuxeR software this is very simple to achieve and takes only a few minutes.

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After quite a bit of consideration, I finally decided to order myself a PlayStation 3, the 40GB model. Unfortunately I had to send it back for replacement or repairs, as the unit I received was obviously faulty. Interestingly, I am not the only European customer that has bought a faulty PS3 40GB unit. Read on to learn more about it, and my first impressions on the king of consoles.

I bought my device from Germany, as there seemed to be the best deals avaiable for us Europeans. The German starter pack came with two wireless controllers, and two games: Uncharted - Drake’s Fortune and Need For Speed: Pro Street. Overall a very nice pack to get you going.

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Pioneer Electronics just sent out an interesting announcement regarding their Blu-ray BD-ROM / DVD-RW combo drive. According to their press release, the BDC-S02 combo drive can now be purchased for less than €150 or £100 in Europe. While it is still somewhat more expensive than a plain DVD-RW drive, the price range of Blu-ray equipment is getting more and more appealing for the average consumer. Obviously the Blu-ray camp is now in a big hurry to push the format main stream, before any potential alternatives for high definition media delivery appear on the market - and we are not talking about optical disc formats, but download based solutions, solid state technology and so on. Read more »

Yet another proof that no copy protection is unbeatable, which again makes one wonder why do they put so much money and effort in developing them. Usually the protections get cracked and the one to beat the protection gets famous, like Jon Lech Johanssen aka ‘DVD Jon’, who craked the CSS protection used on DVDs. The story with BD+ is different, since this time the crackers have a pure commericial interest. Yes indeed, it is show-time once again for the Antiguan SlySoft, Inc., who make business by selling protection decyphering software for individuals. They have today sent out the following press-release about their new AnyDVD v6.4.0.0 software, which is able to bypass the BD+ protection with ease. Their press-release is interesting in many ways, as their CEO Giancarlo Bettini couldn’t resist the urge to touch the topic of HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war. I am not sure what are his interests in making this statement, as it really makes no sense - AnyDVD may be a popular software, but it is certainly not a deciding factor on any market.

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One great thing about Linux is the furious 6 month development cycle that most major distributions use. That’s right, no matter if you use Ubuntu, Mandriva or Fedora you will get a fresh bleeding edge version of the operating system twice a year. The fresh releases have loads of bugs on the release date, then they are maturized for a few months and once the projects get the stability up, it is time to install or upgrade to the next bleeding edge version. Unfortunately there are also distributions that do not offer this excitement. One of these distributions is the PCLinuxOS, usually abbreviated as PCLOS.

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The momentum is high for the PlayStation 3. Price reductions brought the console quite close to Xbox 360, the game line-up is constantly improving and the Linux capabilities makes it a versatile platform with many uses. The most important factor however is the ending of the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war. The Blu-ray is now de facto disc format for high definition video, which makes the overall offering of the PS3 simply better than the Xbox has. The home AV media and consumers have also recognized the fact that the PlayStation 3 is an excellent video source - many people have bought it just for the video capabilities, not for gaming.

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Most people are familiar with the AVI videos and the term DivX is widely popularized, but when they come across a video file with a .MKV extension, there seem to be a lot of confusion. The purpose of this article is to clear these confusions and problems and give you clear instructions how to play MKV files.

The extension .MKV stands for MatrosKa Video. It has also an audio variant .MKA, which derives from MatrosKa Audio. Matroska files are container files, and for the end user they are very similar to .AVI files. Just like .AVI files, the .MKV files can contain different types of audio and video.

Most commonly .MKV files are used for distributing High Definition video encoded with x264, which is free AVC/h.264 implementation. Read on to learn how to use and play .MKV files!

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