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PC Magazine's Lance Ulanoff attended a Sony event and unlocked a secret. Here is his account:


Sony celebrated a decade of VAIO innovation at the way-out-of-the-way Guest House club in NYC last night. It was your typical self-congratulatory fest, replete with speeches, large posters lauding early product development (of the first purple VAIO and the ultra thin 505 laptop) and even a huge, 70-pound VAIO laptop cake (left). I tried some and the faux magnesium chassis tasted like tin foil—blech.

There were, of course, some more recent vintage products on display like the Sony VAIO XL2 Digital Living System but the true stars of last night's event were Blu-ray, a new Blu-ray VAIO (the AR) and a near-pocket-sized "Micro PC," the VAIO UX. The gorgeous, 17-inch laptop not only has a Blu-ray player, but the drive can even burn Blu-ray discs—a true first.

On one table Sony execs proudly displayed two ARs playing early Blu-ray content: The House of Flying Daggers (below). They even had the Blu-ray packaging. So exciting...but WAIT! I went ahead and ejected one of the Blu-ray drives to see my first Blu-ray disc. Instead, I found a crummy, old school DVD+R, complete with the Sharpie-written, House of Flying Daggers. Apparently even Sony can't get its hands on Blu-ray content!

WRXWagon2112 wrote:F*CK DISCS, WE'RE SONY!!

--Alan

The premium model comes bundled with one of the first Blu-ray Disc (BD) movies, House of Flying Daggers, which Sony showed side-by-side tonight, along with the DVD version. Contrary to what some have said, the difference in quality is instantly noticeable, and according to Sony, it is even more apparent on movies shot in HD (which HoFD apparently wasn't). AR190G comes bundled with an HDMI cable and an HDMI-to-DVI-D adapter so you can take full advantage of BD movies on your HDTV.