If you are like me and have watched countless movies in your lifetime, you have definitely asked yourself these questions, “Where have I seen this actor before?”, “What is this actors name?”; while watching a movie. Thankfully, Gracenote has come to our rescue and provided a solution that should satisfy all our curiosity and help us answer those annoying questions. Powered by Gracenote’s metadata service, a chip equipped within our Blu-ray Players will provide us with endless amounts of information regarding actors and musicians. And we do not even have to pause our movie.

Sony, which owns Gracenote, have equipped their recent players with this technology. And will continue to do so on their upcoming Blu-ray Players. The BDP-S380, BDP-S480, BDP-S580 and BDP-S780 Blu-ray models will have Video Explore, MusicID and VideoID browsing features. Gracenote will not be limited to Sony players, it is working with LG to include VideoID and MusicID in both the BD670 and BD690 Blu-ray models. The Sony and LG players should be released sometime early in 2011.

Video Explore

Gracenote’s recognition technology is used with Video Explore. Some may be familiar with this because of MovieIQ, which is found on some Sony Blu-ray Discs and uses a similar technology. Gracenote, of course, was responsible for MovieIQ. Video Explore will have the unique ability to provide users with content that is not found on the Blu-ray disc. You can look at it as adding more extra features to your movie. This is great since not all discs come packed with bonus material.

What Video Explore actual does is sort through over 40 unique content attributes of thousands of motion pictures. Everything from production crew notes, keywords, cast members, cover art, biographies, score, songs, art production, studios, genre and language. Once all the content is filtered and sorted, it can provide you with all kinds of relevant data; including such things as the directors next project or still images from the film being watched.

If this is not sufficient, you can explore even further. Find out the directors motivation for making the film, how he was influenced in his career or get movie trivia on the film and the actors involved. However you use Video Explore, it will expand your viewing experience. Giving you more information and media, beyond the scope of the content found on the movie disc.

VideoID and MusicID

The VideoID and MusicID features are like Video Explore, in that you can access information outside of a particular Blu-ray. You can get the entire discography of a musician or filmography of an actor. By just pressing a few remote buttons you can access an actors biography and all the motion pictures and Television shows he or she has appeared. There is even an option to purchase movies. VideoID, through Gracenote’s Global Media Database, can give you information regarding these movies such as cast members, cover art, directors and synopsis.

MusicID will tell you the music playing in the film or TV show. And like VideoID, you get more information by just pressing a few remote buttons. You can access information about the musician such as their biography and discography, what album the song is from, and let you make a purchase.

Gracenote’s Global Media Database is a welcome feature to players. Proving us with instant information on the movies we are viewing. Letting us search selected internet apps, including YouTube

Specifications: Like any other electronic gadgets, many have so many bells and whistles that we will barely use. On top of that, we are charged for those features that we did not ask for in the first place. This is also true when it comes to Blu-ray players as many in the market today come with way to many features.

Introducing the Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray player, one of the first budget and no-frills Blu-ray player in the market. This model comes with built-in decoders for DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD sound formats. It comes with a HDMI output, a composite video output a component video output and a SPDIF output. It also has a SD memory card slot.

Design: The Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray player has a mostly glossy black front where most of the controls are located. It measures at 17.2 x 12 x 2.4 inches and weighs in at 6.6 lbs. There is nothing fancy about its design, which may be a good thing as it will blend well into any home AV system.

Features & Performance:The Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray player is extremely easy to use, which is a blessing for many not-so-tech-savvy consumers. It is literally a plug and play device where it is ready to use almost immediately after the power socket and the connector is plugged in. The picture quality of the Blu-ray movies were excellent, and it also up-converted DVD movies really well (better than some more expensive models out there). The only issue is the load time for Blu-ray movies that averages about 30 seconds for every movie. So long as the video playback is excellent, I have no qualms over that. Due to a low price tag, simple feature set, and good video quality, the Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray player looks set to stay on top of the bestseller’s charts for the next few months. Currently, it retails for around d $160 each, making it one of the cheapest Blu-ray model in the market.

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Tim Pecunia – Find real reviews on the latest and coolest electronic gadgets here!

Blu Ray is the latest high definition video technology that over took HD-DVD as the standard for high definition movies, video and players. With the invention of Blu Ray disks comes not only comes superb picture quality, but also a new durability and longer life span of the disks themselves not before seen with DVD disks and movies. Another benefit is that these disks can store a much larger amount of data and video than the traditional DVD-R and DVD-RW disks. Up to 25GB of data on a single layer disk and up to 50GB of data on a dual layer disk and over 9 hours of high-definition video on a 50GB disc.

Choosing a Blu Ray player will mostly depend on your personal budget as their prices range from budget models to very expensive high performance types.

For those shopping for the best Blu-ray disc players and know that price is not a limitation, then there are several quality brands to choose from on the market. The problem is that most consumers do not know how to compare one Blu-ray with another. As far as image goes, most of today’s brands offer the same high-definition picture quality and really just differ in the features of each player.

When shopping for a Blu-ray player, there are two new features to look for when choosing a brand. The first is called Bonus View and lets you play back picture-in-picture content, which allows for a second video and audio stream.

The second feature to look for is called BD-live which supports Internet-connected activities such as social networking and interactive gaming as long as there is an Ethernet connection to the player.

If a more traditional unit is your preference, then the Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD is more your speed. This top shelf Blu-ray player runs around 800 dollars and comes with the same features as other brands. Where the Pioneer Elite tops other systems is in its audio features. If you pair the Elite with its manufacturer’s recommended AV receivers, you will have a premium home entertainment experience like no other Blu-ray disc player on the market.

If you are looking for something cheaper without sacrificing quality, then the LG BD300 is the player for you. With most systems starting at below 300 dollars, these lightweight Blu-ray players offer the same picture quality as most units on the market while also offering the ability to stream Netflix videos right into your home.

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JR Lang – I am a computer applications specialist, successful Internet Marketer, Webmaster and Blogger. I love niche marketing and blogging is my passion. I enjoy traveling and …