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Six major Hollywood studios and six leading consumer electronics manufacturers are extending the highly successful 5 FREE BLU-RAY MOVIES promotion through the busy holiday season, when consumer purchase interest in high definition is expected to be at a record high. Consumers who purchase any qualifying Blu-ray player, including PLAYSTATION3, between October 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008, will be able to choose five free Blu-ray movies from among 18 titles offered by the six participating studios.If you'd like to read more about the BDA's promotion, their entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The program is intended to encourage consumers to join the millions of high-definition households who are now experiencing Blu-ray Disc. This exciting promotion will be supported with a significant ad spend - more than double that of the summer wave - including major online, gaming, men’s lifestyle, entertainment and business outlets.
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Today, Universal Studios Home Entertainment raised the bar on HD DVD’s unique web-enabled experiences by unveiling an Internet infrastructure that allows it to take advantage of the guaranteed Internet connection in every HD DVD player and deliver compelling, title specific features. Heroes: Season 1 on HD DVD was the first title to take advantage of web-enabled capabilities, but with the forthcoming availability of Evan Almighty on HD DVD, Universal is setting the stage for new home entertainment experiences with web-enabled features such as the Download Center, U-Shop, and much more. Taking advantage of the infinite possibilities of web-enabled experiences, Universal is utilizing HD DVD to explore the promise of digitally distributed scenarios and infusing movie content with e-commerce and social media capabilities.While I can't see myself buying anything through my HD DVD player, the ability to download exclusive content is definitely a nice feature. If you'd like to read more Universal's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
“HD DVD provides a consistent platform that allows us to go beyond DVD to deliver the best possible next generation HD experiences and begins to introduce consumers to the infinite potential of web-enabled content,” said Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms. “With our web-enabled features, we wanted to deliver capabilities that compliment the HD movie watching experience while also offering a destination online that gives users the opportunity to dive deeper into their favorite movies and TV shows. We’ve just begun to explore HD DVD’s potential and this infrastructure lays the foundation for us to easily evolve with consumer preferences.”
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After initially turning a cold shoulder to China, the Blu-ray Disc Assn. is warming up to Chinese OEMs and consumers, BDA spokesman and Pioneer Electronics senior VP Andy Parsons tells Content Agenda.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The BDA has begun formal evaluation of AVS (Advanced Video System), a Chinese-developed video codec, and DRA (Digital Rise Audio), a Chinese audio format, for possible inclusion in Blu-ray players made and sold in China.
The decision to evaluate the codecs was announced at a press conference held in Beijing on Sept. 28.
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Sony DADC today announced theproduction of its 10 millionth 50 Gigabyte Blu-ray Disc (BD50). Sony DADCmanufactures BD50s in its three plants, located in Terre Haute, Indiana;Salzburg, Austria; and Shizuoka, Japan. The ten millionth BD50 wasmanufactured at Sony DADC's Terre Haute facility, and was "Spider-Man(TM)3" from Columbia Pictures.The press release also points out that Sony DADC is seeing a yields of about 85% for 25GB Blu-ray Discs and between 75% and 79% for 50GB Blu-ray Discs. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
Since the launch of this High Definition format, Sony DADC has producedmore than 50 million Blu-ray Discs in its three plants, In addition, thesethree plants have a combined Blu-ray manufacturing capacity of 21 milliondiscs per month.
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While Panasonic has not announced how much their Blu-ray Disc recorders will be, AV Watch expects them to cost anywhere from 180,000 Yen ($1,554US) to 300,000 Yen ($2,590US), depending on the model. If you'd like to read more, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The new recorders can store up to 18 hours of full HD video onto a 50 gigabyte (GB) double-layer Blu-ray Disc or up to 381 hours of full HD videos onto a 1 terabyte (TB) built-in hard disk drive (HDD). In terms of BS digital HD broadcasts, the new recorders can record four times more than previous MPEG-2 TS recorders (DR mode). In addition to video, the new DIGAs can record 5.1 channel surround sound broadcasts without deterioration in sound quality or surround effects.
Panasonic accomplished these achievements through innovative technologies including the new generation UniPhier system LSI based on the 45-nm process technology. A single chip supports real-time encoding of full HD videos. Additionally, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 High Profile HD video compression technology contributed to the significant increase in HD video recording hours. Panasonic also drew from the advanced technology cultivated by its Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory (PHL) that offers BD-ROM authoring service to major Hollywood movie studios.
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If you were looking forward to get the new Samsung BDP-2400, I have bad news for you; I just received word that Samsung has canceled all plans to release their upcoming high-end Blu-ray Disc player. All orders for the player have been canceled, and the model will not be brought to the market.Wesleytech.com also reports that Samsung has pushed back the BD-UP5000 until December which means that it will meet the BD 1.1 spec. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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New Medium Enterprises(NME) (OTCBB: NMEN), provider of the revolutionary new high definition HD VMD(Versatile Multilayer Disc) disc technology solution, announces its worldwide commercial launch this October-November, into the North American, European, Asian and Oceana regional markets. NME is positioning its new HD VMD format as the most practical and cost-effective solution in the HD market by giving consumers what they have been craving -- an affordable, full HD Player and DVD up-scaler with superior image playback. HD VMD also has a growing list of over 100 blockbuster Hollywood and Bollywood film titles which will come available through its network of distributors in those markets. Players and films will be available in soon to-be-announced mainstream retail outlets across each region, as well as accessible online through Amazon.com, PC Rush.com and NME's e-commerce Web store from mid October.It's going to be interesting to see if HD VMD can compete with Blu-ray and HD DVD. Honestly, without the backing of at least one major Hollywood studio, I don't see it going very far in the US market. If you'd like to read more, NME's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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While Sharp has not announced how much their Blu-ray Disc recorders will be, AV Watch expects the BD-HDW20 and BD-HDW15 to cost 300,000 Yen ($2,600US) and 200,000 Yen ($1,733US) respectively. If you'd like to read more, Sharp's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Sharp Corporation will introduce into the Japanese market two new AQUOS Blu-ray Disc Recorders: the BD-HDW20 featuring a hard drive with a 1-TB (terabyte) capacity, the industry's largest, and the BD-HDW15 with a 500-GB hard drive. Both models reflect Sharp's consistent focus on true full HD image quality and are capable of recording and playing back digital HDTV data exactly as broadcast.
In designing these AQUOS Blu-ray Disc Recorders, Sharp placed emphasis on faithfully reproducing high-resolution video images from digital broadcasts and Blu-ray discs on the AQUOS LCD TV. They are equipped with hard drives from 500 GB to 1 TB in capacity, and also support dubbing (moving) video from the hard drive to BD-RE or BD-R discs. HDTV programs recorded on the hard disk can be dubbed (moved) to Blu-ray discs while retaining exactly the same image quality as broadcast, enabling users to easily create an HDTV library.
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Sales of next-generation DVD players are not seen as likely to take off for another 18 months as consumers are still waiting for prices to fall and for the battle over two competing technologies to be resolved.The report also states that Blu-ray will eventually win out over HD DVD. However, the Blu-ray camp will need to cut prices to do so. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Referring to the high-definition DVD format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Forrester Research said in a report on Monday that while the two camps have "been fighting what seems to be a war of attrition for consumers' hearts and minds," few consumers are warming to either type of device.
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Among those who currently own HDTVs, half (52 percent) are familiar with the availability of high-definition DVD players, but only 11 percent expressed strong intentions to buy one in the next six months. Seventy-three percent of HDTV owners reported that their current traditional-format DVD player still works well for them, so they do not need to replace it; while 62 percent said they are waiting for the prices of high-definition players to fall.One important point to take from this survey is that most consumers are happy with standard DVD's and aren't ready to buy a high-def player yet. As NPD points out, manufacturers and studios need to do a better job explaining the benefits of these formats, if they want consumers to go high-def. If you'd like to read more, NPD's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
According to NPD, consumers' knowledge of the HD DVD format is more prevalent than for the Blu-ray Disc format. While 29 percent of respondents were aware of HD DVD, just 20 percent had heard of Blu-ray Disc. Consumers who purchased a Blu-ray Disc player reported that they did so because they believed it was superior to HD DVD; while those who purchased an HD DVD player did so because the price was lower than a Blu-ray Disc player.
