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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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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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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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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.
