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Blu-ray movie releases for the week of Sept. 16th
It looks like Sony and the rest of the Blu-ray crew are ensuring our feelings aren't still hurt from that fiasco a few weeks ago as we're getting 13 titles to choose from this week. Troy: Director's Cut Smallville: The Complete Sixth Season Alexander Revisted: The Final Cut A Few Good Men The Condemned We Are Marshall Deliverance House of 1000 Corpses Viva Las Vegas The Best of Blu-ray, Vol. 1 The Best of Blu-ray, Vol. 2 The Best of Blu-ray, Vol. 3 Jailhouse Rock Not only does this week's releases feature a great assortment of movies any guy would love, it also includes three volumes of The Best of Blu-ray, which feature four classic movies in each set. What really makes these collections great, though, is the incredible savings you get. Each set is currently on sale at $58 at Amazon - that's like getting two movies free!
Consoles make up bulk of high-def movie player sales
There are more game systems that can play high-definition movies than standalone players that can do the same, according to sales numbers culled from recent media reports.In the HD DVD realm, a Microsoft representative told CNet UK that the company had sold 155,000 units of the Xbox 360's HD DVD player in the States, making it the best-selling add-on in the system's short history. Compare that to the 100,000 standalone players that the HD DVD Promotional Group said had sold through April and you can see that it's primarily gamers driving adoption of the format.The results are similar in the Blu-Ray realm, where the million-plus PS3s sold in North America dwarfs the "less than 100,000" standalone players sold according to a Business Week article. It's unclear exactly how many PS3 owners are actually using their systems to play the high-def movie format, but strong Blu-ray disc sales would seem to indicate that at least some of them are taking advantage of the feature.What's more, the sales of high-def discs seem to finally be making a dent in the traditional DVD market. Sales of standard-definition DVDs were down eight percent in the first quarter of this year and analysts predict they'll begin to level off as more high-def game systems are sold.Read - HD DVD Posse: "There's Room for Both Formats" (CNet UK) [Via Xbox360Fanboy]Read - In DVD war, body blows for Toshiba (BusinessWeek)
Amazon offers up to 43% off select Blu-ray titles
More good news for high-def fans. The discounts on Blu-ray titles just keep on coming. Amazon announced plans to offer up to 43% on select Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles, starting today. After discount, titles like The Terminator, Species and King Arthur: (Director's Cut) can be had for as little as $16.99. New entries to Blu-ray format are apparently also being sliced with deep discounts. Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut and Deja Vu were released on Blu-ray less than two months ago and are at $17.99 and $21.49 respectively, after discount. With savings like these, it'll be easier on the wallet to start rebuilding that high-def Blu-ray library.
Hi-def video podcasts for Apple TV
Earlier today, The Washington Post announced the release of hi-def video podcasts, specially formatted for the Apple TV [iTunes link]. They're encoded at 720p, and include some of their most popular writers. The Washington Post is the first news outlet to specifically target the Apple TV, and their Managing Editor of Multimedia had this to say on Tuesday:"High-definition is the future of video; we have moved beyond standard definition to provide viewers with a higher standard. We knew we needed to evolve past web video to remain a relevant, innovative news source."We agree! Afterall, isn't this the year of HD? Oh wait, that was 2005.[Via MacDailyNews]
Sony officially announces $600 BDP-S300 Blu-ray player
That sound you just heard? It was silence -- the silence of thousands of BDP-S1 Blu-ray players sitting unsold on warehouse shelves, gathering dust and wondering why they did to deserve the wrath of the dreaded Osborne Effect. Because unless retailers do some serious price shaving off of the first-gen machines, Sony's official promise today of a cheaper, smaller, and more functional box landing this summer will likely convince all but the most impatient consumers to drop the S1 right off their radar. On the plus side, those of us who haven't yet picked sides in the "format war" will be treated to a much more attractive product in the BDP-S300, from its CD friendliness and Bravia Theater Sync to bonuses like AVC-HD support for playback of conent that employs x.v.Color (Sony's version of the wide color space xvYCC technology). Keep reading to check out the remote that comes paired with the S300, then forward this post to your buddies who blew $1000 on its lonely predecessor.
Video: the rumored Xbox 360 v2
Yesterday we showed you a photo of the rumored Xbox 360 v2 that should be coming down the pipelines soon. It'll supposedly have an HDMI port, and feature a 120GB drive in it, making it well worth it, particularly if it is priced the same as the current consoles. Now we have video of the system in question (codenamed Zephyr), and if you ask us it looks fairly real. Of course, as sister-site Xbox 360 Fanboy points out, the Linux penguin in the shot makes us very suspicious. Plus that plug/adapter setup at the rear of the 360 looks fairly nasty. Normally when people mod consoles they add things like Christmas tree lights, liquid-cooling, and a built-in popcorn popper. Which doesn't mean that this thing is real, but so far we're still buying it, and we'll really be buying it when it hits a store near us. HDMI and a much bigger hard drive? Yes, please.
HDTV buyers want games, movies, not TV shows
Canada's MarketNews Daily has the scoop on a Frank Magid Associates report which says only 47 percent of this year's HDTV buyers have any intention of watching high-definition TV programming on their new sets, down from 63 percent last year. According to the article, many HDTV buyers are "perfectly content using their HD set simply for DVD and video game playback."Why aren't many people watching TV on their HDTVs? Confusion about subscription models and network support is partly to blame -- 40 percent of survey respondents could only name one HD-capable TV network. This is in stark contrast to console makers who are taking pains to tout the superiority of their box's high-def capabilities.Despite the lack of interest in high-def TV programming, 46 percent of respondents who are planning on buying a TV in the next year reported being at least "somewhat likely" to go the HD route. Which is to say it looks like HD adoption is finally poised to take off. Maybe someone should tell Nintendo.
Third-party Wii component cables for under $7
It's really sort of bizarre when you think about it. The saga of the Wii component cables has been a long and storied one: first, they were rumored to be online-only; then Perrin Kaplan confirmed they'd be hitting retail; then they showed up online and were promised in stores by December 5th; they sold out within a day and retail dates were pushed back; finally, frustrated with the lack of an official solution, resourceful gamers made their own. The saga may come to an early end with the release of Blaze's $6.71 third-party component cables, shipping from Hong Kong on the 30th (we know, more waiting!) from online retailer Superufo.com. Until we can easily pick up a pair of Wii component cables, either online or at brick-and-mortar joints, this saga is still playing out.[Via Engadget]
Xbox Live Video Marketplace is live, $6 HD rentals [update 1]
Happy birthday Xbox 360! For your first birthday, daddy got you something really cool ... downloadable movies and television shows! While the PS3 Blu-ray marketing machine is busy selling folks high-def movies on little discs, Microsoft decided to forgo the discs and just sling the bits straight into your 'box. They already spilled the beans on this one a couple weeks ago, and we even picked Microsoft's Scott Henson's brain on it, but there was still one thing they wouldn't dish on: the price. Prices are broken down into six categories: new release movie rentals, classic rentals, and television purchases, with high-def and standard-def offerings in each. New releases 720p HD movies -- 480 MS Points ($6) 480p SD movies -- 320 MS Points ($4) "Classic" feature film 720p HD movies -- 360 MS Points ($4.50) 480p SD movies -- 240 MS Points ($3) Television purchase 720p HD television -- 240 MS Points ($3) 480p SD television -- 160 MS Points ($2) So far they've got 48 movies and 50 TV shows broken down between 2 movie studios and 12 television networks. We're surprised Universal, who're supporting the HD-DVD and Zune platforms in a big way, didn't climb on board for the initial launch but we're certain there's a warehouse full of lawyers working to get more content partnerships established. Pics of the service after the break.[Update: Video of the service added after the break]
Blu-ray will beat HD-DVD, says Forrester (again)
Last year around this time Forrester Research predicted that Blu-ray would triumph over HD-DVD. They reiterated that opinion (paid access only) on Thursday, noting that Blu-ray will win because it's got:
