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Bourne Triology hitting Blu-ray Disc in January 2009
Bourne is already a proven winner in high-def, so it's no shock at all to see that Universal Studios Home Entertainment is finally bringing the acclaimed trilogy to Blu-ray. The only real surprise is the release date; rather than squeezing it in before the holiday break, Universal's hoping to grab a small chunk of your grandma money in late January. The three pack, which will obviously include The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, will not only include hours of bonus materials including deleted scenes, interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes and commentaries, but it'll also take advantage of BD-Live. The disc will grant access to the studio's BD-Live Center, where fans can then "download even more bonus content, share their favorite scenes with buddies, and engage in a BD-exclusive strategy game that pits users against each other in hand-to-hand combat simulation." Too bad the MSRP is set at $119.98, but you've got until January 27, 2009 to get enough couch change together.[Via Blu-ray, thanks Anthony]
Japanese anime studio Production Reed opens Blu-ray doors
Thanks to prohibitive licensing fees and all sorts of other ridiculous hurdles, the amount of anime studios making the leap to Blu remains incredibly small. Thankfully, Japanese studio Production Reed has ponied up the cash and courage to take the dive, officially opening up a Blu-ray website and announcing a few forthcoming titles for the format. The firm's first two offerings on BD will be Magical Princess Minky Momo and Dancougar: Super Beast Machine God box sets, with the first landing on January 23, 2009 and the latter arriving December 19, 2008. As much as we'd love to see this mark the beginning of a trend, we still have our doubts -- but then again, if BD adoption keeps heading up in Japan, we suppose anything could happen.[Via ActiveAnime]
The Photo Archival Company offers Blu-ray archival solution for camcorder footage
For camcorder owners with mind enough to know what Blu-ray is (and own at least a Blu-ray player), yet not enough time / knowledge to bother archiving your footage onto the format, The Photo Archival Company is ready and willing to take your dough. The archiving outfit has formally introduced a solution that involves placing old (albeit valued) content on USB hard drives, camcorder tapes, etc. onto Blu-ray Discs for safe keeping, though there's no mention of just how costly this convenience will end up being. But no, it won't be cheap.[Thanks, Anthony]
Napoleon Dynamite finally hitting Blu-ray in February: flippin' sweet
It was bound to happen, and while wildly speculating was fun, we can now finally mark our calendars. The appropriately christened "sleeper hit of 2004" is all lined up for a Blu-ray release, and it'll arrive not a moment too soon. The film will be presented in 1080p / AVC MPEG-4 with a lossless 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio track (not to mention French / Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks on the side). There's no date set in stone just yet, but "February" at $34.95 (MSRP) is close enough... gosh!
Walmart downsizing shelf space for music CDs, giving more to Blu-ray
Remember the days of watching big box retailers like a hawk to see if more shelf space was being given to Blu-ray or HD DVD? Yeah, epic times. Now, however, a new report is suggesting that Walmart may be giving more of its packaged media space to Blu-ray Discs rather than music CDs. The reason? A 23% decline in CD sales during the first four weeks of Q4. According to Richard Greenfield, analyst with Pali Capital, he believes that Wally World is "increasing its exposure to consumer electronics, video games and Blu-ray, and reducing floor space devoted to CDs and standard DVDs." Furthermore, it's bruited that John Fleming, chief marketing officer with Walmart, insinuated that "electronics would be getting space expansion in stores due to the decline in physical packaged media." We'll be keeping an eye out to see if we spot any shifts in our local Walmart stores -- won't you do the same?[Image courtesy of TeamSugar]
Poll: Are your new James Bond Blu-ray Discs acting up?
We've been hearing of complications surrounding playback of the new suite of 007 Blu-ray classics since last week, but we suspected the issues were contained. Apparently we were badly mistaken. A week later, we're still hearing reports that players from nearly every manufacturer are having one issue or another, with no real rhyme / reason as to what's going on. It seems as though deck manufacturers are aware of the issues and are working towards a solution, but we're just curious to see how many of you are experiencing problems. Are your new Bond discs causing headaches, or is everything humming along nicely?[Via CDFreaks, thanks Anthony] %Poll-21844%
Pioneer finds 20-layer 500GB Blu-ray Disc "feasible"
Now here's a rate of progress we could get used to. Nary a month after Pioneer trumpeted a 400GB Blu-ray Disc, out pops another press release from the firm boasting about a 500 gigger with a score of layers. Based on research at its Tokyo headquarters, specifications have been drafted for an incredibly capacious 500GB BD. Granted, this very company already had plans for a 500GB optical disc nearly four years ago, but there's no time like the present to make this stuff a reality, right?[Via TrustedReviews, thanks xdragon]
Sony ups the investment in Blu-ray
Talk about a war chest! Coming off the Blu-ray win in the format war, Sony has announced plans to invest more than $100 million in its Terre Haute, IN plant. The facility is used for Blu-ray disc production, and Sony is budgeting for at least 65 more workers, $101 million in new equipment and $7.4 million in property improvements. The plant is mostly staffed by hourly workers, but Sony plans on 15 of those 65 positions to be salaried. The old adage about "spending money to make money" is true, and at this point we're not going to bother with asking whether the money was freed up from the format war or not. All we ask is that the increased Blu-ray disc production capacity helps move titles from the Sony archive to store shelves!
Philips launches BDP7200 BonusView-enabled Blu-ray player
Philips has announced the second generation in its line of Blu-ray players with the BDP7200, sporting 1080p/24 and Deep Color support, and BonusView (aka Profile 1.1) picture-in-picture capability. The player can also upscale DVDs to 1080p, and control connected devices using the EasyLink HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) protocols. Philips will release the BDP7200 in April for a $349 price, putting it towards the low end on the Blu-ray player price list, but the one thing we wish Philips had let us know was the level of audio codec support, with no mention at all of DTS or Dolby's high-end audio formats.[Update: Also see our hands-on with the BDP7200.]Click on for a couple more photos
Panasonic to bundle Blu-ray players with plasmas at $500 discount -- 2 new players in January
Although coy with any detail, Panasonic just put the industry on notice with its Blu-ray plans for the US. In a move to double its Stateside market share, Panny will begin bundling Blu-ray players with their plasma TVs next week. The move specifically targets Circuit City and Best Buy among other big-box retailers and "may" result in a discount. This according to Masayuki Kozuka, a general manager in charge of the company's storage device strategy. We'll take that as a confirmed discount. After all, without a price drop, why bother -- it's not like profile 1.1 support will be the cause for that huge upsurge in sales. A Panasonic spokesman also said that they would release two new "higher-end" (read: more expensive) Blu-ray players in January. We'll likely hear more on that little nugget at CES.Update: Well, here you have it: Best Buy's offering a $500 discount off their 50- or 42-inch plasmas when purchasing the DMP-BD30K.[Thanks, Travis]
Pioneer, Mitsubishi develop LTH BD-R discs
While the HD DVD camp is busy with its 51GB disc, the Blu-ray side has a new creature of its own to talk about. Co-developed by Pioneer and Mitsubishi, the LTH (Low to High) BD-R reportedly utilizes an "organic dye recording layer," and is said to be a recognized format within the Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format v1.2 standard. Additionally, the two companies boast that this disc won't require "large-scale plant investments" to manufacture, which is music to the ears of anyone who enjoys lower costs. Regrettably, it sounds like existing Blu-ray drives won't play nice with the LTH BD-Rs as-is, but here's to hoping that firmware updates could fix that. Click on for a shot of a prototype drive gettin' cozy with one of the new discs.[Via CDRInfo]
Daewoo shows off Blu-ray Profile 2 player at IFA
Straight from IFA 2007 in Berlin comes Daewoo's surprise entry into the Blu-ray camp with the company's first player, the DBP-1000. Interestingly, even though Daewoo is probably more well-known for their Trutech ODM devices -- or even their autos -- this player supposedly supports the full 2.0 Profile for Blu-ray Disc, including BD Live internet functionality, picture-in-picture, and local storage. Pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but it won't be soon enough for Blu-ray fans to see players with that interactive functionality built-in like competing HD DVD players have. Another picture after the jump.
Pioneer's BDP-LX80 Blu-ray player supports HD audio bitstream output
Pioneer just announced that Blu-ray Disc player with "HD audio bitstream output" they alluded to with the launch of their BDP-LX70. In what appears to be an industry first for BD players, the new BDP-LX80 supports bitstream output of both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD high resolution audio output over HDMI 1.3. Sorry, no DTS-HD Master Audio this time. Still, a worthy update from the LX70 assuming your home theater gear is properly matched to decode that signal. Something you'll want to check, and double-check, before dropping the tax inclusive roll of ¥210,000 or about $1,768. We could be wrong, but the move from the LX70 to LX80 appears to be a firmware change only so why all the fuss with a new model Pioneer? If true, then don't be surprised to find a hacked version of the firmware for the LX70 on the Internets soon enough. No word on a global launch -- Japan-only for now with a local release scheduled for October.[Via Impress]
Hitachi's DZ-BD70 and 30GB DZ-BD7H hybrid Blu-ray camcorders: global in October
In case you didn't believe 'em the first time, Hitachi is back with more, much more, on the world's first Blu-ray Disc camcorder. First off, we're looking at an August 30th launch in Japan (rest of world, October) of two models: the DZ-BD70 and DZ-BD7H hybrid which packs both an 8-cm BD writer and 30GB disk are priced at ¥160,000 (about $1,347) and ¥190,000 (about $1,600), respectively. As we heard, each packs a 5.3 megapixel CMOS sensor delivering 2.07 megapixel videos or 4.32 megapixel stills. That translates to about an hour of 1,920 x 1,080 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video on a single-sided, single-layer 8-cm BD disc or 4 hours to disk -- more if you dial-back the resolution. Both feature HDMI and Firewire USB 2.0 jacks while the hybrid packs a convenient one-touch dubbing function to share your vids with all those gaming grannys with Blu-ray players of their own.%Gallery-5430%[Via Akihabara News, thanks MB] Read -- Press Release Read -- DZ-BD7H / DZ-BD70
Hitachi's world's first Blu-ray camcorders coming this year
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Meet the Blu-ray video cameras from Hitachi. Sure, at this point they're just non-functional mock-ups, but later in the year we can expect to see a series of camcorders featuring Hitachi's new 8cm BD/DVD drive bundled with a biggie, 5.3 megapixel CMOS sensor capable of recording at full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. In fact, Hitachi claims that their Wooo-branded camcorders could be introduced as early as Fall. The cams would record up to 7GB of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video on 8cm BD-RE/R media or 5 times less on 8cm DVD-RAM/RW/R discs. Uh, Hoozah? Picture of the actual drive mechanism after the break.[Via Impress]
Sharp's BD-HP20S: a (cheap?) no-nonsense Blu-ray Disc player
Somebody, somewhere has to get their hyperbole under control when calling this Sharp's "first" Blu-ray player. Fact is, we've already seen the Sharp BD-MPC70, BD-HD1000, BD-MPC10, BD-HP1 (hint: BD = Blu-ray Disc) devices. Now if what they mean is that it only plays Blu-ray discs (no recorder, no receiver, etc), well, why even bother? Regardless, their new BD-HP20S is expected to ship in the fall and features HDMI 1.3 output in support of Dolby TrueHD's raw bitstream form. It will also feature a "Quick Start" option which plays newly inserted discs in just seconds. As a stand-alone player, we do expect it to be Sharp's cheapest -- now that's noteworthy. [Via Blu-ray.com, thanks Dave]
Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player now less than a PS3
Prices on next-gen optical HD players continue to plummet today with Sony's announced price drop on their new BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player. At $499 list, it's now priced for $100 less than the Playstation 3 which currently reigns supreme as the cheapest (and noisiest) BD player on the market. In fact, the move might even cannibalize PS3 sales now that BD buffs have a cheaper source for HDMI 1.3 playback from a unit offering a traditional remote control and A/V stylings. It's still $100 $200 or so more than Toshiba's cheapest HD DVD player which recently shed a Benjamin in time for Father's Day. But hey Sony, Toshiba... it's not the price that's holding back interest. It's the uncertainty you've created by launching two essentially equal but incompatible formats onto the world of consumer electronics. If you don't get your houses in order soon, your problems won't be with each other. Rather, it'll be be those traditional and not-so-traditional CE players offering set top boxes with big disks and HD video on demand that form the roots of your demise.
Sharp readies world's smallest blue laser for BD and HD DVD
Sharp -- the company behind the world's largest LCD panel -- just introduced the world's smallest blue laser for next current generation optical players. Right, as in Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats -- your choice OEMs. Measuring just 3.3-mm in diameter, the GH04020A4G semiconductor will be available in ¥12,000 ($99) sample quantities starting June 13th before ramping up for mass production later in July. The device will suck 10mW from your laptop's battery while offering at least 10,000 hours of operation before giving up the ghost. [Via Impress]
Newest AACS circumvented: The Matrix Trilogy set free
Just in case you didn't already piece it together, many (if not all) of the new HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles set for release on May 22nd will feature the latest revisions to AACS. Right, the update hinted at by those forced user updates to the WinDVD and PowerDVD software. Yeah, well no worries... it's cracked. That's right, a week before the disks have even hit the shops, the kids over at Slysoft have already released AnyDVD HD 6.1.5.1 (beta) which kicks AACS MKB v3 swiftly to the curb. Thus you can continue to rip all your newly purchased HD DVD and BD flicks for playback any damn way you like. The update has already been demonstrated to work with an early-shipped release of The Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD and will likely work for Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest when it arrives on Blu-ray. Come on AACS LA, you're gonna have to at least try. Better yet, why not just give up this silly charade.[Thanks, Garth M.]
AACS patch for WinDVD, HD DVD and BD players: update or never watch movies again
In case DRM hasn't caused you -- the honest consumer -- enough pain already. Check it, you've got some required software updating to do now that Corel has introduced a patch to their cracked InterVideo WinDVD software. Best do it pronto too. According to Corel, "failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled." That means no more hi-def movies for you, Mr. assumed criminal. Thing is, this is no ordinary patch since WinDVD exposed the hardware specific device key to video pirates. So not only are you required to update their janky WinDVD software, you also have to track down and install the paticular AACS patch for the HD DVD or BD player you own. Of course this only patches one flaw in the massively compromised DRM boondoggle. And just think, you can repeat the whole process again after hackers circumvent this latest attempt at "content protection." Isn't DRM nice?[Via Impress]
