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Samsung's BD-P1500 Blu-ray player in stock, in the wild

by Darren Murph, posted May 13th 2008 at 4:59PM


Remember that April June release date that Samsung just threw out not even a month ago for its twice-delayed BD-P1500? Yeah, apparently that's not entirely accurate. A few shots here prove that the firm's latest BD-Live-ready Blu-ray deck is indeed hitting at least some store shelves already, with this particular one being spotted in a San Diego Wal-Mart. Better still, the price was pegged at $348, or a full $51 less than the published MSRP. In other words, keep a sharp eye out for this puppy -- it's probably worth the extra $50 over the Funai NB500.

[Thanks, Rob]

Kino International going Blu-ray exclusive

by Darren Murph, posted May 12th 2008 at 9:31PM


A little late, sure, but Kino International has finally decided to join everyone else and go Blu-ray exclusive. Reportedly, the foreign film distributor has become the latest indie to bid HD DVD a fond farewell and focus its future support on BD. We haven't seen a definitive launch date for its first Blu-ray title (which is likely to be Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels), but word on the street has it launching sometime this fall. We're also told that Kino has "a number of [other] Blu-ray releases in the works," but it seems that we'll have to wait things out before discovering which titles it's referencing.

Funai's NB500 Blu-ray player sliding into Wal-Mart for $298

by Darren Murph, posted May 12th 2008 at 1:30PM


It's funny, in a sad sort of way -- in January of this year, we reckoned that a no-name Profile 1.1 player hitting in Q2 at $300 would seem grossly overpriced. Sadly, it still seems like a fairly decent deal. As BD players refuse to fall in price, Funai's NB500 (which is being spotted in Magnavox and Sylvania attire) has found its way into a number of Wal-Marts. Judging by the picture snapped above, you can bring home the somewhat outdated deck for a mere $298. Unfortunately, we aren't entirely sure how the unit performs, but if anyone's man / woman enough to take the leap and check it out, please toss out your impressions in comments below.

[Thanks, Fernando]

Blu-ray releases on May 13th, 2008

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted May 12th 2008 at 12:04PM

Narnia Blu-rayWe must have missed the memo that this was catalog week for Blu-ray titles, but hey at least we have some solid catalog titles to choose from. Some people don't think it's worth it to replace a perfectly good DVD with a Blu-ray disc, while others feel it's like enjoying the movie for the first time all over again. Either way, Disney hopes that the biggest title this week, The Chronicles of Narnia, will get you primed up for the sequel due out in theaters this Summer. Fox is the other studio releasing a few big guns from its vault, as the stellar eye and ear candy Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World is finally available on the big Blu format. Next week looks to be more exciting, as Paramount joins the gang with a few sought after titles, as well as officially making its back catalog Blu titles available. And finally, Warner is finally going Blu with V for Vendetta and Disney breaks out the Nic Cage collection.

Blu-ray 532*

Blu-ray
* Blu-ray total does not reflect 32 Paramount titles that were previously officially available.

Dreamer's Biddle makes Blu-ray players a way around your cable company?

by Richard Lawler, posted May 11th 2008 at 6:24AM


While most are just dipping their toe into the BD-Live pond so far, Dreamer is thinking bigger. With its middleware Biddle software (based on the same DVB-GEM spec as OCAP, and also available to cable operators) included on a Blu-ray disc, the company claims its ready to deliver an "interactive TV service" consisting of VOD, web browsing, e-mail, social networking access or nearly anything else you can imagine. The upshot is that any internet-connected PS3 (or any other BD-Live capable hardware on the way). By downloading only what's necessary at the moment, the client overcomes the Blu-ray program size restriction and delivers what customers have already come to expect from leading Korean IPTV and cable companies using the software in their STBs. The first titles with the software included are planned with KD Media this month in Korea, but the company is still showing its software off to domestic providers, with an eye towards hopping on expected $299 Blu-ray players (not yet) and into American homes.

[Via Multichannel News]

Panasonic delivers SC-BT100 Blu-ray HTIB

by Steven Kim, posted May 10th 2008 at 8:35PM

Panasonic SC-BT100 Blu-ray HTIB
The Blu-ray equipped SC-BT100 HTIB system Panasonic showed onstage at their CES press conference is set for US release in the same "spring" timeframe as the DMP-BD50 standalone Blu-ray player. HTIB systems are all about convenience, so rest assured that Panasonic threw in some niceties for your other gear: iPod dock, an SD card slot and AVCHD support for your videos shot (hopefully) with a Panasonic video camera. If the 5.1-channels you get out of the box aren't enough, you can add one additional pair of speakers with an optional transceiver unit. All in all, it looks like a pretty good HTIB system: 5-disc changer, Blu-ray final standard (1.1), DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD and 5.1 channels (with wireless surrounds) for $1000. We would advise, however, you take the 250-Watt power rating with a grain of salt.

Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending May 4th, 2008

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted May 9th 2008 at 10:00PM



We said that Home Media Magazine gave up on HD DVD last week, but really there was still one chart left on the Nielsen VideoScan chart. This week even that one is gone and replaced with another consumer index on consumer spending, but this time for DVD. This makes it evident that while Blu-ray sales were down by 23% last week, DVD was only down by 5%. This helps explain why Blu-ray only managed a 5% share as compared to 6% week before. Again, this week 8 out of the top 20 DVD titles are not also available on Blu-ray, including two from long time Blu studios; Fox and Disney. The other big difference that is every evident this week is the movie demographic of each. While DVD fans ran to 27 Dresses and pushed it to number one, the opposite is true on Blu where The Golden Compass outsold the chick flick by almost 3:1. I Am Legend continues to have long legs and still separates itself from the rest of the list even after seven weeks. Looking forward to next week, it doesn't look like Blu will do very well with the biggest titles not being very appealing to Blu's apparent demographic, but things should change once all the studios are on board in the next month or so.

Sony releases v3.90 firmware for BDP-S300 Blu-ray player

by Darren Murph, posted May 8th 2008 at 5:23PM


Heads-up, BDP-S300 owners -- Sony has just unleashed a new firmware update for your machine. Posted today, the v3.90 update will bring you, well, we're not exactly sure what. According to users at AVSForum, the general consensus is that TrueHD support just has to be in there, but Sony's servers are so glacially slow that no one has been able to confirm or deny just yet. Once your download manages to complete (hey, it takes awhile when it's being uploaded from what appears to be a 14.4k modem connection), feel free to discuss any notable changes in comments below.

[Via AVSForum, thanks Peter]

Criterion Collection coming to Blu-ray in October

by Richard Lawler, posted May 7th 2008 at 10:26PM Breaking News

The Criterion Collection's long-awaited HD debut -- delayed by that annoying format war -- finally has a date, as well as a list of the first movies getting a definitive release in 1080p. If that wasn't enough, try this bit on for size: They won't charge viewers extra for the privilege. That's right, according to the e-mail that went out to subscribers today, all Blu-ray releases will feature HD picture and sound (no word on what codecs, although we expect nothing but the best considering the company has been mastering and restoring all releases in HD for years now), all the supplemental content and a matching (unspecified) price to their standard DVD editions. The complete email and list of a dozen movies follows after the break, along with a note that The Last Emperor will also be released in its original theatrical version on both formats for $39.95, while Walkabout will be an all-new edition.

[Thanks, Erik]

Continue reading Criterion Collection coming to Blu-ray in October

Entire Paramount Blu-ray catalog is back by the end of May

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted May 7th 2008 at 7:25PM

Mission Impossible 3 Blu-rayWhen Paramount makes a decision it really gets behind it, and just as quickly as Paramount titles disappeared from store shelves back in August, they'll all re-appear in the next few weeks. With the initial Paramount Blu-ray re-commitment just a few weeks ago, we learned that 8 of the 32 previously releases titles would be available on May 20th, and now the studio has confirmed that the entire Blu-ray back catalog will be available by the end of May. The titles will be true reissues and identical to the original release -- so if you didn't like the first one, you won't like these either. We're sure plenty of recent Blu-ray adopters are happy to get their hands on titles like Mission Impossible trilogy and The Italian Job, but we'd be more excited to see some of the more recent Paramount releases go Blu, like say, Transformers. But hey, at least we can finally get rid of that annoying asterisks on our weekly releases post.

Pioneer KURO and friends hands-on

by Paul Miller, posted May 7th 2008 at 4:07PM Featured Story


We got to plant our eyeballs on Pioneer's second-gen KURO plasma display (bottom center), along with all that other new gear Pioneer released today. While all by its lonesome the new flagship display is no doubt impressive, when stacked up against the competition it becomes quite clear that this new KURO is the one to beat. Granted, this was Pioneer's own setup designed to make us believe precisely that, but we certainly did find the new display notably blacker than its predecessor, and quite a lot better than the competing offerings Pioneer had on display. The new KURO projector was also quite impressive, and we even got treated to the much-improved start times of Pioneer's new Blu-ray players.

Gallery: Pioneer KURO and friends hands-on

Pioneer introduces Elite BDP-05FD / BDP-51FD Blu-ray players

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted May 7th 2008 at 9:00AM Breaking News

BDP-51FD
While most consumer electronics companies choose to unveil new products at CES, Pioneer prefers to buck the trend and pick a day that it can keep all to itself. The other trend Pioneer isn't following with these new players is BD-Live, as neither the new Elite Blu-ray player nor the outfit's first non-Elite player features the latest interactive features. Instead, it's choosing to focus on picture and sound quality, as both Summer-bound decks will internally decode every next-gen multi-channel lossless codec (DTS-HD with firmware update) or bitstream any of them to your AVR. The other new focus is speed, as Pioneer seems confident that both players will be some of the fastest in the industry, boasting 15-second eject from off times and 22-second disc load times. The BDP-51FD will set you back $599 -- almost half as much as Pioneer's previous model -- while the Elite BDP-05FD will demand $799. The latter will net you a longer warranty, gold connectors, a superior video decoder, nicer fit / finish and an upgraded front face plate complete with capacitance touch keys. If you're the type that prefers quality and could care less about interactive features, either unit will likely satisfy -- otherwise, we'd keep hunting. Full release after the break.

Continue reading Pioneer introduces Elite BDP-05FD / BDP-51FD Blu-ray players

Neil Young's entire music archive to be released on Blu-ray

by Darren Murph, posted May 6th 2008 at 11:08PM


Sun Microsystems's pledge to aid the widespread development of interactive content on Blu-ray wasn't the only thing going down today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco. Rather surprisingly, famed musician Neil Young announced plans to "release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs that can be updated over the internet." Reportedly, the first installment of Young's archive will cover 1963 to 1972 and will be released as a ten-disc set this fall on Reprise / Warner Bros. Records, and subsequent archives will be released chronologically and "include some previously unreleased songs, videos, handwritten manuscripts and other memorabilia." Stressing Blu-ray interactivity, it was also noted that fans could download more songs, photos and tour information via their internet-connected decks. Needless to say, we're pretty stoked about the whole ordeal, and can only hope that more artists follow suit in serving up their work via Blu-ray.

[Thanks, JDS]

Sun Microsystems announces support for BDLive.com, aims to promote development of interactivity

by Darren Murph, posted May 6th 2008 at 8:00PM


Today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems professed its love for BDLive.com and the availability of the BDLive.com developers disc. Put simply, Sun -- a proud member of the Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors -- has teamed up with Related Content Database Inc. in order to create said website and offer devs, BD content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers "advanced network services focused on improving the overall BD Live user experience." Essentially, the web portal weds Sun's network.com infrastructure and RCDb's recently announced BD Live Platform to "enable the quick creation of device-appropriate features that provide a user-friendly DVD-like experience." If you're eager to know more, click on past the break.

Continue reading Sun Microsystems announces support for BDLive.com, aims to promote development of interactivity

Panasonic's DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets US release

by Steven Kim, posted May 6th 2008 at 3:08PM

Panasonic DMP-BD50
If you're looking for a standalone Blu-ray player that hits all the checkmarks, make room for the Panasonic DMP-BD50 on your list. After being teased with this unit at CES, only to see it go to European consumers first, it's finally official in the US of A. BD-Live support gets tops billing in the press release, so rest assured that once the floodgates of internet-enabled additional content are opened, you'll be ready to surf. Considerably more usable right now, the next-gen Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio codecs (also with in-player decoding) are there as well. Good stuff, but the $700 MSRP is little extreme for what amounts to an internet-enabled disc spinner, and won't exactly be invigorating those struggling Blu-ray player sales.

[Thanks, Mike S]




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