When Sony introduced its classically-styled BDP-S350 Blu-ray player in late February, all we knew was that the $400 machine would land sometime this summer. Now, we're seeing a pre-order page (on Toys R Us, admittedly) that pegs the ship date at July 15th. Yeah, a fortnight from now. The price remains unchanged at $399.99, but at least you'll find Profile 2.0 compatibility as well as bitstream support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, right? Okay, now that it's a date, who's buying (and more importantly, who's not?)

[Thanks, Rahul]

Call us crazy, but it seems that CyberLink has been patting itself on the back quite frequently. Shortly after announcing that its PowerDVD software was certified for DTS-HD Master Audio playback, it's now trumpeting two more certifications: Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) and AVCREC. These additions assure users that any connected material on BD-Live-enabled titles will play back just fine in PowerDVD, and the AVCREC approval enables it to "play back the recording of high-definition video onto DVD recordable discs using the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) format." Per usual, owners of PowerDVD 7 or prior will need to fork out some cash for the upgrade, while PowerDVD 8 owners can nab the update gratis.

That sound you hear off in the distance is the BD-Live bandwagon gaining steam, and the latest studio to hop on board is Sony. Shortly after Universal, Disney and Warner Bros. announced their BD-Live plans, along comes Sony to do the same. Reportedly, Rich Marty, Sony's VP of new business development, has affirmed that all new Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases that hit store shelves after Men In Black will have at least some level of BD-Live interactivity wrapped in, though no specifics about what to expect were given. Marty did note that the studio has seen "a great response so far," with some 1 in 5 BD-Live movie buyers taking the time to activate and explore the feature. Not that we necessarily agree that 20-percent represents a "great response," but we can't argue with more interactive content for the minority demanding it.

Considering that Disney just made headlines with its decision to go BD-Live on a few notable releases, it's no real surprise to see Warner Bros. following suit. At the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, the studio's president of Technical Operations Darcy Antonellis asserted that it was "looking to launch web-enabled Blu-ray titles with BD-Live as early as the winter holidays." He elaborated by specifically mentioning "real-time viewing, library tools, a search engine, a recommendation tool with e-mail reminders, ringtones and wallpapers." Unfortunately, nary a clue was given as to what titles would be sporting what features, but it can't go and just reveal everything ahead of time, right?

The Blu-ray fans at Hollywood in High Def took their videocams with them to a Disney Sleeping Beauty event and have come back with a nice preview video of the BD-Live features planned for the title. The Disney BD-Live Network demo highlights Movie Chat instant messaging, Movie Mail for sharing video content and online interactive gaming that can be used to collect Disney Reward points. It's pretty good-looking stuff, and definitely leaves us with a better impression than, say, Yakuza Fighter. The Movie Mail demo came off as a little creepy to us, but that has to do with the content rather than the tech. The big question is, how many profile 2.0 players (besides the PS3) will be on the market when the title ships on October 7? The marketing folks from Disney had something to say about that -- hit the video after the jump to check it out.

[Via HollywoodInHighDef]

As Disney gets its digital strategy together, one feature to look forward to is BD-Live on every Blu-ray release going forward. ABC, Touchstone and Miramax flicks are exempt from the requirement, but that doesn't mean you won't see BD-Live titles there eventually. Sleeping Beauty will get things started, but look for Disney to highlight networked features in its Blu-ray mall tour and try to sell families on why they should even bother with networked features. Tinker Bell is the next movie up to get the BD-Live treatment, plus future Pixar releases like WALL-E. Unfortunately for online Disney Channel fans Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds and the Jonas Brothers' Camp Rock will not have BD-Live capability, but we'll be waiting to see where Disney goes next with the technology.

Looking forward to a future full of cheaper, slimmer BD-Live compatible Blu-ray players? Say hello to Panasonic's 3rd generation UniPhier processor, which it claims is the first single chip processor designed to handle picture-in-picture and all other necessary Profile 2.0 features. DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD, DivX 1080p, Ethernet controller, laser control, graphics engine, it's all in there. Built on a 45nm process the chip size has shrunk 50% from the previous generation, which should contribute to higher yields and lower prices. Sample shipments start in June, so while it don't expect to see it, at least initially, in the DMP-BD50, this should contribute to significant cost savings in future models. Maybe one day they'll even cost less than a similarly-featured PlayStation 3.

[Via AV Watch & Akihabara News]

BD-Live offerings to date have been pretty tame, but Disney's got a few tricks up its sleeve for the first release in its Platinum Edition series, Sleeping Beauty. Blu-ray owners with compatible hardware will be able to chat with friends during the movie using a laptop, BlackBerry or other PDA, make video messages and send them to others, play trivia games, and earn points used to trade in for ringtones, wallpaper or other items. From the moment the disc hits the tray, the iconic castle will feature a backdrop sync'd with weather conditions in the viewer's hometown. As noted in USA Today some owners of Blu-ray players sans-internet will miss out, but with a street date of October 7, there's still time to grab a PS3 or one of the compatible standalone boxes coming on the market. Customer desire for next gen networked features hasn't always been incredibly enthusiastic, but we suspect once the 'tween group gets into this (and High School Musical 3 hits Blu-ray) things could change.

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]

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]

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.

ABI Research has just confirmed feelings that we've had for months: Blu-ray just isn't going to dominate the market until prices sink down from the stratosphere and players emerge that are fully-featured. A new study from the previously mentioned firm has suggested that we still have "12 to 18 months" before the BD market really kicks into gear, and it specifies that "fully-featured" decks need to come in at $200 or below before the general public will consider coughing up the cash required to make the jump to high-definition media. It's also noted that many are perfectly satisfied with the quality of DVD, and until prices make it manageable to switch, the outfit feels that huge chunks of consumers will simply stay put. Additionally, we're told that PS3s will "make up over 85-percent of the BD players in the field" during 2008, and we won't see Sony's console fall from the top until 2013 when the installed base of standalone decks / PC-based BD players overtake the installed base of PlayStation 3s. Yeah, you're hearing echoes on that last tidbit.

[Image courtesy of LA Times]

We can't really see the logic in releasing a Blu-ray player without BD-Live in 2008 -- and neither can Samsung, which just announced its fourth generation BD-P1500 will be BD-Live Ready. The bad news is the May release date announced earlier has slipped to June, and the formerly comfortable $399 MSRP is now a less promising TBA. We're not sure if that "ready" tag means it will be BD-Live enabled out of the gate, however DTS-HD "High resolution" is confirmed on the way in a future firmware update. A slight delay for a significant upgrade in features? We'll allow it.

Update: Samsung let us know the press release was in error, the MSRP will remain at $399.

Just in case the studios didn't have enough development tools to kick out BD-Live discs, Related Content Database (RCDb) is making sure at least one other viable option is available. The firm's BD Live Platform, which is already being used by Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, promises to "save studios time and money in crafting advanced bonus features." Of course, the obvious result from this would be more BD-Live-enabled flicks hitting the shelves, but only time will tell if that will in fact be the case. Nevertheless, this software enables devs to "use a set of simplified encoding instructions to craft various interactive extras," which is obviously much easier than coding each project from scratch. Still, if the first few titles are any indication, we'd say a bit of effort should be allocated to improving user experiences before worrying over quantity.

[Via Video Business]

As promised, Universal has gone slightly more in-depth about its new plans as a Blu-ray studio. A few titles to expect among the 40 due in the second half of this year that we didn't mention previously are the studio's big summer releases The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II, Mamma Mia and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Home Entertainment division Craig Kornblau has moved on from his red past and appears set to embrace BD-Live, although there weren't any specific plans announced. Otherwise, The Hollywood Reporter says we can expect 29 international Blu-ray releases from Universal, led by the global debut of Heroes seasons one and two.