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Cheaper Blu-ray? Sony, Panasonic, and Philips say it's coming, honestly

by Ross Miller posted Feb 25th 2009 at 3:37PM

Look, we don't really "get" people who aren't willing to buy the latest and greatest thing regardless of the price and / or current economic state, but evidently there's a rather large sector still clinging to their antiquated DVD format. Blu-ray proponents Panasonic, Philips, and Sony are looking to change all that by knocking down the tab a few notches. The trio has revealed plans to form a single licensing firm for Blu-ray, which they anticipate will lower the cost of the license -- and therefore the retail price -- by "at least" 40 percent. They expect it'll amount to $9.50 for read-only BD player, $14 for a burner, 11 cents for read-only discs, 12 cents for BD-Rs, and 15 cents for BD-RE rewritable discs. In its current form, hopeful BD makers have to seek out each company individually. The group also hopes a single licensing entity will help them spot unauthorized BD devices, so watch out, suspicious mom and pop Blu-ray stores.

Studios, CE firms bankroll $25 million Tru Blu ad campaign

by Darren Murph posted Nov 7th 2008 at 6:45PM


The stakes are high for Blu-ray this holiday season. As we've stated before, it's the first such season where it's not competing directly with HD DVD, and coincidentally enough, also the first in which it is competing (at least to a small degree) with HD streaming. To that end, a number of studios and consumer electronics outfits have agreed to fund a $25 million marketing campaign dubbed Tru Blu, which involves airing persuasive commercials on channels that "attract heavily male audiences." With Blu-ray deck prices expected to reach the $150 area come Black Friday, we'd say BD still has a good chance of being successful this winter, but it's going to need every ounce of gusto it can muster.

SIM2, Dolby showcase 46-inch HDR display prototype

by Darren Murph posted Mar 31st 2008 at 11:11PM


Well, would you take a look at that. Right on cue, Dolby and SIM2 are collaboratively showcasing a 46-inch 1080p display built around the former firm's high dynamic range technology. The HDR-enabled LCD HDTV boasts 1,836 LED-based backlight units (designed / developed by SIM2), a full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, brightness level greater than 4,000 cd/m2, an "infinite" contrast ratio, 16-bits of luminance and a Xilinx Virtex field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) chipset. Additionally, the prototype employs a design created by Giorgio Revoldini, and while we can't imagine hearing of a release date anytime soon, the two firms aren't wasting any time putting the new set on a world tour to presumably wow onlookers. Hey SED, you taking notes here?

Buena Vista reveals plans for 50GB Blu-ray movies

by Richard Lawler posted Oct 23rd 2006 at 5:47PM

Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment added to its enhanced winter Blu-ray release slate today, as Invincible and Pearl Harbor were joined by Touchstone Pictures' Enemy of the State and Flightplan. The company revealed the latter three will all be on dual-layer 50GB discs, as Buena Vista joined Warner, Fox and Paramount in announcing plans for the much-delayed discs this winter. Invincible will include a Blu-ray exclusive HD extra, "Recreating the Vet", while the three others mirror their DVD counterparts, plus an exclusive "Blu-ray Showcase". Flightplan will also add a Blu-scape short "Jet Stream". The two Disney movies are due December 19th, while Enemy of the State and Flightplan will still be released November 21. We're not sure what took them so long, but the Blu-ray camp is obviously trying to make 50GB releases a regular part of the high-def landscape.

All of these titles have been added to our Google Release Calendars

HD DVD


Blu-ray




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