As you may have read already, mentioned during the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call that his company will be charging a premium for blu-ray rentals beginning this year still. Not great news for people who subscribe to their services! Netflix says: “As you are aware, purchasing Blu-ray discs costs more. Consumers are used to paying more for HD in every other channel. Because of higher cost of Blu-ray and consumer expectations, planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray sometime this year.”
We just hope that Blockbuster doesn’t start having ” great ideas” as well. C’mon Blockbuster, you should be a leader, not a follower! They’ve seen that an increase in prices can make a company lose subscribers to the competition as it happened last year. So this hike up in price could very well bring blu-ray fans who decided to try Netflix back to Blockbuster. If, of course they decide to ride out the higher costs now, not increasing prices-again.
This is a step on the wrong direction for the blu-ray technology. This is the time that companies should maintain prices as an incentive to the new technology. I guess Netflix doesn’t care about that, only about their pockets!
Samsung has exposed a few more details on the previously announced Blu-ray player. This will be the company’s fourth generation player which keeps getting pushed back, at first it was supposed to hit the market in April, then in May and now June… The drive is 1080p-capable, and has an HDMI 1.3 output with CEC support, allowing control through home theater systems. Also present on the unit are an upconverter chip — which scales to maximum resolutions. It will include Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD High resolution (scheduled to available later this year via firmware update). From the picture it will have a slick look.
The BD-P1500 is only loaded with BD profile 1.1 firmware, but is said to be ready for BD-Live. That means that, at first, it will not support web-enabled features included on certain discs. However, it will carry an Ethernet port for a possible 2.0 firmware upgrade.
Even without many profile 2.0 Blu-ray players currently on the market Sonic Solutions and Sony are looking into the future and working on enhancing the BD-Live creation capabilities. It is clear that internet connectivity and entertainment are the way to go, so to be better prepared Sonic is developing a more efficient way to build interactivity on Blu-rays. This capability will enhance Sonic’s Scenarist® BD authoring platform making it easier for developers to create Blu-ray discs with BD-Live content.
“The BD-Live feature set is an exciting new capability for BD that combines the best of on-disc and online content to provide consumers with a dynamic and always-current entertainment experience,” said Rolf Hartley, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic’s Professional Products Group. “Sony’s extensive knowledge of the BD specification combined with Sonic’s experience in providing solutions for online interactive content via its InterActual® products will help significantly boost BD-Live title production.”
These streamlined capabilities will ultimately impact YOU! How? Both companies believe that by making BD-Live content easier to create, costs will be reduced and make BD-Live more available. Once costs drop, more and more studios will want to include web-connected content in their movies. Then, next thing we will see is BD-Live on every future release! The consequence of all this? It will speed up consumer adoption of next-generation titles and players! That will be just great!
Many peoples’ waiting is over now that the blu-ray game, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, arrived to store shelves last week. This game is a “lite” version of Gran Turismo 5, it is like a taster for the full Gran Turismo 5 experience to arrive late 2009. Also, let’s make it clear that this is not a “Demo”, it is a full game that gives gamers a chance to experiment with most features of the upcoming GT5. The first Gran Turismo game was released 10 years ago for Playstation 1 and gave us a perspective on what race games could be, GT5 is the first game of the franchise for Playstation 3 and shows us some of the power this console has in storage. The game can be purchased in two different ways: on our beloved blu-ray disc on stores or on the Playstation online store as a download. They are not exactly the same! The Blu-ray disc version will come with some extras such as an additional HD behind the scenes featurette of the GT franchise called Beyond the Apex. The game has 70 cars from worldwide car manufacturers, half a dozen tracks, drift mode, new interior dash view, and online racing with up to 16 players. Read the full story
Now that Universal Studios Home Entertainment has shared their future plans for blu-ray, they announced they will be bringing the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated ‘Heroes’ to blu-ray. This is not the first time the “world saviors” will be introduced to high definition. In August last year ‘Heroes: Season One‘ was released on HD-DVD but with the death of the red format, it will be re-released along with ‘Heroes:Season Two‘ on blu-ray on August 26th. Of course this release date was no accident because the new blu-rays will hit stores just days before the three-hour premiere of the third season on September 15, 2008 on NBC starts. Details and specs have not yet been disclosed but as soon as they are we will update this post with more information, we do however expect ‘Heroes:Season One’ to have the same extras and featurettes as its first HD-DVD release.
Now that HD-DVD has kissed goodbye to the market for a couple of months. The companies which supported the format are starting to put their heads down and announce their plans to release blu-rays. Today it was Universal’s turn to give more details on their migrating plan. Universal was one of HD DVD’s biggest supporter but when Toshiba pulled the plug on the format the studio was fast on raising the “white flag” and joining Sony’s Blu-ray.
Universal announced today that starting in July; we will be seeing their films coming out on the “Blu” format. The first batch will include: The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mamma Mia!, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, “Heroes: Season Two” and many others.
“We’re thrilled that our preliminary slate of Blu-ray offerings comprises such a brilliant collection of high-def centric fare,” said Mr. Craig Kornblau, President, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms. “As awareness for Blu-ray continues to grow, consumers will learn to rely on the superior quality picture, sound, interactivity and connectivity that only high-definition home entertainment delivers.”
It will be exciting to see all Universal’s successes in high definition and by Mr. Kornblau’s comment they will inundate the market with their films.
We just hope that Blockbuster doesn’t start having ” great ideas” as well. C’mon Blockbuster, you should be a leader, not a follower! They’ve seen that an increase in prices can make a company lose subscribers to the competition as it happened last year. So this hike up in price could very well bring blu-ray fans who decided to try Netflix back to Blockbuster. If, of course they decide to ride out the higher costs now, not increasing prices-again.
Many peoples’ waiting is over now that the blu-ray game, 
