Warner is catch up with other studios that already started releasing BD-Live titles earlier this year. On a During the keynote address at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, president of Warner Bros. Technical Operations Darcy Antonellis mentioned that they are working on the first web-enabled Blu-ray titles, which should be ready for release by the end of 2008.

They have bold plans for their BD-Live title going as far as competing with other big names of the internet such as MySpace and YouTube for the consumers time and attention on the net.

“I think it has the ability to compete [with MySpace and YouTube] for a user’s time because you are taking them online and you’re able to create a community that we have never been able to do before,” Ms. Antonellis said. “That’s huge for us.”

Heck yeah, that’s huge! But they better create something very innovative and new with the BD-Live feature if they intend to steer traffic from MySpace and YouTube. I am sorry to be pessimistic here but I don’t think they will pull it off…

Popularity: 7% [?]

The rumors are true! Yesterday, Paramount confirmed the Blu-ray release of Transformers. Last week rumors started and we posted that we would only believe when it came from Paramount. Well, they did confirm the release date as well as some features. The release coming on September 2nd will have 2 discs and BD-Live content. We still don’t have the cover art! With a ton of extras, Transformers will will have a suggested retail price of $39.98.

Synopsis

For centuries, two races of robotic aliens — the Autobots and the Decepticons — have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake. When the battle comes to Earth, all that stands between the evil Decepticons and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf). An average teenager, Sam is consumed with everyday worries about school, friends, cars and girls. Unaware that he alone is mankind’s last chance for survival, Sam and his friend Mikaela (Megan Fox) find themselves in a tug of war between the Autobots and Decepticons. With the world hanging in the balance, Sam comes to realize the true meaning behind the Witwicky family motto - “No sacrifice, no victory!

Specs

• 2 Discs Blu-ray
• BD-Live Enabled

Video Resolution

• 1080p

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 2.35:1

Audio

• English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
• English: PCM (Uncompressed) 5.1
• Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
• French: Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras

• Commentary: Commentary by Director Michael Bay
• Featurette: OUR WORLD:
• Featurette: The Story Sparks HD
• Featurette: Human Allies HD
• Featurette: I Fight Giant Robots HD
• Featurette: Battleground HD
• Featurette: THEIR WAR:
• Featurette: Rise of the Robots HD
• Featurette: Autobots Roll Out HD
• Featurette: Decepticons Strike HD
• Featurette: Inside the AllSpark HD
• Featurette: Transformers Tech Inspector (TBD) HD
• Trailers: TRAILERS (will play after the feature via a menu):
• Trailers: Iron Man Trailer HD
• Featurette: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
• Trailers: Transformers Teaser Trailer HD
• Trailers: Rise of the Autobots HD
• Other: Transformers H.U.D. (Heads Up Display)
• Other: BD-Live Features (TBD
• Featurette: From Script to Sand: The Skorponok Desert Attack HD
• Featurette: Concepts HD
• Trailers: Trailers HD:
• Trailers: Teaser Trailer 1 HD
• Trailers: Theatrical Trailer 2 HD
• Trailers: Theatrical Trailer 4 HD
• Easter Eggs: EASTER EGGS:
• Easter Eggs: Michael Bay Cameo HD
• Easter Eggs: Girl in Dress HD
• Easter Eggs: Bay Bot HD
• Easter Eggs: Casting Mojo HD

Popularity: 12% [?]

Disney has ambitious plans for the Blu-ray format. However, sales of the “blue” movies have not been impressive at all for the last couple of months. In a effort to improve the situation Disney has a strategy! They will start releasing old animated classics in high definition focusing on special features such as BD-Java and BD-Live to provide “THE” movie experience at home. The first on the list is ‘Sleeping Beauty’ arriving October 7th. This version will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Disney cartoon. People will be able to chat with friends right on the movie screen through Disney’s protected network, customize video messages anywhere in the movie and send them to friends or family members via a “movie mail” feature. They will also be able to play trivia games with fellow viewers across the country. And when they are done, they can get a constant supply of new trailers, plus trade in “reward” points, collected by using many of these features, for ringtones and wallpaper. It all sounds pretty cool!

“Sleeping Beauty will revolutionize the way people will interact with and view movies in the home,” says Bob Chapek, president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. “We pulled out all the stops in launching this technology.”

BIG BIG note: Only people with 2.0 profile players will be able to enjoy the interactivity features! I am sure people who invested several hundreds of dollars to buy a Blu-ray player but don’t have a BD-Live capable player won’t be happy campers!!

Sleeping Beauty has a suggested price of $34.99 but can be pre-ordered here for much less!

Popularity: 15% [?]

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!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Men in Black is finally coming to blu-ray! Sony has announced it will come out on June 17^th. The disc will be profile 2.0 compatible and will have an exclusive interactive game (Intergalactic Pursuit) via BD-Live. NOTE: Only profile 2.0 compatible players will be able to enjoy this feature! But if you don’t have one, don’t worry, there are many other features for you to play and enjoy!

The picture to the left is from an ad that will come out on ‘Home Media Magazine’ next week. It is great how they used the neat tagline “Blu is the new Black!”. Sony has a suggested retail price of $28.95 for the Blu-ray-YEAH YEAH we know…it is not cheap! Stop complaining! New technology is never cheap.

The disc will come with all the extras from the 2001 standard DVD release including “Telestrator Commentary” (with director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones), second “Technical Commentary” (with Sonnenfeld, effects artist Rick Baker, and the Industrial Light & Magic Team), deleted and alternate scenes, the “Metamorphosis of Men in Black ” vignette, visual effects scene deconstructions with optional technical commentary, character animation studies, storyboards, two still galleries (with concept art and production photos), a “Scene Editing Workshop,” the “Men in Black ” music video with Will Smith and Mikey, and theatrical trailer.

This was a huge blockbuster and I am sure most people know the movie but for those who have been space traveling or in deep coma for the last 10 years, we have a small synopsis:

In present-day America, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) is a member of an organization that has been keeping track of extra-terrestrial aliens on Earth for over 40 years. When K finds himself in need of a new partner, a brash NYPD detective, James Edwards (Will Smith) fills the position, becoming Agent J. Armed with space-age technology (which J barely understands) and their razor-sharp wits, J and K investigate a newcomer who is bad news for Earth. He is searching for a super energy source called “The Galaxy”. Now, Agents J and K must stop the bug before it can escape with the “Galaxy”.

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]

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Technical Specs

• Blu-ray
• BD-Live Enabled
• Region A

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/AVC MPEG-4

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 1.85:1

Audio Formats

• English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
• Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles/Captions

English SDH, subtitle options including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Thai.

Disc Features

• Telestrator Commentary with Director Barry Sonnenfeld and Tommy Lee Jones
• Technical Commentary with Barry Sonnenfeld, Rick Baker, and Industrial Light & Magic Team
• Vignette: “Metamorphosis of Men-in-Black“
• Extended and Alternate Scenes
• Visual Effects Scene Deconstructions (w/Technical Commentary)
• Character Animation Studies
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Conceptual Art Gallery
• Still Gallery: “Production Photos”
• Scene Editing Workshop
• Music Video:”Men-in-Black” by Will Smith and Mikey
• Theatrical Trailers
• Easter Egg: “Frank the Pug”

HD Exclusive Content:

• Interactive Game: “Intergalatic Pursuit: The Men-in-Black Multi-Player Trivia Game” (BD-Live)

Popularity: 13% [?]

A lot of expectation is being built around the new Panasonic DMP-BD50. As one of the first players with profile 2.0 (BD-Live) its release is scheduled for May, 08. Currently the only player that has BD-Live capabilities is the Playstation3. The Panasonic DMP-BD50 will have an Ethernet port to be able to connect to the internet to download data such as images and subtitles, and to join in quizzes and multi-player interactive games that are linked to bonus movie content contained on Blu-ray discs. It will also come comes equipped with a slot for SD Memory Cards so you will be able to view HD photos and motion images your digital still camera or HD camcorder.

Video Features

• PHL Reference Chroma Processor
• P4HD (Pixel Precision Progressive Processing for HD)
  • Precise Pixel Generation
  • 16-Level Motion Detection with Pixel-Based Motion Adaptive
  • Diagonal Processing
  • Detection of 3:2/2:2 Pull-Down Progressive Processing
  • i/p Conversion for 1080p* Playback
  • Up-Conversion to 1080p* Playback
• 1080/24p Playback (Blu-ray disc)
• HDMI^TM V.1.3 with Deep Colour^TMand “x.v.Colour” *¹
• 148.5MHz/12bit Video D/A Converter
• Digital Noise Reduction (3D-NR/ Integrated NR)
• Picture Mode (Normal, Soft, Fine, Cinema, User)
• Picture Adjustment (Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness, Colour, Gamma Correction)

Audio Features

• Built-in Dolby^® TrueHD, Dolby^® Digital Plus and DTS^TM-HD*²Decoder
• High Quality 192kHz/24bit Audio D/A Converter
• Pure Audio Components
• High-Speed 50Mbps Optical Output
• Audio Re-Master for All Formats (BD, DVD, CD, MP3 and DviX^®*³)
• Advanced Surround (V.S.S.) Creates a Surround Effect for BD and DVD from Only Two Speakers (2 Modes)
• Dialogue Enhancer
• Dynamic Range Compression

Output

• HDMI AV Output
• Component Video Output
• S-Video Output
• Video Output
• 5.1ch Audio Output
• 2ch Audio Output
• Digital Audio Output (1 Optical, 1 Coaxial)

Convenience Features

• VIERA Link*⁴ for Panasonic Blu-ray Disc Product Line-up
• Movie (AVCHD) & JPEG View with SD Memory Card Slot
• JPEG Slide Show with Music
• Multi-Format Playback [BD-Video(BD-Live*⁵), DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, AVCHD (SD Memory Card/DVD), DVD-RW*⁶, DVD-R*⁶, DVD-R (Dual Layer)*⁶, +R*⁶, +R (Double Layer)*⁶, +RW*⁶, CD, CD-R/RW*⁷, MP3*⁸, JPEG, DivX^®*³]
• Super Hi-Speed Scan: 5 Speeds up to x200
• Easy Setting Guide
• Graphical User Interface
• Audio/JPEG Navigation Menu
• Remote Control

Notes

*1 x.v.Colour is a registered trademark.
*2 DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio
*3 Official DivX^® Certified product. Plays all versions of DivX^® video (including DivX^®6) with standard playback of DivX^® media files. Certified to the DivX Home Theater Profile. GMC(Global Motion Compensation) is not supported. DivX^®, DivX^® Certified, and associated logos are trademarks of DivX^®, Inc. and are used under license.
Maximum number of folders recognizable: 300 folders. (including the root folder)
Maximum number of files recognizable: 200 files
*4 This function is available for Panasonic products that support VIERA Link (HDAVI Control 3 or above).
*5 BD-ROM Profile 2 (BD Live feature includes BONUSVIEW (Final Standard Profile) functions)
*6 Discs recorded and finalized on DVD video recorders/cameras.
*7 Playability may vary depending on the contents, discs and quality of the recording.
*8 For contents recorded on CD-R/RW for your personal use only.

Watch this video on the DMP-BD50 player

Popularity: 37% [?]

Today, PS3 announced the release of its 2.20 firmware upgrade, which includes the new Interactive Blu-ray Movie Features BD-LIVE. According to Sony it will be available in late March. That, on my calendar, means 1 week and a half max!

With this release, PS3 will be the first Blu-ray player available right now able to play BD-Live (also known as profile 2.0) content. BD-Live enables the following features:

• Download programming from the Web as well as handle picture-in-picture playback.
• A variety of downloads, including online games, bonus scenes, shorts, trailers subtitles and ringtones.
• “Resume play” will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.
• “Audio Output Device” will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
• PS3 system’s Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser’s view speed will be improved.
• DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
• “Mosquito Noise Reduction” will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.

For now, there are not many movies that will be able showcase the new addition. Those titles are: War and Saw IV (currently available) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day (To be released in April)

Upgrades are always welcome! (When don’t create bugs, of course! :))

Bellow you’ll find a video talking about the new feature!

Popularity: 9% [?]