We looked at the four newly announced flagship players from the four biggest Blu-ray companies, LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. Any self-respecting Blu-ray player today has Pandora and Picasa, and of course Netflix subscription streaming video. They also have some form of pay-per-view movie download service, from Vudu, Amazon or Roxio’s CinemaNow and Blockbuster apps.

This year, though, the companies turned up the juice. LG added a built-in hard drive;  Sony surprisingly built a remote-control iPhone app.   And now all top Blu-ray players will go 3D. Integrated Wi-Fi was a stand-out feature last year; this year it’s par.

These won’t be out till the summer, and there’s no pricing announced yet, but already we’re excited. See, putting everything but the the kitchen sink into a firmware upgradeable $200-to-$300 box is way smarter than jamming it all inside a $1500 TV,  where picture quality should be the chief concern.

read more at Gizmondo.com

In 2009, sales of Blu-ray Discs grew 109% and the sales figures for Q1 2010 – more than 8.4 million discs sold between January and March 2010 – suggest Blu-ray Disc sales will continue to match this level in 2010.

The results, released by the Digital Entertainment Group Europe, highlight the growing popularity of the high-definition format and increased consumer demand for high quality home entertainment products.

Read more at  DVD intelligence - reproduced with permission.

In February, Avatar director James Cameron had said to the Wall Street Journal that a 3D Blu-ray of the movie would come out in November (see Blu-ray.com, February 18). That was promptly denied by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with a note that said verbatim: “3D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November” (see Blu-ray.com, February 19).

If those exclusivity deals are confirmed, most of the major studio movies recently released in 3D in theaters will be bundled for exclusive release.

The first 3D feature film to receive a 3D Blu-ray was Monsters vs. Aliens, from Dreamworks Animation, and that was available exclusively as part of Samsung’s Blu-ray starter kit (see news and review). Interestingly, again according to HollywoodinHidef, that exclusivity window expired recently, but Dreamworks Animation has not revealed any plans for a general release of the 3D BD of this movie.

In turn, the stereoscopic Blu-ray editions of Coraline from Universal and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs from Fox are being offered to buyers of the VT25 line of Panasonic Viera 3D Plasma HDTVs (see Blu-ray.com, May 18).

The 3D version of Disney’s A Christmas Carol will be available in November as part of a 4-disc BD/DVD/digital copy combo (see blu-ray.com, May 22).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is set to release a 3D edition of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in the summer. That title will also be “primarily bundled” with Sony 3D hardware, but a standalone retail 3D version will also be offered.

Consumer electronics manufacturers – especially Panasonic, Samsung and Sony -, are allegedly offering studios substantial fees for these exclusive deals, to the tune of millions of dollars for each title. This is a profitable deal for studios, as these fees dwarf the potential revenue from a traditional retail release, considering the very small installed base. As Avatar producer Jon Landau graphically depicted it, “we would be the egg coming before the chicken.” And the free 3D titles become a significant marketing asset for hardware makers and retailers, enticing TV buyers to upgrade to a 3D model.

The only people who stand to lose in the deal are buyers of 3D TVs, as they theoretically would need to buy new 3D hardware to be able to access 3D titles other than the ones bundled with their initial purchase.

As of this writing, the only 3D BD titles with a general release date come from Europe: 3D editions of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is up for preorder in Germany and the the UK for June (see blu-ray.com, April 14 and April 15, respectively), and Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk is coming out in Germany on June 30 (see blu-ray.com, May 19).

source blu-ray.com

2009 sales of Blu-ray discs – worth nearly £400 million – partially offset last year’s 9% decline in DVD sales, which decline 2% by volume. Indeed, Europe’s overall home entertainment market was worth £5.5 billion in the last 12 months – a fall of 7% on 2008.

DEGE chairman Yves Caillaud, speaking at the annual general meeting in London, said: “Blu-ray is gaining further momentum in Europe thanks to a concerted cross-industry promotional effort, near universal penetration of high-definition TVs, increased consumer awareness and greater player affordability.”

He added: “Last year was never going to be easy, but in comparison to many other similar sized industries, the European home entertainment businesses in 2009 held up well.”

Despite last year’s sales drop, the industry is hopeful that the introduction of 3D TV will give the market a fresh injection.

Source DVD Intelligence – reproduced with permission

Blu-ray 3D also specifically calls for PlayStation 3 consoles to have full BD 3D content playback. According to CDRinfo: “Additionally, the specification supports playback of 2D discs in forthcoming 3D players and can enable 2D playback of Blu-ray 3D discs on the large installed base of Blu-ray Disc players currently in homes around the world.”

“The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players,” CDRinfo adds.

The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.

Source DVD Intelligence – reproduced with permission

The Blu-ray Disc Academy is specifically designed to bring together the creative community and business/marketing professionals from across Europe to share experiences in turning content into profit.

This one-day seminar will have sessions that cover content creation with an emphasis on advance interactive features and how these can unlock market opportunities. The unique component of this forum will be the state-of-the-art live demonstrations of applications from pioneering production companies.

Jean-Luc Renaud, who has been involved in film, TV, and the new media for over 25 years and is the editor of industry website www.dvd-intelligence.com, will serve as the Forum Director of the Blu-ray Disc Academy. “I am excited to help shape this event as the presentations will cover a wide range of topics of particular relevance to the content community and will open doors for new business activities,” stated Renaud.

Niels Leibbrandt, European Promotions Chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association, adds: “The Blu-ray Disc Academy at the MEDIA-TECH 2010 provides a great opportunity to see the whole BD ecosystem in one location. The Blu-ray Disc association is happy to support this seminar which will be a terrific platform for BD production knowledge sharing and networking with professionals from all levels of business: creation of content, production, marketing, etc.”

More details on the programme of the Blu-ray Disc Academy will also be available soon at www.media-tech.net

Source DVD Intelligence, reproduced with permission

“For the first time ever, consumers will have the ability to choose between Blu-ray and DVD formats, simply by flipping a single disc. With complete utility in one convenient package, the revolutionary medium can be used on any DVD or Blu-ray compatible player, game platform or computer, making it ideal for anyone planning to upgrade to Blu-ray at a future date as well as current owners of both Blu-ray and DVD systems,” says the studio.

Each side of Universal’s flipper discs includes the entire movie as well as all available bonus features, with the Blu-ray side featuring BD exclusives such as U-Control and BD-Live.