People Can't Tell Diff b/t Blu-Ray and DVD, Sales Plummeting

Hot on the heels of last week’s report from ABI Research noting that many consumers may not see the picture quality difference between Blu-ray and standard DVDs comes the latest Blu-ray sales figures from NPD Group. According to NPD, sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then rose a scant 2 percent....

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Blu-ray player sales down despite end of format war

Looks like it wasn't the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle that was keeping potential customers away from high-definition video players after all.The NPD Group released some of its retail sales tracking data Wednesday that showed sales of Blu-ray standalone players (not a PlayStation 3, combo player, or PC with

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How I learned to stop worrying and love the death of HD DVD

"Who cares if it’s a dead product? What matters is that it’s still a good product. High definition is high definition. The movies still look fantastic, sound fantastic, and now you can get them for cheap..."

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Microsoft Adding Sony Blu-ray Support To Windows

CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is working on Windows device driver support for the Blu-ray high definition movie format. Microsoft is developing software that will add native support for devices that play Sony’s Blu-ray high definition movie format to the Windows operating system, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said.

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Universal joining Blu-ray bandwagon in the summer

Universal Studios, once Hollywood's top backer of the doomed HD DVD video format, will soon release all its new videos on the victorious Blu-ray rival at the same time as its standard DVDs. The studio is set to...

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Blu-ray Disc Releases for April 15th

The following Blu-ray Disc titles will be released April 15th, 2008:Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (FOX)Commando (FOX)Juno (FOX)Mariah Carey: The Adventures of Mimi (Image Entertainment)A Passage to India (Sony)Predator (FOX)--- Visit my site for Amazon.com pre-order links!

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Latest Shuttle XPC Boasts Blu-ray, HD DVD

As further proof that HD DVD is dead but not forgotten, Shuttle launched a new home-theater PC this week that handles both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. The XPC G5 3101M includes a single combo drive to play discs in both high-def formats, plus conventional DVD discs.

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Amazon.com: Blu-ray's: Buy 2, Get 1 Free Event

In addition, Amazon.com is currently offering an exclusive bundle of the hit movies “National Treasure” and “National Treasure 2 – Book of Secrets” on Blu-ray, now available for pre-order ($39.99). Check out our Blu-ray store to explore the hundreds of titles available on Blu-ray, all at least 30% off.

iTWire - Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs Wii Make up your own mind

There is only a couple of reasons why winning the console war is important to the consumers that purchase gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii. IT journo's butting horns over which platform is on the way out ultimately mean nothing, only the informed consumer can determine the fate of a multi-national electronics conglomerate.

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Xbox 360 Blu-Ray Will Cost Microsoft Mucho Dinero

As the rumors start pouring out that Lite-On will be manufacturing the Blu-Ray drives for Microsoft's Xbox 360, it's becoming clear that in order to keep the price down to where people will adopt the new drive (especially after getting burned on the HD-DVD one...), Microsoft will likely have to sell it at a loss.

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Really, This rumor again?

DigiTimes cites ‘unnamed industry sources’ this week that claim Lite-On is expected to start delivering new built-in Blu-ray Disc (BD) players for Xbox 360 to Microsoft for assembly in the second half of 2008, just in time for Christmas.

In addition to built-in Blu-ray drives, the report also claims that (again,‘unnamed’) ‘power supply makers’ have informed them that the ‘next-gen’ Xbox 360’s power supply will be reduced from 210 watts to 170 watts.

Engaget notes that Falcon-based 360s are already running at 175 watts, which suggests that the DigiTimes report should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt and be filed squarely under ‘rumour’ for the time being.

Cheaper Blu-ray disc support ready for PlayStation 3

The Japanese company has released a new downloadable update for the PlayStation 3 that allows the system to support the new, cheaper-to-manufacture Blu-ray ...

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Blu-ray disc sales gain ground on DVD

Since Blu-ray finally won the format war, next-gen disc sales are gaining market share from DVD in the home video market.According to data from Nielsen VideoScan First Alert, Disney’s Blu-ray title ‘No Country for Old Men’ drew 9.8 percent of its total unit sales from Blu-ray during its first five days in stores.

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SlySoft on Blu-ray BD+ crack: next time it will be easier

Blu-ray's BD+ was supposed to take "10 years" to crack, but it didn't take 10 months. Yet, even though the scheme can be dynamically updated, SlySoft is extremely confident that they'll crack whatever the BDA sends our way. (Updated.)

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Sub-$1,000 Blu-ray Laptop Now Available from Dell

The high-definition format wars are over - and you won: Dell customers can now get a Blu-ray laptop for under a $1,000. Available today on dell.com, movie buffs can pick up the Inspiron™ 1525 with optional Blu-ray disc playback starting at $879.

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Are Downloadable HD movies where it's at?

I've come to the conclusion that people really like their physical media...whether that's a HD DVD, Blu-Ray or DVD. Microsoft seems to be putting all of their eggs in one basket by poo-pooing Blu-ray on the Xbox 360 and going strictly with Xbox Live downloads. I've said all along, people still like to hold something in their hands, plus not everyone has a 15mb FIOS connection like I do. I have recently started converting my DVD's to mpeg4 files and stream them over my network to my 360 which is nice and convenient but still lacks the thing I liked best about laser discs and DVD's: Box Art.
Who doesn't like looking at the back of a DVD or Blu-ray and reading all the technical spec's? That was the best part of getting a DVD back in the day: reading those little boxes showing the video and audio spec's!

So the Chief Science office of THX isn't a big believer in Blu-ray and Bill gates says downloads are the way of the future but I want to know what happens to places like Best Buy and Circuit City? Half of the floor space of those places are DVD's!
Where are all those people going to work? Starbucks?

Toshiba not taking in the shorts after all

So how much of a loss do you take for investing in a format that never once leads a week in disc sales? About $600 million.

Toshiba apparently didn't lose $1 billion, it was about $300 million less than that.

Via Bloomberg

Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90

Arthur C Clarke has passed away.

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Report predicts mass adoption of pay HDTV services by U.S. households

More than 47 million households in the United States will pay for some type of HDTV service by the end of 2008 — an increase of 17 million homes from the level at the end of 2007, according to a new forecast from Pike & Fischer in Silver Spring, MD.

The forecast, part of the new Pike & Fischer "HDTV Service: Market Forecast for Multichannel Video Providers" report, also predicts that by the end of 2012, up to 103 million households will pay a multichannel video provider for some form of HD service or rental equipment.

Although the broadcast networks now air their programs in HD for free, cable operators, satellite TV providers and telephone companies are striving to make money off the public's appetite for HD video by offering HD premium channels, leasing HD-ready equipment and selling on-demand movies and TV shows in HD format, the report says.

The strong demand for HD video will generate up to $2.6 billion in annual revenue for the multichannel video providers by the end of 2012, according to the forecast.

Mitsubishi Blu-ray recorders put HD video on standard DVDs

The part that really makes these Blu-ray records most notable is that they can record HD content onto a regular DVD disc with Blu-ray’s AVCREC specs. You can fit around a couple of hours of Full HD MPEG video onto a standard 4.7GB DVD, and set it to record using the super-cool, included touch screen remote control.

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