Sony Style is now shipping the new Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with a retail price of only $249.99.

This player is certainly feature rich, with not only 3D but also BD Live via built in WiFi, but also BRAVIA Internet Video streaming and DLNA capabilities, plus iPhone/iPod touch remote control.

Sounds like a nice player and it is great to see all these features at such a reasonable price point.

Maybe the last anaglyph 3D Blu-ray has hit the shelves with the New Line Cinema title The Final Destination released January 5th.

This is the fourth in the Final Destination franchise, and while it is perhaps not as good as the first two, it is certainly an improvement over the third one.

The same theme is played out here - one of a group of teens sees a horrible disaster in their future and freaks out about it, saving them and some others from certain death when it all goes down.

Having cheated death, the group must then face death catching up with them, killing them one by one unless the chain can be broken.

This time around the main disaster is a speedway crash and subsequent stadium collapse.

The main character continues have visions of the new death destiny of the characters, and works to change the course of future events to save himself and his friends.

There are a few quirky aspects to the movie, including one character that wants to die and fails to kill himself since it is not his destiny to die next.

The film was obviously written with 3D in mind and a number of the ‘execution’ sequences and effects take advantage of the extra dimension.

While I am sure that the 3D came across well in the theater, the Red/Cyan eye channel separation for anaglyph 3D can be distracting and is not the best for channel separation, especially on uncalibrated displays which may have colour shifts.

On the fun side, the opening sequence pays homage to the previous installments in the movie franchise.

I did like that the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it is almost like death is fricken McGuyver this time around - a lot of the accidents don’t seem so ‘accidental’, and one or two keep you guessing as to how it will eventually play out.

It is pretty clear that death has no time for racist red necks!

The cast is essentially a host of unknown actors including Shantel VanSanten, Bobby Campo, Haley Webb, Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella, Richard T. Jones and Mykelti Williamson.

The Final Destination was directed by David R. Ellis, who was the man behind Final Destination 2 and more recently Snakes on a Plane.

The movie received a fairly harsh critical response with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 28% and an IMDb score of 5/10.

The Final Destination was fairly successful in the cinema though, reaching $66.5M at the US box office.

The video for the 3D version is a VC-1 1080p encode at 24 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1.

The regular 2D version of the movie has a significantly lower bitrate - less than 16 Mbps - though is still VC-1 at 1080p.

Check out the details page for The Final Destination to see full resolution PNG screen captures from both the 3D and 2D versions.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 16 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

It is interesting to note that a number of Warner releases coming up have DTS rather than their traditional Dolby TrueHD audio codec.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 34.2 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

The disc features a selection of supplements that include BD Live Network features and a Digital Copy for both Windows Media and iTunes.

As previously noted, the disc includes both 2D and 3D versions of the film, which are by necessity completely different encodes of the movie due to the cyan/red right/left eye arrangement.

It will be interesting to see if New Line releases this title down the line using the new Blu-ray standard for 3D which would no doubt result in a much better presentation.

Additional footage is presented in the form of a pair of alternate endings and a selection of deleted scenes.

Body Count: The Deaths Of The Final Destination covers a selection of the death sequences in the movie and storyboard and previsualization comparisons are presented for the two main disaster sequences.

Lastly the disc features an exclusive first look at the new A Nightmare On Elm Street remake due in theaters soon.

The Final Destination was made for a specific audience who will no doubt appreciate this tongue in cheek yet graphic installment from the franchise.

The Blu-ray Disc is a pretty tidy release from New Line Cinema, though I have to wonder if there is a Full HD 3D Blu-ray release coming down the line some time.

The retail price is $35.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $19.99, saving 44%!

Extras:

• Includes Both 2D and 3D Versions Of The Film
• Exclusive First Look At The All-New A Nightmare On Elm Street
• 2 Alternate Endings
• The Final Destination Previsualization And Storyboards
• Body Count: The Deaths Of The Final Destination
• Exclusive Features Via Blu-ray Live
• Additional Scenes

Synopsis:

A strange premonition causes friends to abandon their day at the speedway, just before a crushing pileup hurtles cars into the bleachers with fiery consequences. They have cheated Death. But Death is only getting started.

Panasonic has amped up their CES 3D demonstration this year with a presentation on a 152 inch 4k2k plasma display.

The demo covered a number of Panasonic technologies, including the new live 3D cameras and the improved plasma technology needed to work with their 120Hz shutter based 3D.

Panasonic also had a wide range of Blu-ray support elsewhere in their booth, showing their range of players including their portable model.

It is great to see Panasonic bringing so much innovation to their players and displays.

Be sure to follow Blu-rayStats on Twitter to see more CES news.

Coinciding with the rollout of 3D Blu-ray players and HDTVs, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that they will begin releasing 3D content on Blu-ray Disc in mid 2010.

Their first Blu-ray 3D title planned release will be the recent animated movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, which came out in regular form just this week on Blu-ray Disc.

SPHE worldwide president David Bishop stated that “3D entertainment on Blu-ray is poised to revolutionize the home viewing experience in much the same way that high-definition televisions and Blu-ray Disc have over the past several years”.

It has been a busy week with a lot to do as CES kicks off for another year.

I was thinking that this year would be the year for 3D and it seems that this will indeed be the case with both Panasonic and Samsung announcing Blu-ray players with 3D capability.

LG is heading in a different direction, adding a hard disk drive to their Blu-ray offering for mass storage of media, making the Blu-ray player more of a media center.

I will be catching a flight for Las Vegas myself soon and with any luck will spend some time with these new players in the flesh.