There are a number of new Warner promotions at Amazon today.
If you buy a Blu-ray player and three Warner movies, you will save $50. This deal is even available with the Sony S300 player at $200! Other players include the Panasonic BD30, Samsung P1500 and the Sony S350.
I know many Blu-ray enthusiasts have Playstation 3 systems for their Blu-ray player.
If you are one of these, you might want to keep an eye on the Amazon Deals today.
First up you can get Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for only $22.95 as the deal of the day.
Visit the page throughout the day to see other savings for your PS3.
Amazon is running a new Sony promotion where if you buy one of the $400 Sony players (the S300 or the PS3), you can buy the 8 pack starter set for $80 - only $10 per disc!
The 8 pack starter set contains Black Hawk Down, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dogma, A Few Good Men, Gattaca, Life of Brian, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and The Fifth Element.
We see a couple of interesting deals at Amazon today.
Firstly, Vantage Point is only $17.95, cheaper than most catalog titles and a savings of 54% over the retail price. 3:10 to Yuma is still a good deal at $18.95, a savings of 53%.
We also see some Fox, Paramount and Lionsgate titles on sale. Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut) is only $18.95 (Savings of 53%) and at $19.95 (half off) we see Saw IV, War, Independence Day, Cloverfield, Mr. Brooks and Night at the Museum.
There is quite a bit of Blu-ray player news about today.
Via Format War Central you can read that Video Business is reporting that high-end consumer electronics retailers expect set-top Blu-ray players to begin outselling DVD players by August. Also revealed is that the Sony BDP-S350 and Panasonic DMP-BD50, will hit stores in July. Both are reportedly BD Live capable players.
Over at ZDNetAsia we read that eleven Chinese disc manufacturers have been authorized by Blu-ray Disc Association to produce Blu-Ray discs and disc players next year. Interesting to note this article states that the BDA’s member number has increased to 187 while that of International DVD Forum has decreased to 163.
We also see that Home Media Magazine summarises the players coming to the market, including the Daewoo BDP-1000 (pictured) and 2000 BD Live capable players with 1080p 24 mode, 1 GB of storage, SD Memory Card slot and HDMI 1.3, due in the fall. They also list the Panasonic DMP-BD50, two Sony’s (BDR S350 and S550) and the Playstation 3 for BD Live capability.
For Bonus View players they list the two Pioneer (BDP 51FD and 05FD), the Sharp BD-HP50, Marantz BD8002, the Philips BDP7200, Sylvania NB500, Samsung BD-P1500 and the Denon 2500, along with a quick summary of features. Well worth a look.
We also read via Digital Bits that Denon is considering a Blu-ray player with SACD and DVD-Audio multichannel playback.
All in all is it pretty easy to see that there will be quite a range of players to choose from and from the VB article it is pretty clear to see that at least the player market has quickly become a nice money maker for the consumer electronics industry, having already overtaken the saturated DVD player market with respect to revenues.
We see on Amazon today that they have a week long promotion offering the 40GB Playstation 3, the Blu-ray remote and a copy of the Fifth Element for the price of the console alone.
This represents roughly a 10% saving - not bad I guess if you have yet to ‘take the plunge’…
The offer is said to end on May 26.
Related Content Database Inc. (RCDb) has announced the immediate availability of advanced services and technology for Internet-connected Blu-ray discs and players, also known as “BD Live.” This platform was outlined in our BD Live Roll Out article. The RCDb BD Live Platform provides Blu-ray studios, developers, and consumers with specialized online services to support the creation and consumer delivery of new BD Live features.
“We’ve worked very closely for the last two years with leading Blu-ray studios and Blu-ray player manufacturers to develop this essential disc technology and network service” said Zane Vella, president RCDb, “The end of the format war and the introduction of BD Live for the PS3 sets the stage for a new generation of special features and home theater experience.”
The BD Live Platform combines innovative and cost-effective BD Live software and network infrastructure to help the Hollywood creative community quickly realize advanced capabilities of the Blu-ray format. Earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, PHL, and RCDb unveiled BD Live in action with “Alien Vs. Predator Vs. You,” a multiplayer interactive game. “RCDb has been a valuable partner as we gear up for BD Live and widespread adoption of the Blu-ray format,” said Danny Kaye, EVP of research and technology for 20th Century Fox. “BD Live is an important step in the evolution of home entertainment.”
RCDb is working with Blu-ray player manufacturers, including Panasonic, to test and ensure robust player compatibility with the BD Live technology. RCDb BD Live technology has also been integrated into Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory’s authoring and production workflow. In addition, RCDb and PHL are jointly developing new BD Live creative concepts for future implementation into the growing Blu-ray market.
The BD Live Platform enables content owners to create new BD Live features and to easily update the content of Blu-ray discs after shipping. This enables studios to refresh out-of-date promotional trailers and to add additional subtitles, languages and bonus content. The BD Live Platform is specifically designed to support social networking features that connect viewers with each other, and to enable bonus content that bridges the home theater and the Web.
“After careful examination of BD Live solutions, we are pleased to be working with RCDb as the leader in BD Live technology,” said Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, managing director of Panasonic Hollywood Lab, “Studios need an economical and scalable solution to roll out BD Live features that take advantage of the new Panasonic BD-50 player announced at CES’08.”
With the recent release of an internal DTS Master Audio decoder included in the latest Playstation 3 firmware release, you might be wondering what titles are around that feature this lossless codec.
Look no further! After some tweaking of the Audio field filtering on the Blu-ray Statistics page, you can now easily get a list of some 85 DTS Master Audio titles - just by clicking this link. Studios such as Fox, MGM, New Line, Lionsgate and Magnolia have released DTS Master Audio discs - and even Sony with the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind - no doubt at Steven Speilberg’s request… or insistence? Distributors Image Entertainment, Tartan and Koch have also used the codec.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has added a new BD-Live web page to help promote the budding feature on their releases.
Currently the page lists the two April 8th releases - Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day, and prominently displays the Playstation 3. This unit has certainly served Sony well for Blu-ray.
It appears that listing the titles is about all the page does right now, as well as summarize what BD-Live is and intends to offer - hopefully in the future this page will give some more details on the features on each release.
NetBlender has announced a new Blu-ray Disc technology that allows iPhones and iPod Touch devices to interact with content on a Blu-ray disc. Called “BD Touch”, the technology leverages the network connection built into Blu-ray players and the WiFi connection on the iPhone to create two-way communication between the devices. Video, audio, text, and player commands can be transferred via the connection.
BD Touch connects the 10 foot experience of the large screen home theater with the mobile experience offered by the iPhone. The sophisticated UI of the iPhone enables unprecedented user interaction when compared to any other handheld device. BD Touch applications can take advantage of the iPhone’s geo location features, 3D sensors and QWERTY keyboard. BD Touch features will work on any BD Live-enabled Blu-ray Disc player such as the PlayStation 3.
“Having spent the past decade building interactive video products we are thrilled to bring together two of the most interactive consumer products ever created with BD Touch,” said John Harrington, NetBlender CEO. “We began R&D on integrating the two devices right after I experienced the iPhone Multi-Touch interface for the first time.”
