Sony’s first BD Live player is now available - in fact you may already own it.
I see over at EngadgetHD today that Sony has released a new version of firmware for the BDP-S350 player that enables the BD Live functionality in the player.
Every now and then the techy geek inside notices something interesting in the details for Blu-ray Disc releases
This week I have noticed an interesting trend from Universal with respect to their chosen video codec.
In the past, Universal has pretty universally used the VC-1 codec.
I see over at TWICE that Imation/TDK has announced their 6x recording speed Blu-ray Discs.
The release plan includes both single and double-layer (BD-R DL) discs with 6x recording speed.
When it comes to news from CEDIA, it seems that ‘all at once’ is the name of the game.
Among the buzz today I noticed a number of reports about Blu-ray players.
While personally I am content to just wait for somebody to release a Blu-ray player with built in DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and 7.1 analog outputs that will work with the New Line titles, it is interesting to see what is being promised.
Still want those player prices to drop more before getting your first/next player? NEC wants to help you out.
NEC Electronics has announced the first single chip solution for Blu-ray Players, code named EMMA 3PF.
Reading around recently I have discovered that there is certainly some movement in the writable Blu-ray Disc sector.
Engadget is reporting that NEC is planning silicon to support BD-R recording at 8x speed. The recording speed of BD-R was initially only 2x, so this represents a nice saving in record time. 8x speed should be 36 MBps, which may actually tax some slower hard drives!
Reading over at Engadget today I see that Pioneer has been busy in the R & D laboratory.
First up there is the 400 GB Blu-ray Disc with 16 layers of 25 GB each - quite a few more than the commercially available dual layer discs.
Over at TWICE I see a new report of an interview with Stan Glasgow, President of Sony Electronics. The article discusses a number of technologies including Blu-ray Disc.
TWICE is reporting that LG is releasing a new line of Blu-ray PC drives that record and play Blu-ray media at 6x speed.
The drives feature DVD and CD media compatibility as well as SecureDisc for content protection on written media and Lightscribe.
The GBC-H20L and the GBW-H20L carry suggested retails of $199 and $279, respectively. Both models are 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE read compatible, while the GBW-H20L is even said to be dual layer BD-R 50 capable and features 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE read and write compatibility.
Nice to see the price point of these drives coming down, though the features of these units is essentially the same as the ‘Super Drive‘ (pictured) with the HD DVD capability removed.
Over at Hollywood in Hi Def today there are a few interesting numbers on Blu-ray Disc sales.
Firstly, Blu-ray has sold over 11 million discs since inception, according to data compiled by the Redhill Group for Home Media Magazine.
The next statement is perhaps the most interesting though - projections based on early data show that Blu-ray sales during May have surpassed sales for all of 2007.
And then add that Blu-ray software sales in the first four months of 2008 more than four times those of the same period in 2007.
That puts all of the recent doom and gloom articles into some perspective! Perhaps the idea of trying to paint an overall picture based on month to month variations is flawed.
The article also notes that Transformers is officially set for September 2nd 2008, complete with BD Live capabilities, confirmed by the press release in this post. That title will almost certainly have a huge impact on sales by itself.
It is great to see some real sales volume information, where we usually only get relative information and revenue numbers from Home Media Magazine.
