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Blu-ray Disc Association Booth CES 2008



The Future is Blu

The future is certainly looking Blu. The Blu-ray Disc Association booth was jam packed full of displays, new products and new demos. The place was teaming with folks and was definitely much more lively than the HD DVD booth.

Blu-ray Disc players

There were a few Panasonic DMP-BD50’s on display around the booth, which are the very first BD Profile 2.0 players to see the light of day (Denon had previously announced a player, but it never made it into anyones hands). This player will be shipping in Spring, but there is no estimated pricing at this point in time.

Most of the Blu-ray Disc association companies were displaying new BD Profile 1.1 players. One of the most interesting out of this lot was the new Funai Blu-ray 1.1 player, shipping under the brand Sylvania. A Funai representative informed me that this player will be shipping in the 2nd quarter of this year and it will cost LESS than $300.



Blu-ray BD-Live demos

There were a few very cool BD-Live demonstrations occurring at various stations within the BDA booth. One of these was a game from Fox Home Entertainment called “Aliens vs Predator vs You”. I will post more on this later.

Technicolor was also demonstrating a BD-Live trivia game. One of the most interesting things about this BD-Live demo was that they were using a PS3 as the player! That’s right, a PS3 with BD Profile 2.0 firmware loaded! The Technicolor representatives informed me that the firmware was just loaded up this morning and that it is still in a highly beta phase. Either way, this is good news for PS3 owners, as we can expect to see a BD Profile 2.0 firmware released for the PS3 at some point in the future.

I now need to head over to the Blu-ray Disc Association press event. I’ll be reporting back on that in the future, so stay tuned for more!

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