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Netflix Price Drop

Lucky for me, Netflix has dropped the price of their two most popular subscriptions. It is only $1 less per month, but it’s still a nice treat to log onto your Netflix account and see “You’re now paying less.”



Now the plan that used to be $17.99 per month is $16.99, allowing you unlimited rentals of three at a time. Likewise, the unlimited single DVD plan dropped from $9.99 to $8.99. I prefer the former to the latter because I do a lot of movie watching (who needs cable when you have an unlimited supply of DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs?) Earlier this year, Netflix had dropped two less popular plans $1 as well to $14.99 and $5.99.

This comes on the heals of a report today by Netflix that they’ve had their first ever drop in subscriptions and have lowered their subscriber, revenue and profit forecasts for this year. (To be fair, Netflix dropped the prices before the report, but I didn’t log on until today - of course Netflix probably knew of the report in advance.) It seems as if Blockbuster is putting the pressure on.

In other news, I still have over 420 movies in my queue.

Hitachi Showcases Blu-ray Camcorder for First Time

An industry first, Hitachi has announced a hand-held HD camcorder which records MPEG-4/H.264 directly to a Blu-ray Disc. (It also supports MPEG-2/Motion JPEG for standard definition recording.) The camera will be released in Japan this Autumn as part of Hitachi’s Wooo line-up. If you haven’t heard of Wooo, don’t worry because I haven’t either. Pricing has not been announced.

The Wooo camera records 1080p video, via its 5.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, onto the 7.8GB 8cm Blu-ray disc, not the 12cm BD that holds 25GB per layer. Judging by the disc capacity, it look like a single 8cm BD will hold just under 2 hours of HD video - which should be enough for the casual home movie maker. Somehow I don’t see a lot of people lining up to record their daughter’s birthday party in pristine 1080p.



This will be the first 8cm BD drive available, and it will support BD-RE/R and DVD-RAM/RW/R playback. Hitachi boasts silent operation due to implementing Partial-Constant Angular Velocity.

While this is an intriguing concept, and a first for the Blu-ray Disc format, I’m not sure optical media is going to be the preferred medium for camcorders in the future. This next decade will find most people will drop their movie files on their computer and edit them before burning it to a DVD, so an HDD based HD camcorder seems more practical.

Still, kudos to Hitachi for being the first to offer this solution.

Originally reported by Impress (Japanese)

Blu-ray Disc in the microwave video

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you tossed a Blu-ray Disc into the microwave and then unleashed a dose of radiation treatment upon its’ rounded form?

Most people (including myself) would guess that the result would probably be very similar to what happens when you microwave-toast a CD or DVD. If you are not in the know, frying a CD or DVD within a microwave will result in a spark-flying show reminiscent of a fireworks display. But will the Blu-ray Disc results be the same? You will have to take a peak at the video below to find out for sure.



Disc abuse! Is this optical media torture the result of some HD DVD fanboy with a grudge against the BDA? More likely, it is probably just some curious george that was willing to sacrifice a disc for this very unscientific video experiment. Hopefully, this will save any curious cats out there the trouble of toasting one of their own Blu-ray Discs. Please note that this type of “experiment” will most certainly damage the disc being used and could also result in a destroyed microwave, so it is not recommended that you try this at home…

Universal commits to web-enabled features on HD DVD’s

Although the Home Media Expo has been relatively quiet this year in terms of high definition news, there is one big announcement coming from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Universal has once again affirmed their dedication for exclusive HD DVD format support and is pledging to provide web-enabled features on all HD DVD’s that they release in the future, starting with Heroes Season 1 on HD DVD.

Heroes is an NBC/Universal award winning TV show that is slated for an exclusive HD DVD release on August 28th. Universal claims that owners of the Heroes HD DVD set will be immersed in the official Heroes website with exclusive web-enabled features.

“We are targeting the MySpace generation,” said Ken Graffeo, Universal executive VP of marketing and head of high-definition. “We are developing that same community. With Heroes, producer Tim Kring is very involved in letting HD DVD users exclusively participate in the Heroes community.”

Blu-ray players “don’t have the consistency in their machines to be able to handle this,” Graffeo added.

The HD DVD camp is playing all their cards

With Blu-ray title sales outpacing HD DVD, the HD DVD camp is doing everything that they can to promote advantages in their format, no matter how big or small. Network connectivity is built into the HD DVD player specification, so every HD DVD player comes equipped with an ethernet port, allowing owners to easily connect to the internet. Network connectivity is not mandated for Blu-ray Disc players, which leaves many Blu-ray standalones lacking any type of internet capabilities.

But is this just a gimmick or will web-enabled features really add to the home video experience and enhance the replay and ownership value of HD DVD titles? No one knows for sure until these web-enabled HD DVD titles are actually released, but the ability to interact online certainly opens up a world of possibilities to HD DVD content publishers. What do you think? Will web-enabled features help HD DVD in this format war? Source: VideoBusiness.

Disney Blu-ray roadshow coming to a mall near you

Walt Disney Studios announced this week that they will be kicking off a Blu-ray road tour that will be hitting malls throughout the US, during the last 5 months of 2007. The event will spend 3 days at each mall, before packing up and heading out to the next destination.

The focus of this tour will be the Blu-ray Disc format, specific Disney movies on Blu-ray and other interactive features of the Blu-ray format. The event is sponsored by Panasonic, who along with other Blu-ray format backers, are hoping to increase consumer awareness of Blu-ray Disc and expose a wide variety of people and demographics to the technology. The organizers believe that they can find this diverse audience within shopping malls around the nation.

“At each stop, giant blue towers will feature widescreen monitors. And at more than a dozen interactive “stations,” people can preview Blu-ray versions of recent Disney animated hits Cars and Meet the Robinsons, and play the Liar’s Dice game from the Blu-ray edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

But the heart of the exhibit is a mini theater with hourly presentations on Blu-ray technology and high-definition in general, tying the technology to Walt Disney’s legacy of imagination.”

Disney still committed to Blu-ray

This announcement and promotional tour illustrates that Walt Disney Studios are still highly dedicated to the Blu-ray format. The combined power of multiple CE companies and multiple Blu-ray exclusive studios makes it tough for HD DVD companies to compete with the Blu-ray format.

It is also interesting to see that the films ‘Cars’ and ‘Meet the Robinsons’ will be appearing on Blu-ray Disc. No formal street date has been announced for Blu-ray versions of these films, but they will likely hit shelves sometime in the 4th Quarter of this year. Once released, ‘Cars’ will mark calendars as the first Pixar film to be released on a high definition format.

I am interested in going to see what this roadshow has to offer, but unfortunately it will be in my area from Dec 21 - 23, which is when I will most likely be out of town. Check the USA Today article for tour dates and locations. USA Today via HighDefDigest.

Delving into Universal Studios production strategies
With the majority of big budget, blockbuster films coming from other major Hollywood studios, what type of strategy is Universal Studios playing on at the box office? This NY Times article explains just that by taking an inside look at the only major Hollywood studio that is exclusive to the HD DVD format.

The NY Times piece contains revealing interview questions with Ron Meyer, president of the Universal Studios Group. It also provides insight into Universal Studios movie production formula and their middle-of-the-road strategy, which helps the studio stay profitable.

“Though profitable for the last nine years, Universal has been noticeably short on blockbusters to call its own.

That is largely by design. In a strategy that is starkly different from other top film studios, Mr. Meyer has determined that Universal should stay well behind the leaders, allowing the flashiest and most expensive projects — and typically the biggest payoffs — to go elsewhere.”

The article is a very interesting read and is actually a bit unsettling for HD DVD supporters. The enormously large productions, super special effects extravaganza films are mostly going to other Hollywood studios as Universal remains budget minded. This makes Universal look like the ‘weakest’ studio in some ways, but it also helps them to maintain profitability.

So how does all this factor into the high definition disc format battle? Specifically, this means that most new big budget films will either be exclusive to Blu-ray or released on both high def formats (Warner and Paramount are format neutral). With the lack of ‘powerhouse’ films exclusive to HD DVD, the chances of overtaking or matching Blu-ray adoption are looking bleak. But the battle is not yet over, if the HD DVD group can manage to win over consumers this holiday season, there is a possibility that one or more Blu-ray exclusive studios could go neutral, further boosting the format. But at the moment, that possibility is looking very far-fetched.

Toshiba HD DVD laptop video look
The Get Connect show recently took a look at one of Toshiba’s new Qosmio laptops, which includes an embedded HD DVD drive. This laptop is packed full of multimedia features and is designed for easy integration into a home theater system.

The dual core system includes Harman Cardon speakers built in, which are capable of delivering Dolby audio. The system also includes SPIDF out for 5 channel surround sound output, HDMI out for easily connecting the unit to a Plasma or LCD HDTV and an included remote control that can be used to manipulate the video and audio playback. Take a look at this video preview from Get Connected.

The Qosmio laptop featured in this video is just one of many Toshiba units that will include embedded HD DVD drives. Earlier this year, Toshiba announced that they will begin including HD DVD drives in every single Toshiba laptop starting in 2008. With all of the multimedia capabilities and features discussed in the video, I would definitely be interested in one of these units if the price was right. What do you think? Would you be interested in a Toshiba HD DVD laptop?