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Hastings spreads Blu-ray rental to all stores

The format war has certainly slowed down over the last couple of weeks, and it becomes evident in the rhetoric spent on such developments as this. Amarillo, Texas-based Hastings, a rather small entertainment retailer compared to the heavyweights Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, has announced they have expanded their Blu-ray rental offerings to all of their 150 store locations. They rent HD DVD in one-third of their store locations.

This development comes about as part of a revenue sharing program with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE). The obligatory response from SPHE senior executive VP Marshall Forster is, “Naturally, SPHE is delighted about this since Hastings obviously acknowledges the fact that consumers have voted for Blu-ray as the high-definition format of the future.” Somehow a profit sharing deal is seen as consumer choice?



Hastings sees about equal sell-through for both formats, and the leader shifts based on new releases on one format or the other.

SPHE announced the revenue sharing program back in July through Rentrak Corp. which allows rental agencies to adopt Blu-ray without incurring huge install costs. Hastings video category manager Mason Goodfellow said, “We might be able to get in as many as eight to 10 copies per title [in one store]. Without revenue-sharing, that might have been three to four copies.”

Somehow I don’t see this as a huge deal. Hastings is located in secondary markets where high-def may not have much of an install base, and not a lot of population compared to larger metro areas.

Samsung BDP-2400 Blu-ray player canceled (updated)

If you were looking forward to get the new Samsung BDP-2400, I have bad news for you; I just received word that Samsung has canceled all plans to release their upcoming high-end Blu-ray Disc player. All orders for the player have been canceled, and the model will not be brought to the market.

There is no word on why this decision was made. If I were to guess, I’d say they couldn’t meet the October 31 deadline for BD 1.0 spec. I hope this means they’re going to have a 1.1 spec player available soon.


Earlier this year, Samsung announced two BD players and a dual-format player. The BDP-2400 was the higher-end model featuring the Silicon Optix HQV Reon processor, and the BDP-1400 was the consumer-level product with nearly identical specs but without the HQV chipset.

Update: The Samsung BD-UP5000 has been moved back to December. The BD-UP5000 is a dual-format player and with this new release date means it is a minimum 1.1 spec, but it has all the required hardware to be a 2.0 spec. This may confirm my assumption that the BDP-2400 was canceled because they couldn’t meet the Oct. 31 deadline.

Blu-ray earns HTSA support

You may not have heard of Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), but this is because they work behind the scenes. HTSA is a buying group for A/V retailers and custom integrators. What does this mean? It means dozens of independent retailers and installers join ranks to gain volume incentives from select manufacturers to help compete against the “big guys.” It’s the same general concept of a distributor except there are added benefits like you were a direct dealer and you have access to more product. Why is HTSA important? They represent over $500 million in buying power from 62 member companies.

At CEDIA Expo earlier this month they formally announced the buying group would be Blu-ray exclusive. They base this decision on sales trends within the member companies. An internal HTSA study released just today found 92 percent of the high-def player sales were Blu-ray Disc with the remaining 8 percent mostly the dual-format LG player. They expect this decision will “strengthen retailer commitment to providing more BD-based devices to meet growing consumer demand.”



HTSA executive director Richard Glikes said, “Based on our member research and observations in the field, it is clear that HTSA customers have made Blu-ray Disc their preferred HD format for movies and other packaged video content.” He concluded that the larger manufacturer support and content availability of Blu-ray contributed to the greater adoption of Blu-ray over rival HD DVD.

The HTSA does not have Toshiba in their line-up, so this sounds a bit like a PR grab to me. They’re practically a Blu-ray only association with their support of Sony, Sharp, Hitachi and LG. They do carry Integra, and HD DVD support, but they have not released a player yet.

This must be said about these companies: they are loyal to the lines they carry, and one weakness HD DVD has is the fact that only Toshiba has players on the market currently. If a store doesn’t carry Toshiba the default format will end up in the Blu-ray camp because nearly every other company supports Blu-ray. For example, if a company supports Panasonic’s line with support from Sharp, they have two companies supporting Blu-ray Disc. A company with LG and Pioneer would have two supporting Blu-ray with the ability to have a dual-format player. A company with Toshiba (who isn’t very popular amongst custom integrators) and Philips would have HD DVD and Blu-ray. Independent retailers may not sell as much as the big-box stores, but they’re still a powerful factor in the market. With Integra now in the HD DVD camp, they have a better chance of penetrating the stubborn custom market.

My thanks to TWICE for first reporting on this development.

Low cost Blu-ray replication coming soon?

Pioneer and Mitsubishi Chemical Media have teamed up to create the next generation Blu-ray Disc. The new disc creation method uses an organic dye recording layer which significantly reduces the materials cost. The technology is called “Low to High” (LTH) - which has been used even in vinyl groove recordings - and was approved for use in the “Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver.1.2″ specification.

Using the LTH technology will allow standard CD-R and DVD-R manufacturing facilities to make BD-R media using modified equipment they already own instead of purchasing new lines and plants. This will greatly reduce the start-up costs for BD-R production. HD DVD has long claimed this as an advantage for their format.



Current BD players and recorders will not be compatible with the LTH format. The reason for this is the LTH polarity is different. A firmware update for existing players should fix this problem. As of right now I’m not sure if this firmware update is for players only, recorders only, or for both players and recorders.

Mitsubishi and Pioneer both showcased BD25SL BD-R discs with write speeds up to 2x. They expect LTH to be on the market in Spring 2008 along with LTH BD burners. In the future, they both plan to use a metal nitride recording layer to improve write speeds. Mitsubishi already announced 4x BD-Rs and should reach 6x soon (current BD spec only reached 4x).

Since 2004, Pioneer and Mitsubishi have been partnering to develop standardization on low-cost, write-once Blu-ray media (BD-R).

Originally reported by AV Watch

New Line Cinema now in the high def mix

New Line Cinema is the last remaining “major” Hollywood studios that is yet to dip into the high definition optical formats.

New Line is actually a subsidiary of Time Warner, who also owns Warner Brothers, the studio with the largest market share of the high definition home video market. Warner Brothers has often boasted that their #1 high-def home video rank is due to their support for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. With this Warner Brothers highly successful dual format strategy, it has been expected that New Line Cinema would adopt a similar approach for high definition home video.

Well folks, the details are now in. New Line Cinema has officially announced that they will be supporting both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. Their high definition debut will occur with the release of “Hairspray”. Hairspray is slated for a Blu-ray Disc release on November 20th.

But what about HD DVD?

The story does not end there. Notice that only a Blu-ray Disc release is slated for November 20th. Where is the HD DVD schedule? That is where New Line is making it complicated. The studio has announced that the HD DVD version of Hairspray will be released “sometime in 2008″. Why? New Line cites region coding concerns and distribution complications for the HD DVD delay.

Since their initial announcement of Hairspray on Blu-ray, New Line has also revealed that “Rush Hour 3″ will be hitting the streets on Blu-ray this holiday season, December 26th. The HD DVD version? Sometime in early 2008.

The studios’ release strategy effectively gives the Blu-ray format “timed exclusives” for New Line Cinema titles. Will this also apply to the New Line back catalog, such as the highly anticipated Lord of the Rings Trilogy in HD? No one knows for sure as of yet, but there will sure be a lot of angry HD DVD consumers out there if New Line upholds this same delay for their catalog titles. If you want to read more about New Line, check out this post on HighDefDigest.

Warner’s TotalHD is on hold indefinitely

The dubious dual-format concept developed by Warner Bros. has been put on hold indefinitely. This is not a shock to me as I think it was a bad idea to begin with, but now that Warner Bros. is the only major studio left supporting both formats, the studio is concerned it will be difficult for the market to adopt.

With two new dual-format players coming to the market from Samsung and LG later this year, there seems to be even less demand for a format that will bridge the divide that has made an optical media format more heated than the ongoing political debate of our day. Warner was planning of licensing this format to Paramount, but with their going exclusive to HD DVD, that looks like a long shot. The best they can hope for now is Joe Kane’s Video Essentials.



TotalHD is a disc that bonds an HD DVD to the back of a Blu-ray Disc. Sometimes I can’t tell which side of a DVD flipper has the widescreen and which is fullscreen - I can only imagine the confusion this format would cause.

Sony’s new Blu-ray enabled home media server

While it seems that Blu-ray and HD DVD spent up their ammunition at IFA in Berlin, Sony did bring one brand new product out at CEDIA in Denver. The HES-V1000 Home Entertainment Server is Sony’s top of the line 200 disc Blu-ray Disc Home Server featuring a 500GB hard drive to store music, movies and photos. I received a lot of information about the HES-V1000 yesterday and I’ve got to say, this thing is impressive.

Sony seems to think the future of the home is in consolidated packages. The Playstation 3 is one example of including every home entertainment source into one box (with the upcoming DVR functionality anyway). The HES-V1000 is a huge step above that, however, with a 200 disc Blu-ray megachanger that has one touch content import to the 500GB hard drive. You can also upload quickly from your PC any video, music or photo you’d like. The HES-V1000 is a DLNA device, so you can access content from other DLNA devices (like your laptop), and you can use your PS3 as a media extender in other rooms of the house (and from that to your PSP at Starbucks). The HES-V1000 can act as the media hub for whole house audio/video integration. Sony’s Linux-based XMB (Cross Media Bar) menu system is utilized here, just as it is in all the new HDTVs, PS3, PSP an receivers. It’s an elegant and functional way to get to the content you have, as well as manage settings.

Working in the custom install (CEDIA) industry, I immediately think of how this can work in a custom home. Every room of the house can have a TV on the wall and it can be sourced with a PS3 and use the Bluetooth remote to control the whole system while the HES-V1000 is in a closet somewhere supplying all the media you own to every room of the house. No programming required! With the added PSP functionality, it’s like adding a Slingbox to the mix. It does support 1080p/60 HDMI output for the Blu-ray Discs and features an IR input for custom installation.

To go along with this whole-house integration is the new CPF-IX001 wireless PC audio system. This DLNA device is a slim speaker system with WiFi that allows you to access audio from the HES-V1000 or other DLNA devices in other rooms of the house wirelessly. The HES-V1000 has four streams of audio out to facilitate these nifty devices, and even has a party mode.

Another breakthrough feature is the ability to backup your files to 25GB single-layer BD-R/REs. With 137 hours of video, 40,000 songs (2,000 CDs) or 20,000 pictures, the 500GB drive should be large enough for most people. The Blu-ray media is not stored on the hard drive, but unencrypted DVDs, CDs, MP3s and photos are all supported. Four memory card slots (Memory Stick, SD, xD and CF) for importing images from your camera are included on the unit. A pop-up slot also allows you to import from HDV, DV via iLink, composite and s-video sources with audio. You can load up the 200 disc changer with all your CDs and hit one button, “import,” and the HES-V1000 will automatically rip all the CDs and gather meta data from AMG.

What do you do with all of this content? Use the x-Applications to scrapbook photos or create home videos. With x-ScrapBook you can chose a template or create your own to make a slide show of your last vacation, or your daughter’s birthday party - you’re only limited by your imagination. For video, x-Pict Story HD allows you to compile music and pictures for a snazzy presentation you can share.

The possibilities of this new device are virtually endless. It’s one of the more exciting products to appear at CEDIA by far. To make this whole package seem even more attractive is the price: $3,499 USD. That’s right, less than a lot of media servers with far less features. It will be available mid-October.