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Panasonic CES 2008

Visiting the Panasonic booth at CES 2008 proved to be an interesting experience. The most popular product had to be their 150″ advanced HDTV (pictured above).

This plasma TV is absolutely massive. It was said that nine separate 50″ TV’s could fit in the same space as this behemoth takes up.

Picture quality was stunning with 4K resolution. The demo feed looped through various scenes of cityscapes, action scenes, people and nature. One of the most impressive scenes was the panda bear footage. The bears were presented in almost life-like scale. The advanced high definition video made it look as though the pandas were right there in front of you. The city-scape scene also impressed by showing off the enormous amount of detail that could be seen with the high definition roll.

Panasonic Blu-ray players: leading the way



Panasonic was the first to bring a profile 1.1 (Bonus View) player to the market with their DMP-BD30 and they are also the first to produce working standalone units of a profile 2.0 (BD Live) player, for use at CES 2008. According to a Panasonic representative, the DMP-BD50’s will be available in 2-3 months, but there is no estimated pricing at this time. I’m betting it will take longer than that to hit the market.

Other Panasonic products announced

Panasonic also announced a slew of other interesting products. Some of these included a 32GB SDHC card, a WiFi enabled digital photo camera that can upload pictures directly to Picasa Web albums and a 3 CCD HD video camera that records to SDHC cards. I’m sure there is much more, but I didn’t get a chance to see all of their new offerings.

New Line Cinema goes Blu-ray Exclusive

Hot on the heels of Warner Brothers announcement of dropping HD DVD, New Line Cinema has now confirmed that they will follow suit, moving to Blu-ray exclusivity as well.

This announcement comes as no surprise to most people familiar with the studio, as they are also under the Time Warner umbrella of companies.

New Line’s very first HD DVD was released last month, with the title Pan’s Labyrinth. This will also be their last title as they have canceled all other HD DVD titles that were previously been announced. HD DVD owners who were anticipating the Lord of the Rings trilogy are now weeping.

Paramount may return to the Blu-ray fold

It is being reported by the Financial Times (subscription required) that Paramount is ready to move back to Blu-ray and drop HD DVD support. It is rumored that Paramount and Dreamworks Animation have opt-out clauses in their agreements with HD DVD and they’re preparing to exercise them.

I don’t usually report on rumors because I don’t like feeding the machine, but being reported in such a well-respected publication as Financial Times really changes the face of this rumor. Even if Paramount does go back to releasing on Blu-ray, we at WesleyTech speculate that they will probably keep supporting HD DVD at least as long as Warner (through May). Financial Times is saying they will drop HD DVD altogether.

Universal headed to Blu-ray as well?

On a related note, The Digital Bits had reported they had a source “second to none” confirming Universal was also planning on moving to Blu-ray but that post was taken down. Perhaps it was at the urging of Universal? In any event, the reception to Warner’s announcement seems like everyone was just waiting for it to happen and fully expected this. It’s like everyone was just too politically correct to say they expected Blu-ray to win by taking the “wait and see” approach. With 80% of the consumer electronics market and 70% of the Hollywood studios supporting Blu-ray exclusively, it really seems as if there is no war to speak of - if anything it’s an insurgency. Regardless, we here at WesleyTech will continue to report on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, the same as we’ve always done.

Pioneer Extreme Contrast: CES 2008

The Pioneer booth at CES 2008 hosted one of the most impressive demos that I had the pleasure of attending. Continuing with their ‘Project Kuro’ work, Pioneer held theater demonstrations of their new “Extreme Contrast” concept plasma TV.

So what is Extreme Contrast? It is absolute black. A TV that produces zero ambience with black. A TV that you can not even perceive as being turned on while it is displaying a black screen in a dark room. This thing is absolutely amazing. Video of objects placed on a black background seem to visually pop out to the audience. This absolute black achieves a much greater depth perception experience for the viewer, allowing high definition video to look even more real and more 3D than ever before.



The contrast ratio and black on current generation plasma TV’s looks like garbage compared to the Pioneer Extreme Contrast. Unfortunately, as this is a prototype, concept device, there is no estimated release date or pricing available for an Extreme Contrast product. That’s too bad, because I want one of these baby’s as soon as possible! Plasma TV’s will never be the same.

On a related note, another interesting tidbit that I picked up on the CES floor was that Panasonic actually canceled their high contrast TV press conference in light of the Pioneer Extreme Contrast demonstration. The full press release from Pioneer can be found on BusinessWire.

Microsoft considering Blu-ray add-on for Xbox 360

It is reported today that Microsoft may consider a Blu-ray add-on to their popular Xbox 360 gaming console. Albert Penello, marketing manager for the Xbox brand, said, “It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider.”

Though not exactly a done deal, it does show Microsoft is somewhat open to the idea of a Blu-ray “victory.”

Digital Playground behind Blu-ray

Digital Playground has announced they will be supporting Blu-ray strongly from this point on. Though not nearly as big or important as Warner, Digital Playground is currently the number one porn producer in the country.

Digital Playground is one of the first porn studios to release in high-def, and just last year at CES they announced they were going to support HD DVD exclusively due to replication availability (at the time only a handful of Blu-ray replicators were up-and-running). Just recently they made the move to release their first Blu-ray Disc title citing PS3 owners demanding it from them. After the release of their first BD title, Digital Playground announced it was selling “gangbusters.” Apparently it was selling well enough to move them to Blu-ray completely.

Blu-ray Disc Association Press Conference: CES 2008


The Blu-ray Press Event took place tonight with a panel of representatives from the Hollywood studios. In attendance was Andy Parsons (Blu-ray Promotion group), Danny Kaye (Fox), David Bishop (Sony), Bob Chapek (Disney), Ron Sanders (Warner) and Steve Beeks (Lionsgate).

The event kicked off with Andy Parsons going over Blu-ray sales stats from 2007. Blu-ray outsold HD DVD in every single week of last year. Blu-ray content sold more than 2 to 1 over HD DVD in the United States, the most competitive market. Blu-ray Disc has an even more commanding lead in other markets, such as Japan, where Blu-ray sales account for 90% of the high definition packaged media sold. With Warner now Blu-ray exclusive, approximately 70% of all content is now exclusive to the Blu-ray Disc format.

Danny Kaye spoke about Blu-ray player device penetration in 2008. The BDA projects 10 million Blu-ray playback devices will have been sold by the end of 2008. With this hardware footprint, they estimate $1 billion in Blu-ray content sales in 2008.

David Bishop took the stand and spoke about the PS3, how it has helped the format, and how Sony is working to ensure that consumers are aware that it is not just a gaming machine, but also a Blu-ray Disc player. BD Profile 1.1 was also discussed. The goal is to refer to these players and content as “Bonus View”. Discs and players will be branded as “Bonus View” players. Resident Evil Extinction was highlighted as a BD Live product. Other BD Live capabilities were mentioned, such as trailer downloads, multi-player online games and ringtones.

Bob Chapek discussed the Disney Magical Blu-ray tour and how effective it has been in educating consumers. It was announced that the Magical Blu-ray tour has officially been extended to 8 new markets and will continue in 2008.



Ron Sanders (pictured above) spoke about the “Future is Blu” campaign. Due to the Warner move, the BDA will now be able to focus on the Blu future, without worrying about a format war. Fence sitters will now know that a Blu-ray future is assured. It was mentioned that the Warner move to Blu-ray exclusivity was made in the best interests of the packaged media business, to pull the industry forward into a unified format.

Steve Beeks reaffirmed that the consumers and the market has chosen Blu-ray. “War” has been Lionsgates’ most successfuly Blu-ray Disc release thus far.

Q & A

Press: Does the Warner Blu-ray decision extend to New Line & HBO as well?
Ron Sanders: New Line & HBO will make their own decisions, but our press release contained a quote from an HBO executive, so you can draw your own conclusions there.

Press: Did the BDA pay Warner to go Blu-ray exclusive?
Ron Sanders: I wish. We could use the money. (audience laughter)

Press: Has a Blu-ray combo disc been considered? With a standard DVD included?
Danny Kaye: We wouldn’t want to sacrifice the quality of the format, or any capacity. There is nothing stopping a particular studio from including a standard DVD along with a Blu-ray Disc inside the packaging.

Press: Will there be more deep catalog titles released on Blu-ray soon?
Multiple BDA members: As more consumers purchase Blu-ray hardware, more and more content will be made available. Current available content is targetted towards the early adopters and what they would prefer. This will change as more and more consumers adopt Blu-ray and more content choices will become available.

There were also more questions and answers given, but these were some of the more interesting ones.

Overall Impressions

The Blu-ray Disc Association companies are in a celebratory mood. Warner’s decision to go Blu-ray exclusive has everyone believing that Blu-ray will be the logical choice as the next mass adopted home video format. The Blu-ray Disc Association has the momentum now and it looks as though it will be a very Blu future.