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Paramount reengages Blu-ray

After two months of silence, Paramount is back! Last night, Paramount Home Entertainment announced their plans for reentering the Blu-ray market.

Beginning 20 May, the high-def Judas studio will be selling Blu-ray Disc titles once again. The first slate of films will include There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next. (No Country For Old Men is on their list for August even though it is already out on Blu-ray through Buena Vista Home Entertainment.) They are also reenlisting their previous Blu-ray line up for sale on 20 May, including Babel, Black Snake Moan, and Dreamgirls amongst others.

Their first day-and-date title will be The Spiderwick Chronicles on 24 June. Their major motion pictures should all be released alongside DVD from now on.

I’m excited, especially with Jack Ryan finally coming to Blu-ray! Now all major studios are supporting the next-generation format. The future looks bright for the high-def niche.

Pioneer introduces Blu-ray ready HTIB

It seems as if there has been a lot going on with Pioneer recently. I’m not a Pioneer shill, they’re just the only company with interesting news right now; everyone else is holding off for CEDIA or something.

The new Elite HTS-LX70 powers a 5.1 surround system. This is a unique system because it uses 4 satellite channels designed for a full surround sound with angled speakers featuring multiple drivers. It utilized MCACC multi-channel room equalization to calibrate the speakers for distance and loudness.



Another cool feature is a separate display providing all the information the front panel of an A/V receiver in an easy to read fashion. The remote is also well designed and features an illuminated touch screen.



The receiver can decode advanced audio in Dolby®True HD, Dolby® Digital Plus, DTS-HD® Master Audio, DTS®-96/24, and DTS®-ES.

Also included with the package is an iPod interface and XM Connect-and-Play functionality. For only $1,800 this offers quite a bit. It is possible to piece together a system for this much, but this comes with one-remote control straight away, which is a plus.

Correction: This article originally said the Blu-ray player was integrated in this system, and this is not the case. I was confused by a promotional email from Pioneer that said this system “unlocked” the power of Blu-ray. This alluded to the advanced codecs, not to an integrated player. The image (seen above) shows a Blu-ray player, but this is not included. An HDMI 1.3 input facilitates the audio. My thanks to Juan from BluFocus for pointing this out.

Pioneer announces future plasma plans

We have been following the developments around Pioneer’s plasma division. Today in Tokyo, Pioneer and Matsushita (Panasonic) held a press conference detailing their plans for future plasma development.

Although I was told by a Pioneer representative that Pioneer would be engineering and developing their own panels, the press conference revealed that Matsushita will be absorbing all 200 Pioneer plasma engineers. Matsushita will develop panels for both companies.

This is unfortunate. However, this does not tell anything about the Elite line. I was told the Pioneer panels would be made by Matsushita and the Elite panels would be made in Pioneer factories completely. This press conference does not discuss Elite plans.

Pioneer is trying to establish their Elite line as a high-end electronics brand. This faces opposition from the high-end community as they’re in their own elitist world, but the products are really good. Pioneer owns TAD engineering some of the best speakers ever heard on this planet, and now that they’ve released a line under the Pioneer name some are willing to accept them. They also have Elite integrated stereo amplifiers and other high-end stereo gear.

Pioneer will also be using their new found support from Sharp to introduce LCD flat panel displays in the market later this year. And most surprisingly, they will have an Elite branded LCoS front projector coming soon (based on the lauded JVC model).

In the end, Pioneer seems to be getting more focused on high-end, which can’t be too bad. It also means Panasonic will be reaping the benefits of Pioneer’s quality engineers.

Netflix plans to raise prices for Blu-ray subscribers

An upsetting move from Netflix who recently lowered subscription rates, President and CEO Reed Hastings recently announced a rate hike for Blu-ray subscribers was in the works.

Purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more both at retail and wholesale than standard definition DVDs, and consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in every other channel, including video rental stores, video-on-demand, and cable channels. Because of the higher cost of Blu-ray and the consumer expectations around high-def content, we are planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray some time this year.

He did not give any information concerning when this increase would take effect or how much it will be. I hope it’s no more than $1.00 per month.

While I do agree that Blu-ray is a higher quality product and worth the extra cost, I feel this is not a competitive move while Blockbuster is offering this for free, plus they include free rentals when you return a movie to a store location. While I prefer the Netflix service, if Blockbuster starts offering more features for less I might have to revisit that option.

Universal announces initial Blu-ray titles

The biggest studio supporter of HD DVD has finally given their plans for Blu-ray. Universal Studios (an NBC/Universal company) will begin releasing titles on Blu-ray starting 22 July. This is almost two months after the official end of the format war. It is anticipated that all new releases will be on Blu-ray Disc and DVD day-and-date.

The first batch of films will be catalog titles on 22 July with The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and spin-off The Scorpion King. These will be in stores just in time for the latest theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

New releases will be day-and-date with DVD starting with Doomsday, the unfortunately horrible post-apocalyptic film staring Rhonda Mitra.

The new releases later this year will include: Heroes: Season Two along with a re-release (on Blu-ray this time) Season One on 26 August; The Incredible Hulk, the new one releasing later this year featuring Edward Norton; Wanted, the upcoming assassin film staring Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie; Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Mamma Mia!; and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the latest in The Mummy franchise.

More catalog titles included in the Universal press release are: American Gangster, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Miami Vice, End of Days, U-571 and The Land of the Dead. They indicate more titles but haven’t named them yet.

On a humorous note, Craig Kornblau is now spewing Blu-ray boilerplate, even including trademark notices. “As awareness for Blu-ray™ continues to grow, consumers will learn to rely on the superior quality picture, sound, interactivity and connectivity home entertainment delivers.” I wonder if he’s an android.

LG dual-format player makes price plunge

If you have a collection of HD DVD movies left over from the unfortunate format war and want to get into Blu-ray, Circuit City wants you. This week the retailer (who may be purchased by Blockbuster Video) dropped the price on the LG BH200 dual-format player by $200- now at $599.

This is a new low for dual-format high-def players. I’m pretty certain the price will drop even further as the year goes on, but if you have the money and the HD DVD discs (that is you’re not taking advantage of eBay or the Best Buy trade-in), go for it. The BH200 is a solid performer, unlike it’s predecessor the BH100.

Sony Playstation 3 to receive DTS-HD: Master Audio

To cement the Playstation 3 as the most fully-featured Blu-ray player to date, Sony is adding DTS-HD Master Audio support in a firmware update tomorrow. This will be output as a bitstream over the console’s HDMI 1.3 output.

Also included in the v2.30 update is DTS High Resolution Audio which is a lossy format, but at a higher bit rate than other lossy codecs.

These upgrades are free to all PS3 owners. Previously the console has been given BD1.1 support, BD2.0 support and BD-Java compatibility upgrades.