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Sony to introduce Blu-ray mega changers

It may not be cost effective to backup Blu-ray Disc movies to a hard drive based server system, but Sony will soon have two mega-changers for your Blu-ray Disc collection. A 200-disc changer and a 400-disc changer are both slated to be unveiled at this year’s CEDIA Expo in Atlanta, GA in September.

The Sony BDP-CX960 will be the 200-disc changer, and the BDP-CX7000ES is the “Elevated Standards” 400-disc version. They should both support BD-Live, and more than likely will feature DLNA functionality.



Expect companies like Escient to support managing multiple Blu-ray changers for even more storage capacity.

Netflix added to Windows Media Center

In their bid to make their streaming content ubiquitous, Netflix has worked a deal with Microsoft to add their streaming service through Windows Media Center.

Netflix’s Watch Instantly service has over 16,000 titles available for instant streaming. It is now available to WIndows Media Center, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate users. Filed under TV+Movies in the menu under the title “Netflix”, you can search the Netflix library, and manage your queues.

Blu-ray looking to define 3D standard

I really need to get your opinion on 3D. Pretty much every animated film coming out this year (and for the foreseeable future) is going to be in 3D. Directors like James Cameron and Ridley Scott are saying they’re only going to do 3D from now on. Even Steven Speilberg and Michael Bay are in on the action.

Do you feel 3D adds to the movie experience, or is it a gimmick?

I’ve gone and seen a few 3D movies in theaters over the past couple years, and some of them were great and others were alright. But I tried watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D at home on Blu-ray, and the flimsy cardboard glasses were hard enough to put on, and the red and green filters distorted the colors so much I couldn’t stand it. With the smaller screen you definitely have more of the off-screen problem as well.

But this isn’t stopping so many from claiming 3D is the future of not only the cinemaplex but also the home theater. This week the Blu-ray DIsc Association formed a 3D task force to chose an industry standard for Blu-ray films. So far the leading contender is Panasonic’s technology using special electronic glasses.

Is it worth all the extra effort?

The next big thing: vinyl records

The CompactDisc was first released about 30 years ago. It was supposed to kill LP vinyl records, and it pretty much did. So why have vinyl record sales climbed 89% in 2008 over the previous year? My opinion: vinyl is undead.

Every culture has a subculture, and vinyl records carved out its own culture when the main stream began picking up on cassette and CD. It’s a way to be unique and to stand out from the crowd, because you take the to pick a record from your physical collection and play it on an obsolete turntable. The vinyl crowd will say it’s because vinyl sounds better, but this is objectively not the case, it’s a subjective measure – why one amplifier sounds better than another, for example.

The vinyl hobby is certainly attractive to someone like me. I’ve been so bombarded with music for so long in the form on radio, Walkman, background music in stores, in the car, and on MP3. It is particularly the MP3 and sites like mp3.com that really allowed me to get to know so many random bands, and I appreciate that. But we now have MySpace, Purevolume and so many other venues to access music that for the past couple years I have only casually listened to music. I don’t use my iPod, and I don’t listen to music in the car that often. But I have taken to buying an album, sitting in my chair and listening to it straight through.

I don’t meant to go on so much about my musical experiences, but I think it is precisely because music is ubiquitous now that people are attracted to vinyl because it forces them, if not to sit down to listen, to make a conscious effort to play music back for their enjoyment.

And certainly there is a level of baby-boomber nostalgia. Many of the best selling vinyl records are reissues of albums from the 60s and 70s. Albums like The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Band of Gypsies.”

But maybe we’re just thinking too much into vinyl. This huge uptick in sales only correlated to a total of 1.88-million records sold in 2008. That’s more like an interesting tidbit, not a phenomenon. But there is something to it. Sales for records only grew 15% in 2007, so it is a major jump in sales. So much so that Best Buy is planning on filling all of their 1,020 stores with vinyl – well, 8-feet of each store anyway.

This is a big endorsement, however, when you consider Best Buy is the world’s third-largest music retailer, behind Apple and Walmart. If they think they can use valuable shelf space for a zombie format there has to be something to it. Also keep in mind that Neilson SoundScan is the source for vinyl sales numbers and they don’t record most indie record shops where most vinyl fans prefer shopping.

What do you think? Do you collect vinyl, are you interested, or do you think it’s ridiculous?

Blu-ray Disc adoption is surging

I know some people won’t believe it, but that’s only because technology is kind of like politics and religion; take what you want from it and argue to the death over the merits of your opinion. But facts are facts, people! Blu-ray Disc is not a dying format, in fact NPD has just released numbers indicating Blu-ray player sales have increased a whopping 72% over last year.

Let’s put this in primary school math-speak: One year farmer John sells 10 apples at his fruit stand, and the next year he sells 17 apples.

This correlates to more than 400,000 standalone Blu-ray players in the first quarter of 2009. That’s right, one of the worst quarters for retail in decades.

The report also claims consumer awareness of Blu-ray Disc has reached upwards of 90%, with 6% “extremely or very likely” to buy a high-definition player within six-months.

In other news, Home Media Magazine is reporting Blu-ray software sales for week ended 3rd May are up 177% over last year. That means farmer John sold 27 oranges this year compared with last year’s 10. And these trends have been going up since the end of the format war. So much for all this talk about a failed format.

Will Apple get Blu-ray?

It’s hard to believe Apple would be so mindful of its PC user base to add a strong feature such as Blu-ray support without also giving it to their Apple users. It would seem unwise to give the PC such an advantage with Apple’s own software. This is why it has been rumored Apple is getting ready to add Blu-ray to their next generation computers.

CNET.com is reporting that Apple will be adding Blu-ray Disc support to iTunes in the upcoming version 8.2. This of course would suggest the Macintosh computers would be in line to receive hardware upgrades as well.

It only makes sense. Blu-ray is commanding upwards of 20% of the market now, and Apple is fighting Microsoft for the living room. Adding Blu-ray support to the inexpensive AppleTV would certainly give Apple an advantage over many competing products, such as Vudu, Blockbuster, etc.