News Blog

300 is one of the movies that will feature a lower price tag in the fall.

(Credit: Amazon)

As much as we complain about the high prices of standalone Blu-ray players, in some ways the high prices of Blu-ray movies are even more frustrating. Today, Warner Home Video has taken a step in the right direction, by announcing that the company will offer discounted pricing on select titles this fall. Blu-ray buyers can expect prices between $17 and $20, which is a lot more than DVDs sell for, but less than the $20-$30 prices Blu-ray discs currently go for.

While there isn't a complete list of movies that will be available at this lower pricing, Video Business reports that The Fugitive, Enter the Dragon, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, The Aviator, Road Warrior and Swordfish will get the discount. Additionally, some newer movies will get a smaller price cut, including 300, The Departed, I Am Legend, Ocean's 13 and We Are Marshall.

While this certainly won't make everyone run out and buy a Blu-ray player, it's definitely good news that studios are hearing complaints that Blu-ray movies are just too expensive at their current levels. Of course, we'd prefer if the prices fell below the $15 mark, which would make them feel comparatively-priced to DVDs, but we'll probably have to wait until at least 2009 to see those prices. In the meantime, at least there's always Netflix.

Sources: Video Business via High-Def Digest

After navigating some rough seas, Sony's Electronics division has been starting to right the ship.

Over the past year, the company has been forced to rethink its product lineup and catch up to competitors in some cases, but now the Japanese electronics giant's U.S. division is looking ahead and betting big on the future of flat-panel televisions and high-definition media.

CNET News.com sat down with the head of Sony Electronics' U.S. operation, Stan Glasgow, to talk OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) TVs, Blu-ray Disc, the importance of the PlayStation 3, consumer electronics, and the dwindling margins for manufacturers and retailers on notebook PCs.

During our chat, Glasgow made it clear that Sony is only focused on TVs when it comes to the impossibly thin OLED technology and that soon the company's 3mm-thin TV will be even thinner. And, though the company just won a long and drawn out format war with HD DVD, Glasgow spoke openly about the limits of Blu-ray and what the medium still lacks. Plus, he sounds pretty high on the mini-notebook concept, even if he won't admit the company is developing a product yet.

Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics USA

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

The following is an edited and condensed version of the interview.

Q: You have an 11-inch OLED and said you'd be putting $200-plus million into the next stage of investment. How big are we talking here in terms of screen sizes?
Glasgow: In the short term, which is a couple of years--I'm not going to be more definitive than that--we have targeted a 27-inch. We've showed it as CES, we've targeted the initial investment, and that's what we're looking at in the short term. Certainly in the longer term we'd like them to be the same size as LCD. We'd like them to be 52 inch, 46 inch, 36 inch...it's just a matter of time.

What about affordability? How long until these are affordable for the mainstream consumer?
Glasgow: It's going to be years and years until price points come down to where they're anywhere close to LCD. In the not-too-distant future, you'll have a choice in LCD at this size, or you can buy an OLED at the same size at a premium. I almost see it as a potential--and I don't know this, nobody knows the answer--I almost see this as the upper end of flat-panel television.

We can continue to make it thinner. It's 3 millimeters now, but it can get thinner. Eventually it's printable on a plastic substrate that can bend. But I don't think it's going to take many years to get to that level.

What about applications in other devices? I know Samsung's talking about monitors next year.
Glasgow: We are focused on TVs. Our interest is strictly television at this moment. I'm not saying that will never change, but at this moment that is the most complex area to go after. The bigger you make these, the more complicated they are. They're much simpler to make smaller. So it'd be easier to jump into cell phones, and other types of products, but that's not what we're interested in doing. We're interested in television as our major focus. Our engineering is focused there, and our investment is focused there.

Speaking of televisions, the experiment mentioned last week, with Hancock coming out on the Bravia Wireless Internet Link, is that a one-off kind of thing? Or is there more in the works there?
Glasgow: I'd say maybe it's a step above an experiment. It's brand new what we're doing, how we're doing it. We're trying to excite people by giving them content. It's streaming so we don't have the content protection problems...(But) people's bandwidth across the country is very different.

Prototype OLED TVs

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)

The big problem in the United States is we don't have enough bandwidth to really drive content through the Internet and our pipes. Japan has much better pipes, so does Korea, so does Europe. So it's still experimental. we hope to do more in the future, and it's the first one. We're going to try and see what happens.

What about non-Sony content?
Glasgow: It's possible in the future. I'm not going to rule that out; I don't think anyone at Sony would rule that out. (But) we think it's a good first step.

Besides interactive menus feature on Blu-ray, is anyone doing anything that's a really creative use of the medium that we don't know about yet?
Glasgow: There's so much I have no idea about, because we're going to have to open this up as a social network--not just contributions of Sony and other Blu-ray partners. There are going to be contributions from actual customers.

If we had a dream (for) Blu-ray, it would be much more interactive than it is today: No. 1, where you could interface and change things as you want to see them on the screen. No. 2, you could socially interact with other people, it's connected through the Internet...but theoretically you and your friend could watch the same movie, and you could change themes, change endings, all sorts of strange things in the future. Some type of social interaction in the future....And yes, we'll have a lot more (Blu-ray) product out in the next couple of months.

Looking ahead, you're only just getting into Blu-ray. How do you see the future penetration of the format compared with DVD?
Glasgow: That's a good question. DVD took 10 years to really penetrate. We're now in the second year of Blu-ray. My guess is it will probably happen a little quicker in terms of penetration. The pricing is already coming down more quickly than DVD came down. I don't think it will take as long as 10 years, but I don't think it will penetrate to the same percentage because there's a couple of conflicting forces. Certainly, people that want the best picture are going to want it, without a doubt. People that are OK with upconverting DVD players, which is somewhere close to 600, 650, maybe 700 (lines of resolution)--that's not a bad picture either. So a lot of people may be happy with an upconverting DVD player. And (Blu-ray) may not turn over, it may not penetrate to the same extent, because (DVD) was such a big medium change from tape.

But I see it being the major format. It's won the war, that's done. Now it's a matter of: Can we provide an exceptional experience? Can we provide a social part? And can we involve the overall community in, let's say, designing applets and coming up with new things that we can't even think of today?

How critical is the PS3 to your overall electronics strategy here in the U.S.?
Glasgow: I think that there's strength in Sony...it's about having a gaming division and an electronics division, a pictures division, a music division--we've never worked together like we have now. Hancock is a great example. We're so well-connected together. Here we are doing an experiment with a film. We're going to promote the heck out of it through our electronic retailers. The gaming division is working on it at the same time. (The) music (division) is involved. We're operating as a very balanced group. So what I can say is, without the gaming, we wouldn't be as strong and as balanced as we are today. It adds a great deal.

What do you think the effect of these ultra-low-cost computers' popularity will continue to have on the notebook business?
Glasgow: The question is, how important is that in the United States and developing countries? We're doing a lot of research on what consumers want and don't want. And I think we'll get it figured out over time. But is it worthwhile to have a second notebook that starts up quickly, can only do e-mail and connect to the Internet, can't do spreadsheets, and other things you'd normally do? Those are the things we're testing right now.

But what do you think? Do we need fewer devices? Or more?
Glasgow: I'm not the normal consumer obviously. I do an awful lot of e-mail, I connect a lot. I'm not happy with the (BlackBerry-type devices), like this Sony Ericsson I carry around. I find it hard reading, I'm getting older, and it's getting too small. But I don't want to carry my notebook around because it takes awhile to start up. So something in between would be very cool, and it wouldn't bother me to have an extra PC around.

That's sort of what we're thinking in this country. I think the emerging countries are different...But in terms of the U.S., we have a lot of homework to do.

Now, last month there was a report that Quanta was making a mini-notebook for you guys. Is there any truth to that?
Glasgow: I can't say yes or no. I love all the rumors, though.

What do you think about this Blockbuster/Circuit City proposed tie-up as far as retail electronics goes? (Note: later that same day Blockbuster announced its plans to abandon its bid for Circuit City.)
Glasgow: It's fascinating what's happened in the last 10 years in electronics retail. The big have gotten much bigger and extremely successful, like a Best Buy. The smaller guys, regional retailers, have done extremely well. The middle-sized guys have gotten into a lot of trouble. It seems that the companies expanded too much, but haven't prepared the infrastructure properly to service customers.

It's also interesting to watch how well Wal-Mart and Target have been doing, in terms of building more consumer electronics...

Circuit City--we want a very strong No. 2 (electronics retailer). Best Buy is certainly the leading company. We would like Circuit City to be strong. How that gets done--it can be done in many different ways.

My hope is that either by themselves, or by merger, or by working with another company that they'll be stronger than they are today. We think the possibility is there, and we support them. A good, strong No. 2 player in consumer electronics is a positive thing for manufacturers. They've got 800 stores. There are not many companies that have 800 electronics stores.

Update: Sony has suspended the 2.40 upgrade, following reports that it has fouled up some PS3 systems (see Joystiq for more). While the two PS3s we have here at CNET were able to install the update with no adverse effects, it appears that some users were considerable less fortunate.

The 2.40 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 is now available. The free update, which Sony has been talking up for the past several days, adds a smattering of new features, including in-game access to the XMB (Cross Media Bar) home screen, custom soundtracks, a new trophy system, and a shortcut to Google searches.

The new features carry a host of caveats: the in-game XMB, customized soundtracks, and trophies aren't supported on all games; in-game XMB features are fairly limited; and the trophy system (with the a few exceptions) won't be retroactive to already-accomplished goals.

Trophies, for instance, are better viewed as a feature that will begin becoming more useful as future games begin supporting the feature. That said, both the trophy system and in-game XMB help the PS3 better compete with the achievements and Xbox Live or Xbox Dashboard features offered by the Xbox 360.

PS3 users will also notice a handful of other simple but useful touches with this update, including an on-screen clock, a quick shutdown icon, and a shortcut to Google searches. And speaking of the PS3's browser: while it's not new for 2.40, it's worth noting that the Web browser splash screen now includes shortcuts to YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook.

So what do you think? Does the 2.40 update add some worthwhile features to the PS3, or does the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii still have an edge? And what other features would you like to see come in future PS3 software upgrades?

PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 walk-through, part 1 (embedded above)
PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 walk-through, part 2
PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 FAQ

A new report released Tuesday says that less than half of high-definition television owners in the U.S. know what Blu-ray Disc is.

While that's an improvement over a year ago, it still means that more than half of that group--the target audience for high-definition video vendors--still has no idea what Blu-ray is.

(Credit: Samsung)

According to The NPD Group, a market research company that tracks consumer awareness, while 45 percent of HDTV owners surveyed said they were "familiar" with the format, only 9 percent said they planned on buying a Blu-ray player in the next six months. That's only slightly higher than the general population, 6 percent of which said they planned a similar purchase.

HDTV owners familiar with Blu-ray stood at 35 percent as of June 2007. So what's more odd is that that group's awareness of the format has creeped up only 10 percent in the past year, in spite of the most intense battles between Blu-ray and now-defunct HD DVD taking place at the end of 2007, and early 2008.

The report suggests that Blu-ray is still facing the same problem of a year ago: prices are still too high compared with less expensive upscaling DVD players that are "good enough" for most consumers.

The biggest knock against Blu-ray from the beginning has been price, but that hasn't stopped manufacturers from releasing new, expensive Blu-ray players. Although Denon's new Blu-ray player, the DVD-1800BD, is the least-expensive model in the company's line, its $750 price tag means only serious home theater enthusiasts will be giving it a look. The press release was light on details--there's not even a picture yet--but here's what we know so far:

Key features of the Denon DVD-1800BD:

• Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (Bonus View)
• Can output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bit stream format
• Lacks onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding
• Dedicated stereo analog output
• $750 list price, available in October

The $750 price tag might seem high, but it's in line with other upcoming premium Blu-ray players, such as the Panasonic DMP-BD50 ($700) and the Pioneer BDP-51FD ($600). That being said, the DVD-1800BD seems light on features comparatively. The DMP-BD50 will offer Blu-ray Profile 2.0 support and the ability to decode high-resolution soundtracks such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The BDP-51FD will only be Profile 1.1 compliant, but will offer Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding after a firmware update. Plus, it will feature 7.1 analog outputs and cost $150 less.

Furthermore, the de facto question for all new Blu-ray players is, what does it offer over the PlayStation 3? From the initial press release, it looks like not much. We're assuming the DVD-1800BD has at least 5.1 analog outputs--although the press release only mentions a dedicated stereo output--but even this doesn't add much since the lack of onboard decoding limits analog audio output to standard Dolby Digital and DTS. The one advantage the DVD-1800BD may have over the PS3 is with DVD upconversion, but we figure most viewers will find the PS3's upconverting capabilities to be "good enough." With the PS3, you get full Blu-ray Profile 2.0 support, superfast load times, excellent image quality, media streaming capabilities, and high-def gaming--for $400. We haven't tested the DVD-1800BD, so we'll save our final judgement, but unless you have a good reason not to get a PS3, the DVD-1800BD doesn't seem to offer much for its price premium.

The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is packed with features, but is it too expensive?

When Panasonic announced the DMP-BD50 at CES 2008, home theater enthusiasts who didn't want a game console as their Blu-ray player finally had a fully-featured standalone player to look forward to. The Panasonic DMP-BD50 promises the two big elusive features: Blu-ray Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Tuesday, we attended a demonstration of the DMP-BD50 and learned some new details. Here's a quick glance at the spec sheet as far as we know right now.

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD50:

• Blu-ray Profile 2.0 (BD-Live)
• Onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding
• Can output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bit stream format
• Can output DVDs and Blu-ray discs in 1080p at 24 frames per second
• 5.1 analog outputs
• SD card slot capable of playing back AVCHD video
• $700 list price, available this spring

The big news that we didn't know from CES was the $700 list price, which is more than we were expecting. Whether it's fair or not, all standalone players are going to be compared with the , which costs $400, has all the major Blu-ray features, and loads discs must faster than any standalone player we've tested. (Panasonic told us that the DMP-BD50's load times aren't significantly faster than its predecessors.)

Compared with the recently announced Pioneer BDP-51FD, the DMP-BD50 is well-positioned, as the BDP-51FD is only a Profile 1.1 player and will only have onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding when it's released--with DTS-HD Master Audio coming later via a firmware update. On the other hand, the BDP-51FD is $100 cheaper and has 7.1 analog outputs, for those still using older non-HDMI receivers.

We're starting to sound like a broken record, but our instinct is that the majority of buyers are going to stick with the cheaper PlayStation 3 until quality standalones become more affordable. What do you you think? Will any of these standalone players compete with the relatively cheap PS3? Or is the PS3 positioned to be the best Blu-ray value for (at least) the rest of 2008?

Pioneer's "budget" Blu-ray player will still set you back $600.

Pioneer announced two new Blu-ray players Wednesday morning, the BDP-51FD and step-up Elite BDP-05FD. Pioneer has so far taken a decidedly high-end approach to the Blu-ray market, with the company's initial players selling for upward of $1,000. Honestly, we're not sure what the appeal of these players are, but Pioneer tells us they can't fulfill the existing orders for the $1,000 BDP-95FD--proof, it would seem, that the enthusiast videophile market is alive and well. With that in mind, let's take a look at the key features of the upcoming Blu-ray players.

Key features of the Pioneer BDP-51FD:

• Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (BonusView)
• Can output Blu-ray discs in 1080p at 24 frames per second
• Onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding, DTS-HD Master Audio onboard decoding available with future firmware upgrade
• Can output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bit stream format
• 7.1 analog outputs
• Wolfson digital audio converters
• $600 list price, available this summer

Our first reaction to the specification sheet is that it's underwhelming given the price tag. Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (after a firmware update) is nice--as is Profile 1.1 support--but the Sony PlayStation 3 already offers onboard decoding for both soundtrack formats and Profile 2.0 support for only $400. The step-up BDP-05FD doesn't offer much more, in terms of value:

The Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD will set you back $800.

Key step-up features of the Pioneer BDP-05FD:

• Gold-plated connectors
• Aluminum front panel
• Touch-sensitive buttons
• Two-year warranty
• $800 list price, available this summer

The BDP-05FD has all the jacks you need, including 7.1 analog outputs.

If the BDP-51FD seems a little expensive for what it offers, then the BDP-05FD really seems expensive for its step-up features. The step-ups seem to be mostly cosmetic, with the player sharing essentially the same feature set as the cheaper BDP-51FD. For an Elite player like this, we'd at least like to have seen some enthusiast-friendly features such as SACD and DVD-Audio support, DivX compatibility, or even networking functionality like we saw on the BDP-HD1. We'll have to wait until summer to see these players, which will be going head-to-head with similarly priced high-end competition from Denon and Panasonic. In the meantime, we're sticking with the PS3.

The current premium XBox 360 is black. Is blue next?

(Credit: Microsoft)

Following HD DVD's demise, there's been a lot speculation that Microsoft would add a Blu-ray option to the XBox 360. The latest rumor has a subsidiary of Asus, Pegatron Technology, making a premium Blu-ray-equipped version of the XBox 360 that will arrive in time for the holidays. This one follows on the heels of a report that Lite-On was going to be the one making the Blu-ray drives for Microsoft's game console.

If you speak Chinese, you can translate the Asus rumor from Economic Daily News, a publication that Gizmodo calls a "Taiwanese rag." While we may not have tremendous faith in the specifics of the rumor, Taiwanese companies aren't known to keep secrets all that well (that's a gross generalization based on a few comments I've heard from industry insiders, but I believe it). And it does seem logical that Microsoft will add a Blu-ray option to help eliminate any perceived advantage that Sony might have with the PS3.

All that said, don't expect Microsoft to put out any games on Blu-ray any time soon. With the current XBox 360 installed base having only a DVD drive to play with, Microsoft would be looking at movie playback, not gaming.

Of course, the rumors could be wrong and Microsoft could simply put out an external Blu-ray drive similar to its discontinued HD DVD drive offering. Or perhaps there will be a premium XBox 360 with Blu-ray, as well as a separate Blu-ray external drive for current owners. Sounds inevitable, right? Comments?

Source: Gizmodo via Kotaku via Economic Daily News.

Samsung HT-BD2S: the "s" is for "smaller speakers".

(Credit: Samsung)

A second Blu-ray home theater system has joined Samsung's product lineup. The HT-BD2S is essentially identical to its predecessor, the Samsung HT-BD2T, but with two important distinctions: the BD2S has small satellite speakers (versus the four tallboy models that anchored the BD2T), and it's available for an even $1,000 (a 33 percent discount off the BD2T's asking price).

Does the downsized price and speaker size make the HT-BD2S more attractive than its big brother? ... Read more