If it is a studio announcement, my guess would be New Line. And that really won't be particularly surprising. I guess we'll see in a couple of days...

Unless they are releasing this year on BD and not HD-DVD.

It also could be the Weinstein Group.

Hasn't Dreamworks not formally announced? My guess it is New Line since I've been told (here and elsewhere New Line = WB). I'd take a bet that Lord of the Rings is not anywhere near coming out this year, in case anyone is excited.

Dreamworks is no longer. I believe they've been split up.

New Line seems "a given" to go along with WB.

I was thinking something smaller like Image.

BD has completely been "smoke and mirrors" thus far and I don't expect this one press conference to change anything.

The official site has an FAQ list for the new DVDs coming out today... and it says that LotR won't be out on HD/BD until "2008 at the earliest". I'd take that with a huge grain of salt (I don't think any plans about HD formats are written in stone for any film/studio).

But, yes, you definitely won't see LotR under the tree this Christmas.

So you're pretty sure it is a studio not a hardware partner?

The article referred to by HighDefDigest comes from VideoBusiness.com which only says:

Yeah, im curious.....since the new versions came out today....I wonder if they are just saying this to make sure sales are strong. Knowing this, I am inclined to purchase the new sets.

that's what a lot of people are speculating about. This new article today says a "studio."

Who the hell knows?

Again, BD has done nothing right thus far so I couldn't see why Universal would even think about it.

I bet Sony hired a new janitorial firm to clean their Blu-ray offices. This new "partner" will be announced Thursday.

The non-working BD50's really do pile up, ya know?

What if it's just Fox announcing their first titles? Maybe they're not considered a "partner" until they actually commit to releasing product by making an announcement.

Would that be enough smoke and mirrors for ya?

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33995

PS3 Downgraded Again

"IT LOOKS LIKE the PS3 is way too powerful for us mere humans, and because the value is so overwhelming, Sony is going to make it a little more palatable. The RSX, previously scheduled to run at 550/700 core/memory has been realigned with expectations and the value chain at 500/650.

We can't tell you why the GPU lost nearly 10% of it's clock, it could be an NVidia screwup, or it could be Sony/Cell. Either way, it just became much less of an overwhelming value, but you get a DRM infected drive for 'free' either way.

As a help to the fanbois who inevitably write in somewhat curious broken englishish every time their precious console gets re-specced in a downward manner, please cut and paste the following. It will save you at least an hour trying to figure out the parts of the keyboard that are not WASD:

You teh sux0r 2 sae teh PS3 is not going to teh r0x0r! Yew lie, yew 360 luvr. U teh sux! U maek thing up, go die!!!1111one!1!!!1 heheheheh

As for Sony, I know your reaction, you are going to start a whispering campaign on the forums like last time. Please give the PR genius who thought that one up a promotion and a raise. It worked so well to cower me that I got more inside sources disgusted with you third rate backstabbing attempts than I got in a year. Please do it again, I didn't take offense last time, and I promise not to this time. µ"

Talks about Japan, but I believe this is a global figure on how many HD DVD players Toshiba expects to sell by March 07.

From Bloomberg:

Since this isn't Sony talking, it is probably on target to being true.

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/feature.aspx?CIaFID=1465

Matt Codrington, Product Marketing Manager at Toshiba Australia highlighted HD-DVD’s ability to press a disc with a standard DVD format movie on one side and the same movie in HD-DVD format on the other side, creating a two-sided disc that’s compatible with both old and new generation DVD players. He also questions interactivity. ‘Additional interactive features (iHD) are mandatory on HD-DVD format, but not on Blu-Ray. So will they appear?’ he asks. Regarding disc layers, Mr Codrington stated that triple layer HDDVD ROM discs are already planned for release, with a capacity of 45GB on a single side (15GB per layer). He also notes that Toshiba are negotiating with several Hollywood studios to bring forward launch dates for HD DVD content for Australia and New Zealand, saying: ‘I’m confident that we’ll see the first HD DVD discs in plenty of time for Christmas Stockings.’

I've been expecting this for months. It has been interesting watching the BD fans claim that this cannot be done, etc., but if you have been reading what the insiders have been saying (especially Amirm), you'd have to conclude that it was in the works. Yet another example of BD fans screaming FUD, but Amirm coming out right all along.

The BD fans basically boil down to: "BD50 has been demoed, the TL45 is just vaporware and it isn't in the spec, blah, blah, blah."

I would love to see a TL45 come out along with an HD DVD player with 1080p out. What's left for BD at that point (not that they have any momentum now, anyway)?

On top of that, the TL45 is supposed to have better yields and be cheaper to manufacture than BD50.

It would be a real bombshell if TL45 came out before a BD50, wouldn't it?

While I think there's a good chance the PS3 will be downgraded in one form or another when it finally gets released, I'm not sure if this information can be considered trustworthy. The Inquirer isn't exactly known for providing accurate information.

[sarcasm]As long as its anti blu ray, anything you see on the internet is true![/sarcasm]

Those statistics are meaningless. Notice they use the term "most frequent game players" instead of "all game players." What does "most frequent game player" mean? They don't define the term. Without knowing who is included in the survey sample, it is impossible to draw any valid conclusions from these numbers.

Just went to a local Best Buy. Seems like the Toshiba's are back in stock. They had about 5 of them (the most ever). They only had one Blu-Ray. No doubt the hordes have been buying them up.

The Toshiba had an error on it so i opened and closed the tray. Played perfectly after that. If they're gonna demo the damn thing, it should at least be working. There were 3 guys just standing there. Didn't even bother with it.

Now they have 3 different places for the discs. 1 where the player used to be and 2 in the video section: one on an endcap and another in a section with BD. Guess they're getting too many in at this point.

Of all the big news that has been posted, this is what you chose to criticize?

What does that matter? Blu-Ray can do 8 layers and 200GB, easily driving HD DVD into the ground. Those anti-Blu-Ray people will just say anything, despite having zero justification...

...on paper. How many DL discs are out? Don't need toes OR fingers to count those releases.

How will the Sonymaniacs sppin it IF HD-DVD has a 3-layer, 45GB disc out before their preciouses ship DL BD media?

Thank god there is someone that can identify BS when they see it too.

I'll say it again, there is no way in hell there are more 35 year olds and older playing games that those 15 and under. No f'n way.

I wasn't being serious... Tongue-in-cheek doesn't work too well on a message board .

Gotcha.