Not to be pedantic, but I don't think those 2 points really "mean" anything:

1. If you're giving away a disc, it doesn't become a "best seller". Sony could give away 2 million copies of a disc to people on the street and it would mean exactly the same thing -- nothing.

2. Unless a healthy percentage of those 500,000 go to Best Buy and get in the habit of buying additional BD movies to feed their machines, all this means is that you have half a million people watching a free movie at home on their game machine. Which means the same as point #1: nothing.


Not that I think this is a bad idea -- I abolutely think that Sony should be shipping the PS3s with movies. Just like I think including Kong with the Xbox addon is a great idea.

But I just wouldn't draw any conclusions from this yet. The first 500,000 of these especially are going to hardcore gamers who really, really want a machine to play games. Maybe they'll buy movies for it too. Maybe they won't. But I'm not sure that including a single recent comedy film is going to tip the scales much. It's just a nice extra.

With the add on, we know what it will be used for. With the PS3, no one knows how many will use it for movies. It's a gaming machine first and foremost.

Kinda twisted logic to say Talledega Nights will be the best selling disc because it's bundled with the PS3. Standalone sales of a movie is much more impressive and I think Kong will definitely win that battle.

It may mean that the second-hand market will be flooded with copies of Talladega Nights. Anyone without a PS3 looking to buy it would be wise to check eBay, EB Games, etc. instead of picking it up at a retail store.

Sort of like people looking to buy Lost in Space or Stepmom around 1999 or so. :)

I agree. If someone isn't picking up a copy of the movie and walking up to a register -- or placing it in a shopping cart online -- it's not a sale. A consumer buys a PS3 and gets Talladega Nights; he isn't buying Talladega Nights.

Sony would be wise to just use a slipcover or something instead of full case/artwork. The last thing they want is loads of these used discs sitting on a shelf somewhere taking up space looking like no one wants them. We'll have to wait and see.

Wow, that's the first thing I thought of when I read that post. They gave away 5 free DVDs with the purchase of a DVD player (also Six Days Seven Nights, Lethal Weapon 4, and Stargate).

1) no...the most owned...thats different.
2) whatever # of PS3 are sold is the number of BD players (along with the standalones)....watching Talladega nights doesnt have anything to do with it.

Also ask if they're aware of the TrueHD skipping problems on End of Days and Fear & Loathing, and if they know what's causing it.

No one ever wanted to buy a copy of Lost in Space or Stepmom.

The PSP came bundled with the Spiderman UMD and helped make UMD the successful movie format that it is today. Here's hoping Talendega Nights can be as helpful to the Blu-Ray format.

rotfl

Well i just got back from the presentation. This was held at a Sheraton Hotel which is an above average hotel i would say. It had a nice dinner buffet with a carving station and an open bar. Hell i even had some keisch or however you spell it. This event was held for small video chains and independant video stores and i knew this going in. Let me just say that me, wearing khakies and a nice sweater, outstyled everyone in the room except for the speaker and the staff. Some serious white trash. This was an immediate bad sign.

Anyways, the presentation lasted for about two hours and i would say that about the first hour was spent talking about piracy and downloading. And 5 of those minutes was spent talking about how they are preventing piracy. Talking about how much money was lost and how you can go to jail for 3 years if you get caught bootlegging.

They then spent 20 minutes going over new movies coming into theatres, which some were quite interesting. They also spent about 10 minutes going over how Universal did this past year and how the boxoffice has rebounded. They also sprinkled in some more piracy talk too.

Finally, about an hour and a half in we get to the High Def talk. 5 FUCKING MINUTES. That's all. And his whole speech was about how everyone should wait and see who wins and that the High Def stuff is too complicated for consumers. He basically instructed a room full of people to not buy either product, but he did mention the price of both machines and the available space on both discs. He then played a clip of cobbled media reports where they talk about the format war and how it is like Beta V. Vhs. They also said that these High Def machines are soo much Bigger and Heavier and they made it sound like a bad thing, they then said in a few years they'll have lighter and smaller machines. They also talk to some Fucking tech guy who says that the High Def players are useless if you don't have a 1080P TV and that there are only 3 readily available and usually go for $10,000. I almost threw my beer at the projector.

So he the clip ends and he asks if there's any questions. BOOM! My hand shoots up. Now i'm kinda pissed about all of this already, "Why in the world are you showing clips that are completely untrue. 1. You don't need a 1080P TV to enjoy High Def stuff. 2. The jump from VHS to DVD was far more complicated. and 3. Aren't you guys exclusive to HD-DVD, isn't HD-DVD getting good press and doing really well?"

Now the other people in the room might have understood 8-10 words in my little rant. The speaker responded saying with the classic Best buy line that 1080P is the future of TV and that the TV's and he went on to explain that with new HD equipment there is a learning period and that first generation equipment isn't perfected. Now comes the good part in response to why he isn't promoting HD-DVD and the fact that HD-DVD is getting good press, "Yes we are exclusive to HD-DVD and we choose to be with them because of their copyprotection that they could provide and the fact that they are a more durable format. HD-DVD is doing very well and getting great press, but if Blu-Ray comes along and takes the lead and proves their a better fit then we'll have NO problem supporting them." I was kinda stunned. And then we briskly moved on.

That was the last mention of any High Def stuff. I decided i didn't want to talk to the man anymore because from his presentation i didn't think i could believe anything he said. But i did score 5 free dvd's: Curious George, Frankenstein 75th Anniversary ed, After the Rain, THis Revolution, and Break Up Artist. So i guess it was worth going just for the free food, Booze, and movies. But if anyone ever meets Steve Randolph from Universal give him a swift kick in nuts for wasting two hours of my life and poluting the minds of innocent white trash people.

A little add on to the High Def talk that the guy said "We drove around to 10 different Best Buys and Circuit City's and you want to know how many High Def players we foudn. ONE. and that just came in that day." There was not one mention of any HD titles or feature or anything about the movies that they put out or are planning to put out.

Unbelieveable. I thought that superficial shit only mattered for game consoles. Yeah, screw better quality picture and sound, I'll just stick with a compact DVD player. :rolleyes:

Gotta tell ya - I think that Universal is taking a responsible appraoch to the situation.

Don't forget that there is an upcoming EU investigation into studio exclusivity.

Universal is on very solid ground, since HD DVD is outselling Bluray - and the more they emphasize this, the better.

The other studios are exclsuively backing the format that is NOT preferred by 70 percent of the consumers, and are beginning to stick out a bit.

What Universal says about backing whichever formats do well is a resonsible approach that should be adopted by the others... after all, no one said they would abandon HD DVD at any point.

With regards to Taladega Nights being included with the PS3 - hmmmm... surely they could've come up with something a bit more "WHAM"? I think they have inadvertantly highlighted another key difference between Bluray releases and HD DVD releases - the desirability of the movies being released so far...

Will Ferrell is a hot ticket right now. I think that wasn't a bad choice for a movie at all.

Or people buying freaking Phantom of the Opera last April. :D

Well *that* made my morning. :D

I really wouldn't read too much into this. He mentioned copyright protection, which we all know Blu-Ray has the upperhand on, not HD DVD. The more "durable" format is Blu-Ray with the manditory scratch resistant coating. I'm sure he meant to say "cheaper", but even that might be a fallacy at this point.

That is pretty interested that he said they would have no problem supporting Blu-Ray. The facts you can get wrong, but a hard driven company line like that is something you would think they would have tattooed on their arms.

It really is a great choice. PS3s will be bought by the same demographic that would want the movie. It doesn't guarantee anything, but they are at least getting the movies out there.

I think giving away Kong with Xbox HD DVDs is also a smart move.

Nah....some studio people are just idiots. When I saw Batman Begins at IMAX, the warner bros rep there kept calling it Batman Returns and then she almost got it right and called it Batman Beginnings.

It sounds to me like this rep was just clueless about the hidef format.

after having a night to sleep on it, i this the rep just didn't want to seem like he favored Hi Def at all and to remain completely neutral. I mean considering the crowd he was talking to, i doubt any of them really had an interest in the High Def stuff besides me and maybe 4 other people.

Second shipment will be December 4th. The first shipment will leave October 25th, as prevously scheduled.

His agenda was obviously piracy. Of course Universal could easily switch to Blu-ray in the future, but I wouldn't use this guy as my basis for that.

This makes no sense. How can you say it *might* be a fallacy at this point? Unless that's a joke I'm missing, I need an explanation.

I'm actually in the market for a BD player, and I'm not part of any pissing contest, but the HD-DVD player I've got cost me $400. The HD-DVD add-on to my 360 is going to cost me $200 (and don't give me any logic about the total cost of my 360 is $600, I bought a launch 360 regardless of anything about HD-DVD).

So for $600, I'm going to have 2 HD-DVD players, granted that the add-on drive probably isn't going to blow the world away, but I would take a component only BD player for $200 too. Where can I find a BD player for anywhere near that? I don't want a launch Samsung, but even if I did, the cheapest I've seen it for is $799 open box at Best Buy. I believe the newer ones are coming out at $1200. I'll buy a PS3 when I can find one, but that is still $600. Is there somewhere to find a BD player for less than $400 (HD-DVD players can sometimes be found for even less obviously) or is that just BS?

Sony Says It May Not Meet PS3 Shipment Goals on Production Snag
 

....

Because today wound up being a much more boring day at work than expected, I moved all of the Xbox 360 stuff to that thread.

Sony/MGM Deal

Looks like the truth is out on the MGM deal.

for those who don't want to register:

MGM Deal a Bold Miscalculation for Sony
The electronics giant took only a minority stake in the studio, then lost control of the prize it had fervently sought.
By Claudia Eller, Times Staff Writer
October 20, 2006


When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. went on the block in 2004, Sony Corp.'s Howard Stringer so lusted after the studio's coveted library that he told his boss he would resign if he didn't win a last-minute bidding war with Time Warner Inc.

Stringer, who at the time headed Sony's U.S. arm, figured the library's 4,000 film titles would give Sony more clout with DVD retailers and fuel the growth of its high-definition Blu-ray technology.

Stringer's resignation wasn't required: He engineered a clever deal to buy the storied studio for $4.9 billion with a consortium of investors that shouldered most of the financial risk.

But the deal that Stringer hoped would help cement his legacy has instead marred it.

In late May, amid rising tensions among the partners, MGM's board voted unanimously to dismiss Sony Pictures Entertainment as its domestic DVD distributor after it failed to meet performance goals. It was a humiliating blow for Stringer, who lost control of the very prize he was after. Sony now finds itself on the sidelines.

Stringer, who declined to comment, acknowledged the fiasco in July at Herbert Allen Jr.'s media retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho.

"Are you happy with the MGM deal?" goaded Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney Co., who was moderating a panel discussion.

Flanked by rival media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, Stringer made a rare concession for a chief executive: "We screwed up," he told the elite crowd of his peers.

How Sony lost control of MGM is a tale of corporate miscalculation, boardroom drama and power plays.

At a time when private equity firms are using their treasure chests to gobble up corporate assets, Sony's experience as a minority shareholder serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of hooking up with investors motivated solely by quick financial returns.

The deal hasn't been a total wash. Sony remains a 20% investor in MGM and is sure to recoup its initial $250-million investment. MGM's commitment to Blu-ray remains intact, giving Sony an edge in a format war with Toshiba Corp.'s competing HD-DVD technology. And Sony Pictures gets to share in the proceeds of the James Bond sequel opening next month and a future installment of the popular spy series, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue.

But being jilted as MGM's DVD distributor in favor of News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox movie studio cost Sony at least $50 million a year in future fees, not to mention public embarrassment in Hollywood and on Wall Street.

The first human casualty came last month, just as Fox officially took over as MGM's global DVD distributor. Sony fired the veteran president of its home entertainment group, Ben Feingold, who had been responsible for selling the MGM and Sony movie catalogs to the Wal-Marts of the world.

Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton acknowledges that losing the MGM distribution rights was a disappointment. He attributed the loss to several factors, including Sony's weakness in selling older library titles. "In the course of things, we discovered that distributing catalog was not a strength of ours — a situation we have since remedied," Lynton said in an interview.

The MGM debacle was particularly bruising for Stringer, who has been fighting battles on several fronts since June 2005, when he became the first non-Japanese chairman of Sony Corp. The 2-year-old Sony BMG music joint venture with Bertelsmann championed by Stringer has been plagued by internal power struggles. Apple Computer Inc., with its iPod, has claim to the most popular portable music device, one-upping Sony, which once had the lead.

Thursday, Sony dramatically reduced its earnings forecast because of the costs associated with a massive global recall of its computer batteries and a price cut in Japan for the new Sony PlayStation 3 game console.

The MGM deal was a bold move for Sony, which normally had approached Hollywood with caution, rarely making acquisitions. Under the deal structured by Stringer and Rob Wiesenthal, financial chief of Sony Corp. of America, the consumer electronics giant put up a fraction of the total purchase price, $250 million, but got control of domestic DVD sales. Sony would collect a hefty annual distribution fee, receive a stake in at least two new James Bond movies and retain the right to eventually buy out its private equity partners.

Yet Sony didn't get a majority stake in MGM. With a 20% holding, it had only three seats on the 13-member board, which includes representatives from MGM and the equity firms.

When DVD sales fell behind projections, a concerned Providence Equity Partners Inc., MGM's lead investor, persuaded the company's board to hire entrepreneur Harry Sloan.

Sloan, who had recently cashed out of a multibillion-dollar media company he had built in Europe, took over as MGM chairman last October. Almost immediately, he drove a wedge between Sony Pictures and the private equity firms, persuading the partners that MGM would be more valuable as a stand-alone studio than as a pared-down label inside Sony that had shuttered its production and distribution operations.

With Sloan's arrival, Sony's original plans for MGM were all but abandoned. In short order, Sloan announced that MGM would reenter the theatrical distribution business, take back worldwide home video and TV rights from Sony and set itself up as a global TV distributor. MGM now plans to co-finance big-budget sequels from the library, including "Terminator 4."

"It's gone in a very different direction," said independent media analyst Harold Vogel. "It was presented to the investment community as a library play that would enhance the position of the Blu-ray format."

At Sony, internal conflicts had erupted even before the ink on the deal was dry. In New York, while Stringer and Wiesenthal were lining up financing, not everyone at studio headquarters in Culver City was as gung-ho.

Feingold, a 15-year Sony veteran who had helped build the studio's lucrative DVD business, had strongly opposed the acquisition, said studio sources who didn't want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Feingold, who didn't respond to an interview request, had worried that the library, with such classic titles as "Midnight Cowboy" and "Dr. Zhivago," had been over-exploited.

"He thought the market had matured and [DVD] pricing had eroded and that therefore the library was overvalued," said a source familiar with Feingold's thinking. When they were considering buying MGM, Stringer and Wiesenthal had questioned whether the library was "a melting ice cube" but concluded it wasn't, said one Sony insider.

The value was uncertain partly because a small number of MGM titles — about 10% — accounted for 80% of the library's sales, according to people who have seen the figures.

For his part, Lynton, whom Stringer had recently hired to head Sony Pictures, thought the deal made strategic sense and enlisted cable giant Comcast Corp. as a last-minute investor to help outbid Time Warner.

But neither Lynton nor others at Sony realized how arduous integrating MGM would be. Sony said the transition — which included firing all but 400 of MGM's 1,500 employees — would take at least 18 months. Sony's private equity partners pressed for faster action.

Lynton said he quickly learned that the studio was better at selling new releases than older titles, which require more promotional finesse.

Sony's dreadful year at the box office in 2005 didn't help either. Flops such as "Bewitched" and "Stealth" meant Sony had no new releases popular enough to drive sales of older MGM or Sony titles.

To boot, the once-hot DVD market had suddenly cooled.

"The transition was more difficult than we anticipated, and it happened that at the moment we were having a particularly bad year theatrically, which was a distraction and didn't give us hits to drive the catalog," Lynton said, adding that the downward drift of the DVD market was an unexpected blow.

The MGM library's cash flow plunged by an estimated 25% to 30% under Sony's direction.

Sony's failure to hit its numbers infuriated the private equity investors, which had hired McKinsey & Co. to evaluate Sony's performance. The firm concluded that MGM had lost market share under Sony.

"The board meetings became increasingly uncomfortable," said one Sony executive who requested anonymity because the meetings were private.

Lead investors Providence Equity and Texas Pacific Group declined to comment.

Said a source close to the consortium who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue: "We were hoping Sony would be able to develop a higher level of catalog expertise, but that didn't happen. That was highly disappointing."

In May, MGM's board voted unanimously to exercise a clause in its contract with Sony that allowed it to drop the studio after one year if certain performance goals weren't met.

Fox made a play for the distribution rights, offering to pay a guaranteed $625 million over two years. At last count, Sony was generating less than $300 million a year from that business.

Sony turned down a chance to match Fox's guarantee and keep the MGM contract. Lynton declined to say why, although insiders said Sony lacked faith it could attain those financial results.

Sony's three MGM board members, including Lynton and Wiesenthal, even voted in favor of Fox's taking over.

Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Research, said that though Fox had distinguished itself in DVD distribution, all studios could struggle next year, when, he predicted, DVD sales decline for the first time.

The upshot of the MGM ordeal was a bitter pill for Stringer.

In danger of losing the auction to Time Warner, Stringer had begged his boss at the time, Sony Corp. chief Nobuyuki Idei, for a nonrefundable down payment of $150 million that would help Sony take the lead. He had told Idei he would resign if Sony lost to Time Warner and had to forfeit the deposit.

Sony or partner Comcast could still end up owning MGM when private equity investors cash out. And getting a backer for Blu-ray was "important for Sony to swing the balance of power," Greenfield said.

But it remains to be seen whether the deal was worth the effort.

"You'd have to ask why Sony went through the exercise of buying MGM. What did they win? There are some benefits but also some huge costs," said Vogel, citing lost distribution fees, the time-consuming process of dismantling and integrating MGM's operation and the public relations liability.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[email protected]

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

A deal unspools

September 2004: Sony, Comcast Corp. and three equity firms — Providence Equity Partners Inc., Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking — outbid Time Warner Inc., agreeing to pay about $4.9 billion for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

April 2005: The deal is completed. MGM begins shuttering production and distribution and slashing its staff of nearly 1,500.

October 2005: Media entrepreneur Harry E. Sloan is named MGM's chairman and chief executive.

March 2006: MGM announces it is relaunching its domestic theatrical distribution business with films financed by outside producers including Weinstein Co. and Lakeshore Entertainment.

May 2006: MGM board votes unanimously to drop Sony Pictures as domestic distributor of its movies and television shows on DVD and makes a global deal with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, which had been handling its international sales. MGM announces it is dumping Sony as the worldwide distributor of its TV shows and bringing that operation in house.

July 2006: At Herbert Allen Jr.'s media retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer says during a panel discussion that his company dropped the ball in distributing MGM's DVD sales. "We screwed up," he said.

September 2006: Sony Pictures fires Home Entertainment President Ben Feingold, who was responsible for handling MGM's DVD sales.

Source: Times research

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Who owns MGM?

Breakdown of MGM ownership:

Providence: 29%

Texas Pacific Group: 21%

Sony: 20%

Comcast: 20%

DLJ: 7%

Quadrangle: 3%

---

Source: Times research

God damn it...I have my preorders and want to make some damn money!! Sony better not screw me.....I guess I shouldnt be so surprised.

It is a little late but I wanted to comment on the Talladega Nights/PS3 thing...

First off, it is sad some fanboys will try and imply that it means it is the best selling bluray disc and will compare this to actual software sales. Seriously, I have GOT to have faith no human is that stupid so please, people who imply that cut the fanboyish "logic" out...it KILLS any value you may have in what you say. A free disc is just that- a free disc. Also, if Kong is included with 500k add-ons that get sold does the same "logic" apply there or do you suddenly flip it and say that it is (logically) a free movie and should not count as a software sale?

Second, I don't think people even attempt to see the negative in this.

-So this system is shipping with composite cables. Joe Smoe buys his PS3 and sees it comes with this bluray movie. He doesn't read any of the info with it/the system so he slaps it into his player that is hooked up via composite. He plays it and sees the PQ is the same as DVD. He then says "bluray's a waste." Contrary to what many HT geeks think, not everyone who will buy this system knows wtf is up with these new formats.

-Joe Smoe buys his PS3 but hates this movie and thus slaps it up on fleabay. Good for him but does nothing for Sony and could be a negative if there are 932659832659832 different people doing the same thing since many may see this disc up and think something is wrong with it or the format.

-Joe Smoe buys his PS3 while his friend John Public who already has a xbox360 buys the hd dvd add-on. They get together to peep these HD discs. They find out Kong looks incredible compared to Talladega Nights, which IMO WILL happen since Kong should rule all HD. Joe Smoe then goes online to see if Kong is out for bluray or when it will be out. He sees that it is a hd-dvd exclusive. He gets pissed.

It isn't hard to grasp these things that could/will happen. I do think it was good for them to include a movie but unlike some fanboys, I don't think it is nothing but positive and could backfire in some cases. Also add to the fact NOT EVERYONE BUYING A FOCKING PS3 CARES ABOUT BLURAY MOVIES and one who actually is willing to use their brain can see this isn't sooooooo great like some fanboys are trying to say...but i guess when you are being a blind fanboy you must refuse to be logical and show an oucne of intellgience and will reach for anything.

As for Kong being included with the xbox add-on...this makes a lot more sense and is a FAR better idea since you KNOW the damn drive is being used for movie playback. Also, it was by far the bigger/more successful movie and will no doubt have the better PQ and SQ and I am POSITIVE it is desired by more people than talladega Nights. The only negative here is people who may not like the movie and thus could flood fleabay wiht copies.

This stuff isn't hard to grasp yet it seems some fanboys on the web can't see it.

If you are new to these formats what would be the better first impression...Kong or Talladega Nights? Exactly.

Logic...not that difficult

Thank you rlindo. I agree with everything that you said. I have always felt that people buying the $200 Xbox add-on know that they are getting into a new format. And for that price, I'm sure that they even spent some time researching HD DVD and know how to hook it up correctly. The vast majority of people with the PS3 on the other hand won't care too much about BD or HD DVD for that matter. All they want is a great game system. People who think otherwise are going to be in for a big shock.

The Philips BDP9000 has been spoted at a Walmart stock room with a release date of November 18th and a price of $898.

BD-50 and thier differences to SD-DVD counterparts
 

50GB Blu-ray discs not at potential
The earliest titles have few promised bells and whistles
By Susanne Ault 10/20/2006


OCT. 20 | Studios are rolling out the first high-capacity 50GB Blu-ray Discs but with muted bells and whistles that mostly don’t yet exploit the format’s interactive potential.

Some of the 50GB titles coming to market have exactly the same extras as their standard DVD counterparts, with extras in standard-definition. Others have the same features as standard DVD but with the extras in high-def. On some 50GB discs, the space is required just for the movie, like in the case of unusually long films such as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s nearly 3½-hour Kingdom of Heaven. (See table)

Meanwhile, some titles that are being released with Sun Microsystems’ Java interactive technology are on the more common 25GB Blu-ray discs, rather than the heftier 50GB versions.

Nevertheless, studio executives say it is important to show the industry can produce 50GB discs and are positioning them and the Java-enhanced releases as just a taste of what is to come.

“I think right now, we’re just finding an audience” for Blu-ray, said Sven Davison, Fox VP of DVD production. “Putting out Java and 50GB will definitely help scratch the surface of what we can do. At Fox, we have a huge palate for us to play with, but we are just getting on the playground.”


Some of the upcoming discs do contain features unique from the films’ previous releases, most notably new games included on Fox’s Java-authored Nov. 14 releases Speed and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both 25GB discs.

“It’s not going to be like PlayStation,” Davison said of the Fox games. “But it’s a cut above [any of the games] you’ve seen on standard-definition.”

With the Speed game, viewers can choose between trying to activate bombs as star Dennis Hopper or trying to defuse them as Keanu Reeves.

League is a first-person shooter game, and players similarly have a choice of characters and weapons.

“The extra Java features are a great incentive for a fan of a movie to reinvest, but it won’t woo over new customers as much as the quality of the movie itself,” said Virgin buyer Chris Anstey, who recently previewed Speed and League.

Lionsgate’s 50GB The Descent, out Dec. 26, is the first announced Blu-ray title to deliver picture-in-picture bonus feature viewing while the film is playing. The horror flick also includes the unique featurette “Caving.”

All 50GB discs are being manufactured at one Sony Corp. plant in Japan, but very shortly, Sony’s Terra Haute, Ind., facility will offer six lines of production targeted toward 50GB titles, said Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s executive VP of advanced technologies Don Eklund.

Additionally, Eklund noted, Sony is testing two advanced compression technologies—AVC (a.k.a. MPEG 4) and VC-1. They can use disc space more efficiently than the more common MPEG 2, which has been used on all of Sony’s Blu-ray titles so far. Other studios use VC-1, including Warner Home Video, and AVC, including Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

“I think the major benefit to consumers at this moment [with Blu-ray] is that pictures and sound quality is vastly improved,” Eklund said. “In terms of wowing them with new types of added value, we have a long time to really explore that.”

He expects Java technology, which offers maximum interactivity possibilities for Blu-ray, will become “dominant” on discs by late next year.

Overall, retailers seem willing to be patient while sitting at the tip of the Blu-ray iceberg.

“Click is currently our No. 1 seller on Blu-ray, where we sold out of our initial order and have just one left right now of our second order,” DVDEmpire.com editorial director Shannon Nutt said. “It offered bonus features in high-definition, and it was part of the first [Blu-ray] batch to have any bonus features at all. That step is in the right direction, but there needs to be more interactivity.”

Video Buyers Group president Ted Engen believes it’s wise to gradually ease consumers into Blu-ray.

Studios “might be able to put 100 things in this thing, but if the consumer knows how to do 10, [they] just wasted 90% of that disc,” Engen said. “Further down the line, they’ll give us more things that will really change the way we watch movies.”

What you get with 50GBs


Title (Studio) Street Date Features
Click (Sony) Oct. 10 Same as DVD, but in high-def
The Searchers (Warner) Oct. 31 Same as DVD
Unforgiven (Warner) Oct. 31 Same as DVD
Black Hawk Down (Sony) Nov. 14 Custom “Blu-Wizard” menu
Kingdom of Heaven (Fox) Nov. 14 Same as DVD
From Hell (Fox) Dec. 5 Same as DVD
Talladega Nights (Sony) Dec. 12 Same as DVD, but in high-def
The Descent (Lionsgate) Dec. 26 High-def featurette “Caving,” Java-enhanced menu

PS3 won't upscale SD-DVDs
 

DFNYC sent me this...

To be fair, the 360 couldn't upscale DVDs at first, either. It was enabled with a firmware update, and even then, only over VGA.

But why is this surprising? Sony wants to highlight Blu-ray. Considering there are people on AVS who rave about how some DVDs upconverted on the Toshiba look as good as HD DVD ( :rolleyes: ), why would Sony give people a reason to not buy BD by making their DVDs look better? It's not like a standalone player where the purchase guarantees BD movie sales.

Edit: I wanted to add this anecdote from work. I have a regular customer (let's call him Joe) who comes in a daily basis. A fairly well off guy whose brother (who I will call Bob) is loaded. I talk to Joe almost every day about the HD/BD war, so he's about as well informed as we are. He tells Bob that HD is doing better than BD right now. Bob, who just bought a 62" Panasonic plasma TV, had wanted to buy the Panasonic BD player to go with it. When Joe told him BD isn't doing so well, Bob takes it as a personal offense to his Panasonic-lovin' ways. So Bob goes to Magnolia and buys the HD-XA1 and the Panasonic BD player. He buys three discs for each and sets them both up on his new plasma. Two hours later, he calls Joe and says, "I'm going to have to return this Panasonic player. The discs all look awful!"

I'm not trying to bait anyone with that, but Joe just told me about it today and I thought some here might enjoy it.

If the lackluster quality can turn some major Blu-Ray supporters into HD DVD supporters, it kind of makes me wonder why other Blu-Ray supporters are so damn adamant about their position, refusing to acknowledge that it's an inferior product so far. What are they holding on to, exactly?

The promise, I suppose, of an even better product than HD DVD. Thing is, I would wager that most of the BD supporters here were BD supporters because they felt 30GB was too small compared to 50GB. But now we see that it's not the size that counts, but how you use it. ;) And I think more people would sway to HD DVD if they did the same kind of side-by-side comparison Bob did. Note that he knew nothing about either format except that Panasonic made a BD player and that BD was supposed to be the better format.

I think that is pretty much what I said. :scratch2: