Pioneer Unleashes A PS3 Killer

For those of you that have been waiting for a "PS3 Killer" the time has come to open your wallets and dig deeply.  That's right, break out those moth eaten bills, and $2200 of them, and feast your senses on one serious bit of Blu-ray hardware: the Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD. 

While the PS3 may satisfy most, Pioneer's latest effort is for the more serious videophile, or at least one with their own trust fund.  Before you squawk at the pricetag, realize that this oversized box is more than just a Blu-ray player.  It also can handle your home theater audio duties as well.  It better do something to justify its 50 pound heft.  At least for this price, it does support the latest BD Live spec!  This kind of cash also gets you an Ethernet port, and not one, but two HDMI ports, as well as any other port you might actually ever need.

While this piece of hardware is not for everyone, it's always nice to see what the top end of the market is doing.  Who knows, maybe if you ask Santa nicely, you'll find one under your tree in the not too distant future...

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Netflix Blu-ray Box

On the heels of this week's story about Netflix jacking up raising the prices of Blu-ray disc subscription plans, we get the news of Netflix streaming media coming via the internet, and not from your postman.  I don't know about you, but such a box is a long time coming because even with free services such as Hulu, I'd much rather watch content on my TV set than on my computer monitor.  For the record, I have a 26" LCD TV, and a 19" LCD monitor, but it's the sofa that definitely is the tie breaker for the television set.  Anyhow, here's the details on the box:

LG's BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will begin streaming Netflix movies in the US this September. The player will cost "well under $500" and allow Netflix members to stream more than 12,000 standard definition TV and films through the device at no additional increase to their monthly paid subscriptions. Members will use the Netflix website to add movies or TV to their individual instant queues. Movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds when selected from the TV where users can browse, make selections, read synopses, rate movies, and fast-forward / rewind video streams using the BD300's remote control.

Details are sketchy at this point.  I'm sure that this will require some serious bandwidth to pull this off, but Fios users can put their high speed connection to use.  Another obstacle is many folks don't have an internet connection hooked up to their TV, so there will likely be some home network modifications necessary to get this box online.  However, I'm really intrigued by the idea of that many movies on tap.  Oh yeah, and the box is a Blu-ray player as well so "one box to rule them all" might apply here.  Maybe not rush to cancel Netflix quite yet...

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Blu-ray At A Premium

In our current economic times, it was surprising that Netflix was able to offer the generally higher priced Blu-ray discs for the same price as their DVD's.  In the world of hi definition, it was one of the few bargains out there.  Anyway, it appears that the party is over, and Netflix is adjusting their prices northward:

Netflix is about to taketh once more (this time from your wallet), with CEO Reed Hastings noting on a recent conference call that the promised Blu-ray premium would be instituted "very shortly." Specifics weren't mentioned, but we are hearing that the new pricing will be applied across its entire subscriber base "based on how the tests go."

Are those "tests" a head count of the stampede of angry consumers canceling their subscriptions?  How much more do you guys think is a fair premium to watch our movies in hi def?

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Blu-ray Lounge

When it comes to hyping (and sometimes overhyping) and product, nobody can hold a candle to Apple.  Still, you've got to respect Steve Jobs and the attention he can garner when it comes to a new product launch such as the recent iPhone.

Me thinks the Blu-ray folks would like a little bit of that hype.  So far, no one is taking off from work to buy a Blu-ray player, or lining up in droves, and not camping out for a lace in line.  Be that as it may, the Blu-ray camp while winning the format war, is still trying to get the average consumer's attention:

Backers of Blu-ray disc are attempting to significantly ratchet up the format's appeal to consumers through a series of high profile marketing events and promotions....

Entertainment and sports guests were given access to a "Blu-ray Lounge" surrounding the mansion's infamous pool and grotto and played new PS3 games and watched new Blu-ray movies and rock concerts.

Well, a poolside party at the Playboy mansion is certainly one way to get everyone's attention, although it doesn't exactly say "family friendly entertainment system."

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Sony Profile 2.0 Player Available

There has been plenty of talk of there not being any Blu-ray Profile 2.0 players out there.  In fact, up until now, the only way to get the Profile 2.0 player was it purchase a PS3.  This has probably pushed plenty to purchase the game machine, which is a pretty fine player in its own right.  The one complaint from the nongamers is that they end up overpaying for more machine than they will use.

Curiously, from Sony which makes the PS3, they are now shipping a dedicated Blu-ray player that has Profile 2.0 capabilities.  Here's the latest:

Sure enough, Sony's BDP-S350 -- which was first introduced/spotted in February -- has gone on sale at Sony Style retail outlets, the Sony Style website and other fine retailers near you. If you're looking for a quick refresher, this Profile 2.0-compliant deck supports BonusView (picture-in-picture), but curiously enough, Sony mentions that "a firmware update enabling BD-Live is planned [for] later this year."

The only "fly in the ointment" is that it is selling for $400- which is identical to the price of the PS3.  Seriously, let's hope they can drop the price because we are buying less functionality than a PS3, right?

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Faster Blu-ray Writing

When any writable optical media debuts, it's always at the pedestrian 1x speed.  So it was for CDR's, and this held true for DVDR's as well (in both the "+" and "-" varieties).  As the technology matures, with better drives and higher quality media, the speeds increase to something that doesn't require a Presidential term to write one disc.

Here's a sign that writable Blu-ray technology is maturing:

Panasonic, which introduced the world’s first dual-layer 1X BD-RE Blu-ray Disc in 2004, 2X BD-R/RE discs in 2006, and 4X BD-R disc in 2007, is now launching the world’s first 6X BD-R to meet consumer demand to write and read large amounts of data at a higher speed. The new 6X discs have a maximum data transfer speed of 216 mbps, which is 20% faster than that of 16X DVD-R discs. This transfer speed, along with the discs’ high capacity, allows consumers to use these discs for a variety of applications such as storing high definition video or backing up PC data.

Well, that's a pretty quick transfer speed, and I'm wondering with another speed jump if the discs can be written faster than the rest of the computer can supply the data.  With the high cost of Blu-ray writable media, they better use some type of industrial strength, bullet proof, Burn-Proof write scheme, or these drives will make the most expensive coasters ever seen.

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One Billion Dollars!!!!

No, you don't have to insert the evil laughter soundtracks from Dr. Evil in an Austin Powers film.  However, the not so small sum of one billion dollars is the goal, for this year that Hollywood hopes to make on Blu-ray.  Here's what the studio execs have got to be bullish about:

One billion dollars.

That’s the magic number for Blu-ray Disc sales this year, according to a majority of the home entertainment studio presidents at transFORMATions, the seventh annual Home Entertainment Summit, held June 16-17 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. If they can hit that number, they’ll start opening the champagne.

And you can make that $2.5 billion by the end of 2009, they said.

I have to say, it seems a little optimistic to me, and I'm not sure I'd recommend chilling the bubbly quite yet.  Actually, it seems more than a little optimistic given the greater economic conditions taking into account the economy as a whole, and the decrease in disposable income.  However, with HD DVD out of the equation way, it will be exciting to see how close Blu-ray gets to their goal.

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Win a Blu-ray Player with Blurayfreak

We, at Blurayfreak, are so happy with the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war latest developments that we want to celebrate!

We want to celebrate with you the readers, Blu-ray fans, and movie lovers. And to show our happiness, we are going to give a Blu-ray player to one of the RSS subscribers and commenters.

That's it! Just subscribe to our RSS feed (you can also subscribe by email in the left sidebar) and leave a comment on any of the posts, and you're automatically registered.

The winner will be selected randomly on March 19th 2008 and announced on the RSS feed.

Do you have a blog? Link to us and you're in too! (don't forget to let us know you did though...)

Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Announced a New External BD-Rom (DX-4O1S)

Philips & and Lite-On is introducing a new (and their first) BD-ROM drive to the market.  With a USB 2.0 connection, the Lite-On DX-4O1S brings portabilty and accessibility to Blu-ray. 

The drive’s USB interface is a great feature where consumers can easily use a standard USB cable to connect to virtually any PC in the world,” says Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at PLDS.

The DX-4O1S BD-ROM retail pack comes with the latest Cyberlink Power DVD software for playback of Blu-ray disc media, DVD, or CD multi-media content.

The device can read virtually every format available including BD-R/RE/ROM, Single-layer or Double-layer media at 4X maximum. Single Layer DVD ±R or DVD-ROM can be read at 12X max, while Double Layer DVD±R and Single Layer DVD±RW can be read at 8X max. CD-R/RW/ROM has a maximum read speed of 32X. Cyberlink Power DVD is also include with the BM-ROM.

The DX-4O1S Blu-ray BD-ROM drive should be available next March in the US with a retail price of $299.99.

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HD DVD is Dead. The Format War is Over. Blu-ray Wins

Just like predicted, Toshiba officially pulled the plug on HD DVD. The format was is officially over. Toshiba just made the official announcement in Tokyo.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements.

After a Q&A period, Toshiba said they had no plan to join Blu-ray. That could have been predicted as well, but let's give these folks a break. After all, they gave us a really cool fight to watch in the last two years. No? I would bet that 2008 Holiday season will bring brand new Blu-ray players with a nice and red Toshiba logo...

Read the complete press release after the jump.