LG To Offer Network Blu-ray Disc Players

I guess Blu-ray hasn’t really taken off according to Sony’s liking (as well as the other partners in the Blu-ray conglomerate), as it sure is taking its time compared to DVDs back in the day where the latter was released. Well, at least it is making inroads after a short but bitter battle with HD DVD, but it has been more than a year now since HD DVD was declared to have given up the fight, and yet not that many people are adopting Blu-ray players in their living rooms. This time round, LG Electronics aim to offer something different for their new range of Blu-ray players featuring NetCast Entertainment Access and Wi-Fi capabilities in the US.

Consumers will be spoilt for choice when it comes to extensive content-on-demand options for instant access to Roxio CinemaNow, Netflix and YouTube content. It does raise an interesting question though – back in the day where there were just a couple of TV channels, we were extremely hooked and would watch anything and everything. Fast forward to today and you have hundreds of channels, where you will still find someone sitting down on a couch, flipping channels and remarking, “There isn’t anything good to watch.” Ironic, isn’t it? Well, the LG BD370 and BD390 Network Blu-ray players were first unveiled at CES 2009, with the latter being the first-ever Blu-ray player to offer an interactive Download-to-Own and Pay-Per-View options, giving consumers the freedom to purchase content from Roxio CinemaNow at the click of the remote. It also boasts 1GB of internal memory to cater for BD Live functionality.

Both models will feature the following :-

• 1080p up-scaling for standard DVDs
• Dolby TrueHD surround sound
• DTS-HD Master Audio Essential
• USB 2.0 Media Host
• 1GB built-in memory (BD390)
• Wireless capability (BD390)

The BD370 and BD390 will retail for $299.95 and $399.95 respectively. Image from ibdcegypt.

Press Release

Source

LG HB954TBW Blu-Ray Player Includes iPod Dock

Sometimes the most ingenious technological advances are really the most obvious. Case in point, the LG HB954TBW Blu-ray 5.1 Home Theater Combo.

I am assuming that it is called a Combo because this Blu-Ray player has a unique feature of a slide-out iPod dock. This feature really is obvious, really. Does anyone know if this is the first Blu-Ray player to offer such a painfully obvious feature? I would have thought that an iPod dock would have been a standard in all DVD players by now.

Unfortunately, my sources don’t have much information about the HB954TBW other than that. Most of them have said that it accepts all iPod models, but it is sketchy about whether or not it will accept the iPhone.

However, the real question is whether or not this will play video content from the iPod on the player. The next question would be what quality the video would be?

According to my source, the LG HB954TBW was on display at CES. However, I remember visiting the LG booth, and I don’t remember seeing it there at all. Well, it did take up a lot of conference space.

We do know one thing: the price. It should be about $1,000, and it will only be sold in Korea.

Source

‘Twilight’ the Top Selling DVD of 2009

The vampires in Twilight might be chaste, but fans of the movie are making sweet love to the DVD, making it the biggest home video release of 2009. That might not be saying much – it is, after all, just the end of the first quarter – but 5.6 million units sold in eight days is a big number.

Twilight is already a 300,000 DVDs ahead of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which was released in early February. And this is really just the first phase. Apparently, only 3% of the business comes from Blu-ray sales, and that’s because Target and Best Buy have a deal to sell the Blu-ray exclusively until May 5th. Still, do the math: That’s 168,000 Blu-ray sales in eight days. Not too shabby.

Source

Blu-ray Prices Dropping Soon

The price of Blu-ray discs will be coming down. Electronista reported earlier today that Panasonic, Philips, and Sony have agreed to form a single licensing firm for the discs. By combining all the required licenses for Blu-ray, DVD, and CD in one place, the new project, once operational, will allow companies to visit one place to acquire rights to Blu-ray burners, discs, and players, which should result in a drop of license prices.

This is a result of a few market conditions. To begin with, you have the economy: Toilet. And then you have the numbers relating to DVD sales versus Blu-ray sales, and while the new technology is slowly gaining ground, that’s just it. It’s slowly gaining ground.

The licensing, believe it or not, is a huge financial concern for manufactures and patent holders. Not too many years ago, a company wanting to make a standard DVD player would have to pay a $15 license for each unit. That’s before anything actually gets made.

Blu-ray Prices to Come Down

Yet Another Terminator 2 Edition Coming Out On Disc

Terminator 2: Judgment Day will be headed to Blu-Ray on May 19th in a special Skynet Edition. True, there is a one-disc version of the Blu-Ray already available, but this is much, much more than that.

To begin with, Lionsgate Home Entertainment has packed over eight hours of interactive features into the Skynet Edition, which includes over two hours of behind-the-scenes videos and multimedia galleries. There is, of course, no coincidence that Terminator Salvation will arrive in theaters three days later.

The fun doesn’t stop with just the Skynet Edition, however. There’s also a Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set, which includes six discs and comes with a 14" T-800 Endoskull, perfect for any occasion. Well, almost. The Complete Collector’s Set has everything ever released on DVD for T2 and you’ll also get a digital copy so you can take it with you wherever your iPod goes. Click to enlarge the sweet new Blu-Ray cover art:

Source

‘Akira’ on Blu-ray Coming In February 2009

Bandai Entertainment has confirmed that the high definition Blu-ray version of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is scheduled for worldwide (including the U.S.) release on February 24th. The deluxe disc, which was originally announced by Bandai Visual U.S., will be released on the Honneamise label with an M.S.R.P. of $49.98. The Akira BD will include both Japanese and English subtitles along with the English dub track, but purists should really enjoy the Japanese track, which will be presented in state-of-the-art 192 kHz 24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1ch sound.

The initial pressing of the Akira BD will include a slipcase and a 32-page booklet. Extras on the disc include two teasers, two trailers, a TV commercial and Otomo’s complete storyboards for the film.

Produced in 1988, Akira remains a hugely important film both in Japan, where it influenced nearly every subsequent anime production, and in the U.S., where it was a major impetus for the growth of anime fandom in the 1990s. While it is silly to think that collectors will replace their entire DVD collections with new Blu-ray versions, Akira is the kind of classic that, because of the quality of the fluid animation and the intensity of its post-apocalyptic storyline, makes a serious case for an upgrade.

Source: icv2.com

Joss Whedon’s ‘Serenity’ Coming To Blu-Ray On 12/30/08

You can catch one of Joss Whedon’s cult-classic films in 1080P at the end of the year. Serenity will be released on Blu-ray on December 30. The BD disc will be priced at $29.98 SRP and will be equipped with BD Live features. The film stars Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass.

Joss Whedon, the Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity.

The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family – squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

When Mal takes on two new passengers-a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister-he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that was once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself.

Special Features: Read more

Batman: Gotham Knight Is #1 In Sales

DVD sales are leading into the opening of The Dark Knight in theaters Friday according to script, with VideoScan rankings for the week ending July 13th putting Batman: Gotham Knight, the new anime feature (see “Batman: Gotham Knight DVD”), #1 and the most recent theatrical release, Batman Begins, #2 as reported by Home Media. Read more

Marvel’s ‘Next Avengers’ Trailer #3

Here is the third trailer for ‘Next Avengers’, set to release this fall on Blu-Ray and DVD.