Amazon.com is the latest retailer that seems to be driving home home the symbiotic relationship between PS3 gaming and Blu-ray viewing. In a Blu-ray consumer email I received today, Amazon.com was highlighting both upcoming Blu-ray movies and upcoming PS3 games. 
Makes sense to me. I almost wonder why we don't see more marketing tying a PS3 game with a like-minded Blu-ray movie. Amazon.com's featured film and game titles seem at the least guy-oriented. For films, the site was singling out the upcoming releases of Stargate: Continuum, Dark City (the Director's Cut), The Hunt For Red October and Rolling Stones doc Shine a Light. 
Listed upcoming games were Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, Madden NFL 09, Soul Calibur IV and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. 
...Read More

Comments (0)

Sony executives are being quoted out of E3 that they will be phasing out the 40 GB PS3, in favor of solely supporting its 80 GB model. Starting in September, Sony will launch a $399 80 GB PS3, representing about a significant price drop from its earlier tag.
According to this Seattle newspaper blog, Sony senior VP Peter Dille said the company wanted to make PS3 a simpler purchase for consumers. And at the $399 price, matching the smaller-capacity 40 GB tag, the 80 GB should represent a good deal for people.
But those hoping Sony would eventually discount the littler 40 GB PS3, to coincide with a $399 80 GB PS3 seem to be out of luck. Also to the dismay of some, the new $399 80 GB version, will not feature backwards compatibility with Playstation 2 games. That matches the capabilties of the c...Read More

Comments (0)

A little sarcasm there - but I think these new Blu-ray set-tops will have to start dipping more towards the $250-200 mark before people start really noticing.  True, Best Buy's $329 Insignia, down from $349 in June, is one of the cheapest latest generation set-tops available at retail. The only one lower is Wal-Mart's $298 Magnavox, which is in fact holding the same Funai-built machinery as the Insignia.
...Read More

Comments (0)

If you are like a lot of guys, this question is stupid. Naked girls, of course! Well, this proved to be somewhat of a problem for the 'Blu-ray Lounge,' presented by Playstation and the Digital Entertainment Group party Monday night at the legendary Playboy Mansion.
The main theme of the party, tied into the ESPY sports awards, was to offer party-goers a chance to play poker with professional athletes while mingling with Playboy bunny types. 
Many women attendees were literally naked, wearing only body paint which barely hid their private parts. Playstation and DEG, rightly so, saw this as a fabulous opportunity to plug Blu-ray content at a high-profile media event. It looks like a big goal was to facilitate the press getting footage of famous guests, such as Jose Canseco, playing Playstation 3 or watching Blu-ray films. Various PS3s high-def...Read More

Comments (0)

Blu-ray is getting invited to some very high-profile events this summer. Fox and MGM have set up a Blu-ray screening room inside the DKNY Beach House in Malibu, putting the format dead center in front of partying celebs that stop by this fashionable pad. Blu-ray movies set to screen on a Panasonic 103-inch plasma at this location, dubbed 'Fox and MGM's MaliBlu Screening Room,' include Batman: The Movie, Juno and Live Free or Die Hard.
Also, the DEG and Sony Computer Entertainment are co-hosting a 'Blu-ray Playboy Kick-off Party' this Monday night at the famous Playboy mansion in Los Angeles. Tied to this year's ESPY Awards, many of the invited guests are VIP sports personalities, including Carmelo Anthony, Charles Barkley, Reggie Bush, Jose Canseco and Robert Horry. Party-goers will get access to the 'Blu Lounge,' located alongside the mansi...Read More

Comments (1)

Blu-ray fans became excited about the possibility of a 400 GB Blu-ray disc, as word came out that Pioneer was developing technology that would support that immense sized capacity. 
But according to Pioneer's Andy Parsons, this 400 GB creation is not meant to be a new fangled Blu-ray disc, which currently tops out at 50 GB. He tells me that this is a 16-layer technology that would help to refine Blu-ray hardware playback.
In Parsons words, "It's a proprietary sixteen layer disc with new technology that make it easier for a playback device to see each individual 25 GB layer by rejecting 'crosstalk' from adjacent layers. They are just leveraging Blu-ray optical components, which would mean that any player that would play these new type of discs would also be able to easily p...Read More

Comments (0)

Blockbuster will be introducing Blu-ray rentals into its stores in Taiwan, says Engadget, citing The China Post. By the end of the month, the Taiwan locations will each carry 50 Blu-ray titles, growing to 100 in the next six months. Blockbuseter will help market the new format by setting up demonstration areas powered by Samsung players.
Such international expansion should help the format's establishment. Blockbuster does seem to be shaping up as a signficant force in Blu-ray retail, according recent NPD surveying. Last year, Blockbuster did not place among the top 5 retailers where consumers said they preferred to shop for Blu-ray titles. But after March surve...Read More

Comments (0)

Blu-ray has scored its first official testing center in China. CESI Technology, which just joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, will be in charge of the center in China.
The spin from the BDA camp is that CESI's commitment represents positive momentum for eventual Blu-ray format adoption in China. Thanks to the CESI's center, Blu-ray product development and retail roll-out should be sped up in the country.
Or according to Sumitaka Matsamura, chair of BDA's China Task Force, "The establishment of an official test center in China is critical to the acceptance of Blu-ray Disc in China."
CESI management is hopeful that the center will open up jobs for the country as well as create an effecient marketplace to produce Blu-ray products locally.
At the same time, the BDA announced that the Chinese-based digital...Read More

Comments (0)

With Blu-ray scheduled to hit $1 billion in software revenues this year, it felt like it was high time to drop 'Red State' from the blog's title. Going forward, this blog will be dubbed Blue State.
But the revamped title shouldn't indicate that it's all clear blue skies for Blu-ray, as it still needs to prove it can wow more than just the early adopters. 
It'll be interesting to see how consumers react to Disney's Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray, as it marks one of the first real tests of how families will take to the format. Also, how will consumers be reacting to all these new set-tops launching from Samsung, Panasonic, Sony and Pioneer? For a home entertainment movie/TV format to be successful, it probably needs to become popular beyond a gaming console.
Well, I hope you guys keep checking in on the blog. I promise to work hard to keep it informative and fun.

Comments (0)

In what would be a spectacular differentiator for Blu-ray, there is word that Pioneer is developing a 400 GB disc. In this Blu-ray.com post Pioneer is working on something that would be the 8 times the capacity of what we all thought was the fattest a single Blu-ray Disc could go - 50 GB. The technology has always been there for these super-sized Blu-ray discs. But it sounds like Pioneer has made a breakthrough in getting their 400 GB creations to play on current Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray.com says that Pioneer will likely break more information on its 400 GB project during the Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage conference in Hawaii next week.
If Pioneer succeeds in bringing a 400 GB Blu-ray Disc to market, that would make for some helpful format marketing. One of Blu-ray's adopt...Read More

Comments (0)

This has got to hurt. Playstation 3's lastest firmware offering, which improves gaming capabilities, has tripped up at least one user's console so that it refuses to turn on. 
Hours after the firmware's download availability, users began complaining that the firmware was inoperable. Sony promptly pulled the upgrade, according to several reports such as this BetaNews story.
It appears that just a small number of PS3 users reported problems to varying degrees in downloading the firmware. Sony promises the upgrade will be tweaked and soon ready for downloading again.
Although Sony went into quick damage control, this can't be a great advertisement for BD-Live, right? If people become afraid...Read More

Comments (0)

Circuit City has placed all of its Blu-ray set-tops on sale this week, spanning models from Sony, Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Panasonic. Depending on the player, savings vary between $20 to $50. But in all cases, the models are selling below the $399 mark, which has been the going average for some time.
Set-tops do need some promoting these days, since they are running a distant second to Playstation 3, which offers a gaming system and a Blu-ray player for the same $399 tag.
Most of Circuit City's sale-priced set-tops represent last year's models. Panasonic and Sony will be launching their first B...Read More

Comments (0)