http://w.hdbeat.com/2006/08/23/blu-ray-disc-assoication-press-conference-on-august-31-at-ifa/ http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...ts/Fox_to_Announce_First_Blu-ray_Releases/192 Rumors online suggest that the "key partner announcement" would be Universal pledging support to Blu-ray, meaning that BR would have pretty much 100% of the movie studios on their side. It doesn't make much sense why they'd do that now though...unless the moneyhats came out (or they totally forgot about the PS3 or something). It isn't like the performance of BR so far should lead them to change their minds (though both formats are selling like crap...just that BR is selling even more like crap than HD-DVD). Not sure who else would be a "key partner" though. The only other real options I can think of would be companies even more entrenched in the HD-DVD camp (Toshiba, Microsoft, Intel...uh...think that's it); everyone else is pretty much already a key partner to the BDA. Sounds like they're hyping the PS3 stuff too much though. There isn't much to reveal regarding it, except for maybe a few extra details on its BR movie-playing capabilities. Also, Warner will be using the VC-1 codec for their upcoming BR movies. For those that don't know, most of the BR movies released so far (mostly by Sony) have used MPEG2, while most of the HD-DVD movies (mostly by Warner and Universal I believe) have used VC-1; VC-1 is a MUCH better codec to use under these circumstances (better quality at same or lower bitrates than MPEG2), so HD-DVD movies have had the edge in PQ and extras (especially since the BDA has had problems mass producing DL discs, meaning that their movies have used 25GB discs while HD-DVD movies could use 15 or 30GB movies...usually 30GB IIRC).
I seriously doubt Universal will be supporting Blu-rry in the near future. Out of the 3 major studios backing HD-DVD at the moment, they're releasing by far the most titles. They're reportedly set to release some big ones in November including King Kong and The Mummy. They're also including TrueHD audio tracks on most of their upcoming releases. As for WB using VC-1, that's good to see. Of course, they're still dropping Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD tracks in favor of basic DD 5.1 due to limited space. And let's not forget that Sony still refuses to switch from MPEG-2 and PCM 5.1 audio which is killing the transfer quality of the majority of their titles to date. If the PS3 doesn't deliver a decisive blow to HD-DVD this fall, Sony is in big trouble.
Yeah, it certainly doesn't seem logical for Universal to start supporting BR now. If anything, it would been a while back, back when every other studio pledged support for BR. The only reason I can think they might do this is that the BDA has "persuaded" them to do so. Obviously, they've had some problems with the launch of BR, and they might be more willing to try and end this now. And again, even though Universal seems unlikely, I can't think of a partner that would be more likely to join the BDA. Unless they're just hyping up a rather small move (some insignificant company offering support…some small CE company pledging to make players or something). Perhaps everyone just wants a way for this to end, and Universal supporting Blu-ray would be a way for this to end (or get us closer to it ending). Yeah, I don't get why Sony didn't use another codec for the SL discs. Even if they didn't want to use VC-1, they've always been pretty big on the MPEG4 AVC codec, which they've used a lot with the PSP. This probably won't be that big of a deal if/when Sony starts using DL discs (think some of their bigger holiday releases are rumored to use them). MPEG2 is supposed to be superior to other codecs at really high bitrates (according to Sony...yeah), so they might actually be better off using it on the 50GB discs. That still doesn't excuse them for not using something else on the 25GB discs though. A lot of companies in the BDA would be in trouble. Still, while I don't know what they're expecting from the PS3, it will probably make some sort of impact. Seems like 1-2M PS3s will be sold in the US by the end of year (assuming Sony is able to meet their estimates); when I last saw the sales numbers for BR and HD-DVD (back in the end of July I think), less than 30K units had been sold (like a ~2.66:1 ratio for HD-DVD). I'm not sure what the expectations are for people buying the PS3 to play BR movies, but even 10% would be like 100K-200K. While the PS3 would help, I think the usage of 50GB BR discs and usage of other codecs (especially on SL discs) might have a bigger impact (especially since some studios seem to be waiting for one or the other before releasing their movies). Right now, BR is more expensive and inferior (for the most part) to HD-DVD. With an extra 20GB of storage to play around with, at least BR could look superior.
So the big partner announcement was... http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060831/20060831005204.html?.v=1 Well, that was completely underwhelming, especially since I thought Sun was already a member (Blu-ray already uses Java). Some movie announcements from Fox and MGM though: http://home.businesswire.com/portal...d=news_view&newsId=20060831005232&newsLang=en http://www.homemediaretailing.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?sec_id=2&&article_ID=9606 I guess the biggest thing there is that we're seeing more movies announced using the DL discs, and Fox will be using the AVC codec for some of their movies.
Told you it wouldn't be Universal. As far as the Fox announcement, only Speed and Kingdom of Heaven DC really interest me. And from their press release, it appears they're dropping a lot of extras from their titles just like Sony and Lionsgate have been doing.
Yeah, as I said earlier, it didn't make much sense for Universal to provide support, but at the time, I also didn't think it would make sense for some other large force in this industry to pledge support since I thought most of the relevant ones already had...nor did I think that one of the biggest contributors for Blu-ray wasn't actually a member of the BDA, and that it was now time to announce their partnership. It would have been nice if it was Universal though. As for the dropped extras, that does suck. At this point though, I'd rather they work on getting the video and sound quality up to par, rather than wasting space on extras (mostly just my opinion since I don't ever watch them...except for maybe the commentaries occasionally, which it looks like most of the movies still have). They should just do multi-disc sets like they're doing with Mission Impossible 3 IIRC...maybe even sneak in a DVD disc for all the extras since they can probably be in SD anyway.
Actually, the IME feature on some of the HD-DVD titles is really cool. It's like having a scene-specific audio commentary and behind-the-scenes documentary playing while you watch the movie. I sampled about 10 minutes of the one for The Bourne Supremacy. And as far as I'm aware, Blu-rry doesn't offer this feature so far. In fact, M:I-III will reportedly include it on the HD-DVD release, but not on the BD one.
