Universal Wants "Wanted" Blu to be Wonderous

Universal Studios is betting that Wanted  is going to be the Blu-ray release that's going to explode the Blu-ray business. Universal's Craig Kornblau has been quoted as saying, "What The Matrix did for DVD, Wanted could do for Blu-ray." Although the trailers look hot, putting this much pressure on a Blu-ray release, even before the theatrical release is a bit optimistic, don't you think?

Blu-ray Hacks Begin: Region-Free Player

Before Blu-ray has even been completely accepted into American households, the hacks have begun. Bluraymods.com is selling two new products: a completely region-free Panasonic Blu-ray player that they've modified, or a do-it-yourself kit that lets you alter the internal coding to allow the same Panasonic player (DMP-BD30) to play Blu-ray discs from any region. But it ain't cheap.

Samsung Opens BD 'Resource Center'

In case you haven't noticed, consumer electronics has gotten complicated. This is obvious to everyone who has read the 200-page owner's manual for their cell phone. Well, actually, no one has ever read their cell phone manual, but you get my point.

One of the newest complicated technologies is Blu-ray. Buying a player is more than just finding a front panel that matches your coffee table. You need to know some techno stuff. And, many Blu-ray players are able to download firmware to fix bugs or add features. The latter can be a source of frustration for owners, especially because it's often hard to find where the code is lurking on the web.

To the rescue, Samsung has opened the Samsung Blu-ray Resource Center. This website is dedicated to all things Blu-ray. It is bifurcated into one section for owners, and one for would-be owners. The latter "looking to buy Blu-ray" section has a nice FAQ with shopping topics like "what's the benefit of 24p" and "What does Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 mean?" This is undeniably useful information for the first-time buyer. Throw in a bit of advertorial for Samsung products, and it's a good place to begin browsing.

One BEEELION Dollars

Dr. Evil had it right. One billion dollars is a lot of money. Apparently, it's also the lucky number that Hollywood execs are looking for to call Blu-ray a success. They believe they'll hit that number, and are aiming for $2.5 billion at the end of 2009. Optimistic, or naive?

In a report from Home Media magazine, seven studios attending the Home Entertainment Summit all declared that Blu-ray success is coming sooner rather than later.

Blu Better than Film?

In a recent article in Home Media Magazine, movie director Jon M. Chu expresses his opinion that Blu-ray looks better than film. Chu is the director of Disney's Step Up 2 The Streets, and will be named Breakout Director of the Year by the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) at their Home Media Expo 2008, June 24-26 in Las Vegas.

According to Chu, "The Blu-ray high-def disc wins by a mile." In particular, the upcoming (July) Blu-ray release of Step Up 2 The Streets, a dance-intensive film, offers a far better picture than the theatrical print. Speaking of the Blu-ray release, Chu says, “It’s beautiful. The colors just pop. You get to see because we play a lot in the shadows. That’s what we wanted to do and sometimes the print was a little dark to me . . . On the Blu-ray, just consistently you know what you’re getting and you can play in those shadows. You can see it and it doesn’t feel dark. It just feels moody.”

Continuing, Mr. Chu apparently worries that Blu-ray might offer too much detail, for example, revealing production mistakes. He says, “Well, you definitely get to see more wires from the camera. There’ll be like a sandbag or something somewhere.

ray, Blu-ray, Coming to the U.S.A.

As we predicted last month, Bond's going Blu. Blu-ray, that is. Just announced from MGM and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, the same six titles that were being released in France will be available in the States, just one day after their October 21st European release, not November. Scheduled for release in late October are: Dr. No, Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball. The timing couldn't be better.

Blu What?

Important! Wake the kids! Breaking news! The newest breakthrough in consumer electronics is . . . DVD!!! 

At least that's what Toshiba thinks. You'll recall Toshiba was the prime mover and shaker of DVD, and hoped to continue its revenue stream with HD DVD. That plan was foiled when Sony's Blu-ray trounced HD DVD. In March, Toshiba announced it would cease all HD DVD production. So, what does Toshiba do now? It pretends that Blu-ray doesn't exist. Kind of weird, but if you can't beat them, who says you have to join them?

Bore Your Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandchildren

The year is 2208. The bad news: the earth is so toxic that even intergalactic invaders avoid the planet like the plague, which in fact is rampant here. The good news: Your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren can be bored out of their minds (while living in their small plastic barrels buried at the Martian north pole) watching old videos of your summer vacation in Oklahoma City.

Thanks to Japanese disc specialist Delkin, those old BD-R discs will still play just fine. In particular, Delkin has announced its Archival Gold BD-R discs, said to last 200 years (or 200,000,000 miles, whichever comes first). Because your time is valuable, the discs feature a 4x read/write time, allowing you to burn 25 GB (that's about 33 CD-Rs, folks) in only 23 minutes.

Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up to BD-Live

The long-awaited addition of BD-Live features to Blu-ray releases is over. Well, the wait will be over soon. Disney has previewed the BD-Live functionality on Sleeping Beauty at a recent conference in Hollywood. Word is it looks good. What family doesn't need Movie Chat Instant Messaging, Movie Mail to share videos, and an online interactive game? Don't tell your kids yet, though. It's not scheduled for release until October. However, there's more exciting news from Disney.

Sucking Up to Blu, In a Bad Way

As you'll recall, Paramount came up a loser in the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle. Its exclusive support for HD DVD proved to be as adept as the $100 I put on Big Brown at Belmont. DFL, as they say. Anyway, Paramount is now embracing its inner Blu — kind of. Its first BD movies were released on May 20 (with the corpse of poor HD DVD still warm in its grave). And seriously good titles like There Will Be Blood arrived in early June. Still playing catch-up, Paramount has also launched a Blu-ray support web site, designed to pump BD, and to show that Paramount's strong support of HD DVD was all just a bad dream. Actually, speaking of recurring nightmares . . .