Sony officially drops Blu-ray player prices
Sony has officially lowered the price of two of its most popular Blu-ray players, along with adding BD-Live capabilities to one.
Via a firmware update, the BDP-S350 will now be BD-Live capable along with seeing its price slashed $100 USD, to $299 USD. The BDP-S550 will see the same price slash, to $399 USD.
The move marks the first time Sony has officially lowered the price of a Blu-ray player lower than the price of its $399 PlayStation 3 console, which remains far and away the most popular Blu-ray player on the market, from any brand.
The price cuts follow the recent trend of price reductions, with Panasonic doing the same last week and Memorex introducing a $279 USD player earlier this month.
New Wii with hard drive, HD coming in 2011?
According to a new report from What They Play, Nintendo is intent on making a “true” next-gen console but is going to ride the commercial success of the Wii for as long as possible.
Citing insider sources, the report says the upgraded Wii will keep current motion-based gameplay but will add processing and graphics power that can drive HD support. The new console would also include a hard drive, acknowledging the main problem gamers have had with the Wii.
The console will also have backwards-compatibility for Wii games and should also be compatible with Virtual Console games.
The report also says the console would include a new GPU from AMD and a new CPU from IBM, both of which will include provisions to play Wii software without the need for emulation.
When is the expected launch? 2011.
Netflix announces deal with Starz
Netflix has announced another partnership, this time with Starz Entertainment, that will bring 2500 movies, TV shows and concerts to the rental company’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service.
The giant rental company already has a catalog of over 12,000 movies and TV shows available through its streaming service but has been making deals at a rapid clip as of late. Netflix has over 100,000 titles available on DVD however so the gap is still huge between the content formats.
The deals also mean that the company will remain relevant if the world ever moves to digital downloads and streaming and away from DVD rentals, just like the migration from VHS to DVD a decade ago.
Starz says the deal will give Netflix viewers a chance to view the movies online alot earlier than they would otherwise be able to. One example, “Spider-Man 3″ would have not been available for streaming for 9 years had the deal not been struck.
iTunes Store to close down?
Apple has threatened to close down its iTunes store if proposed royalty rate increases for digital music sales pass tomorrow.
The Copyright Royalty Board is set to meet tomorrow to vote on whether to increase royalties 66 percent, to 15 cents a track from the current 9. The rise would either have to paid by Apple, the record labels or the consumer.
Apple is completely against the rate hike and has said it will close down the store rather than absorb the hike or raise the price of a track to over 99 cents.
Eddy Cue, the vice president for iTunes, said this to the Board at the Library of Congress.
“If iTS (iTunes Store) were forced to absorb any increase in the mechanical royalty rates, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all.
“Apple has repeatedly made clear that it is in this business to make money, and would most likely not continue to operate iTS if it were no longer possible to do so profitably,” said Mr Cue.
The NMPA (National Music Publishers’ Association) has repeatedly asked for the royalty rate hike ans believes the move will benefit everyone as the market for digital downloads continues to grow.
“I think we established a case for an increase in the royalties,” added David Israelite, president of the NMPA.
“Apple may want to sell songs cheaply to sell iPods. We don’t make a penny on the sale of an iPod.”
Apple says they currently pay 70 percent of total revenue from digital music sales to the record labels which then passes a percentage on to the artists.
[More]>>
Dell begins pre-loading movies on new PCs
PC giant Dell has announced that it will begin pre-loading movies on some of its new PCs.
Beginning with the blockbuster hit Iron Man, Inspiron 1525 notebooks and XPS 420/630 can optionally have a digital copy already installed on the PC when you purchase it. The digital copy will also come with bonus special features.
The company says you cannot burn the copies to DVD but you can share them around a network using a Windows Media Extender such as the Xbox 360.
Dell says it will have titles from all studios but will focus only on blockbusters or classic movies rather than offer an entire catalog. The optional digital copy will be priced at $20 USD like its DVD counterpart but there was no word on whether that is standard pricing.
There was no technical details available about the digital copy but it will most likely have over 4000Kbs video bitrate and at least 192Kbs audio bitrate, just as most digital copies have now.
RealNetworks sues Hollywood over RealDVD
Earlier this month we reported that a legal DVD ripping application was coming from RealNetworks by the end of the month.
The software, RealDVD, has now successfully launched today and with the launch RealNetworks has also announced they have filed a lawsuit against the major Hollywood studios hoping to have the court rule that the program “fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.”
The suit names the DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Disney, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Twentieth Century Fox among others.
RealNetworks claims that the software “allows consumers to securely store, manage and play their DVDs on their computers” and “does not enable users to distribute copies of their DVDs.” It also mentions that RealDVD adds another layer of DRM to the ripped movies which makes it much harder to move to films off the computer that has the program installed. RealNetworks said in a statement. “For nearly 15 years RealNetworks has created innovative products that are fully legal, great for consumers, and respectful of the legitimate interests of content creators and rights holders. RealDVD follows in that tradition. We expect to successfully defend our right to make RealDVD available to consumers and consumers’ rights to use it.”
“We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases,”
Xbox 360 outselling PS3 two-to-one, says Microsoft
Microsoft has made a statement saying that since they cut the price across the board for their Xbox 360 console, the system has been outselling its rival, the Sony PlayStation 3, by a two-to-one ratio.
Figures from Chart Track seem to back up that statement, saying sale are up 215 percent since the price cut was announced in Europe.
“This data shows that the Xbox 360 trajectory continues upwards, and not just in the UK,” added Chris Lewis, VP of Xbox in Europe.
“We’ve seen uplift in all countries in Europe and are confident that even at this rate of growth we can keep retail satisfied with a steady supply of consoles throughout the Christmas season.”
The company did not however, go into detailed units sales for the last month.
“Our commitment to continuously improving and innovating new content, our new high-profile marketing campaign and the fact that we’re now the best-value next-gen console on the market with an entry-level ERP of GBP 129.99 combine to make Xbox 360 the right blend of gaming and wider experiences at the right price to offer unparalleled entertainment for everyone. And these figures prove it,” finsished Lewis.
‘Jasper’ Xbox 360s begin shipping?
According to the Xbox 360 DVD Drive Database, the new ‘Jasper’ Xbox 360s have begun shipping as of August in the UK and in the US.
The ‘Jasper’ hardware revision is the shrinking of the GPU from a 90nm chip to a 65nm chip which the company hopes will keep the system cooler and significantly reduce the now infamous ‘red ring of death’, the sign that your 360 needs to be replaced.
Overall, Microsoft has spent $1 billion USD in replacing 360s that have failed (mainly from overheating) which has dipped into profits the software maker is making on the console.
The database says the Arcade model is shipping with the Jasper revisions in the UK, the US and other countries around Europe. A new update marked this week shows the Elite model shipping to the US with the Jasper revisions.
‘Dark Knight’ goes BD-Live
While we don’t normally post simple Blu-ray or DVD releases, it is clear that the blockbuster smash The Dark Knight is going to be the biggest Blu-ray release of the year and possibly the biggest Blu-ray release to date, so we felt it was important to write on Warner Bro’s announcement that the film will be the studio’s first BD-Live capable release when it hits stores on December 9th.
According to HDDigest, there will be a standard release and a “limited edition release” and that the “tech specs for the standard version include the 153-minute feature film spread across a BD-50 dual-layer disc with 1080p/VC-1 video (2.40:1) and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio. (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround dubs and subtitles are also provided in English, French-Quebec and Spanish.)
Extras included on the first disc also include “Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene,” a “focus points” version of the film containing behind-the-scenes vignettes with director Christopher Nolan and his team discussing the planning of the film, the use of IMAX photography, the stunts, and more.”
The second disc will feature all-HD extras including featurettes and a collection of six episodes from Gotham Cable entitled “Gotham Tonight.” BD-Live content was not revealed but Warner did say a digital copy will be included in both releases.
MSRP for the title is $35.99 but expect it to retail for $27.95 on Amazon.
Internet Radio saved?
The House of Representatives has unanimously passed the bill that will greenlight an agreement between Internet Radio companies and SoundExchange, the nonprofit organization that collects royalties for the record labels and the RIAA.
In March 2007 the federal Copyright Royalty Board negotiated new royalty rates for digital broadcasters that would have increased the rates to levels where the Internet Radio companies could no longer stay in business. Recently however, before the new rates come into effect, the two sides have been negotiating a deal and the deal seems imminent. There is however, one problem, and that is the fact that Congress is preparing to adjourn until the elections and “because Internet radio companies operate under a government license, any final agreement needs congressional authorization.”
The new bill that passed means the sides can continue negotiatons until February 15th of next year and makes sure that any deal agreed upon while Congress is in recess is legally binding.
Earlier this week, the most popular of Internet Radio sites, Pandora made a call for help asking to get the bill passed through and it seems to have worked. Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora said that if the rates go up then over $17 million of Pandora’s estimated $25 million revenue will go to paying off royalties.
