I said this the other day, referring to Paramount resuming Blu-ray sales:

Since Paramount, and DreamWorks Animation, were formerly format neutral, releasing both Blu-ray and HD DVD, I kind of expected them to be the first to jump on the news. Paramount probably still has warehouses full of Blades of Glory Blu-ray discs, and other titles they’d already pressed for release on BD before their sudden shift to HD DVD exclusivity. They could start by give those discs a new street date. I’m sure they’ll announce their plans soon.

Well, it seems they did have those warehouses of discs in reserve, as the Blu-ray Stats News Log reports a number of Paramount Blu-ray discs are already back up on Amazon. Babel, Failure to Launch, Four Brothers, Hustle and Flow, The Manchurian Candidate, Mission Impossible III, Nacho Libre, Payback, Reds, Sahara, Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow, U2 – Rattle & Hum, and World Trade Center are all available directly form Amazon now. (They erroneously report Black Rain as being available too. Dave C. reported via a comment that it was available, but has gone back to unavailable.) That’s 13 titles out of the 32 titles Paramount offered on Blu-ray before their switch to HD DVD exclusivity. We’ll probably see more of the titles return soon.

Spotted via EngadgetHD.

Microsoft announced, via their Gamerscore Blog, that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive is being discontinued:

As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market.

See their post for the full announcement. This isn’t surprising, of course, as everyone is pulling out of the format at this point. But it clears up the uncertainty over timing, as well as laying to rest the rumors about pricing changes, etc, with continued sales. At this point the drives will probably end up on clearance soon. If you have an HD DVD collection the Xbox 360 drive could be a good buy as an insurance policy against future player failures. Even if you don’t have an Xbox 360, the add-on drive also works as a PC USB drive.

Via Engadget.

Well, the cease-fire may have been signed, but it’ll be a few months yet before all the troops return home. There’ll still be a few more market share reports and the like. And, of course, in the future there will still be Blu-ray news. Hopefully we’ll be able to focus on newer, better machines, new software, and lower prices.

For the week ending 2/17, the last week before Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD, HD DVD managed to jump back to a 27% share, with Blu-ray at 73%. That put them at 76:24 for the year, and 65:35 since inception. It was clear Toshiba’s efforts were not working, with HD DVD only clawing back to roughly 3:1, from the previous week’s 4:1, which is still a big drop from the 2:1 split it held for most of 2007. Something I found interesting. During the war, Home Media Magazine usually had the BD/HD DVD split graphs right on the cover – this week they’re on page 40. There is also a dedicated Blu-ray supplement on this issue, which includes a list of currently announced 2088 releases through May. And a little article entitled “Format War’s End Kills Bloggers Main Topic“.

Onkyo, which had previously suspended HD DVD player production, has now officially killed their HD DVD players permanently. Since they used Toshiba components it is hardly surprising. They are instead turning to Blu-ray. Development of an Onkyo Blu-ray player has been underway, but no specific announcement has yet been made. Though it seems likely we’ll see it later this year, almost certainly before the holidays. Via Blu-ray.com.

sofatronic’s announces Kaleidoscope software, which makes authoring BD-J applications easier by allowing authors to create applications via a GUI editor. EngadgetHD has a press release from sofatronic about the release. Using the tool, authors can create interacting Blu-ray menus and applications without having to write any Java code. The tool will create the Java code for BD-J automatically. This is exactly the kind of thing I like to see, and hope to see more of. The easier it is for designers and authors to exploit the power of BD-J, the more use it will get.

The release:
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Zatz Not Funny is reporting on a new Bear Stearns report which suggests that DirecTV may return to using TiVo for their DVRs once Liberty Media complete their acquisition of DirecTV:

We believe the new DTV management may be more amenable to renewing a relationship with TiVo. The TiVo HD-DVR offers several advantages over the NDS DVRs, including better user interface, wireless access can provide quasi-VOD service, ad revs would be incremental, and TiVo’s HD-DVR is already cheaper than NDS’ HD-DVR.

We already know that the TiVo HD platform has been designed to serve as a basis for further development. And the DVB-T reference platform, which is TiVo HD derived and forms the basis for the Australian unit, is also capable of being modified for DVB-S – another satellite system. It is logical to believe that the TiVo HD could also be readily modified to be a new DirecTiVo.

TiVo and DirecTV still have a working relationship, TiVo is working on updated software for the current DirecTiVos. And Liberty Media is one of TiVo’s corporate investors, so it certainly makes sense that they would want to throw business in TiVo’s direction. Just as News Corp shifted DirecTV’s DVRs to NDS, as News Corp also owns NDS. Keeping it in the family is a better return on investment.

This is certainly not the first time the rumor has come up since the Liberty Media buy was first announced. DirecTV’s recent acquisition of ReplayTV casts a small cloud on the matter, but it still seems like that buy was for the patents. The patents would give DTV some protection from lawsuits, such as the one TiVo brought against DISH Network, as well as giving them some more leverage in negotiations with other vendors.

EDIT: As I was writing this post I meant to mention that TiVo is participating in the Bear Stearns 21st Annual Media Conference on March 11, 2008. I just plain forgot to include that tidbit somehow.

This weekend Amazon Unbox offers 3:10 To Yuma, No Reservations, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Brave One, all for $2.99 each.

Voting is now running for the 2007 Engadget Awards, and the TiVo HD and Slingbox SOLO are both in the running for Home Entertainment Device of the Year. As much as I love the Slingbox, I think I have to side with the TiVo HD in this case. Go over and vote.

Palm is currently running a curious offer, buy a Palm T|X PDA for $299.00 and get a Palm Z22 PDA, a $99.00 value, free. While supplies last only, and only through February 29, 2008. Limit on per customer.

I suppose if you have someone else who can use the Z22 it is a decent deal. But most people don’t need two PDAs for themselves. The T|X is Palm’s high-end PDA. It has a 320×480 65k color screen, 128MB memory, WiFi (802.11b), and Bluetooth. It also takes SD cards for additional storage. If I were in the market for a PDA, I’d probably buy the T|X. (I switched from PDAs to smartphones personally – my last PDA was the Sony Clie NZ-90, which ran Palm OS.)

The Z22 is Palm’s entry level model, the final evolution of what was their ‘Zire’ line. It has a 160×160 color screen, only 32MB memory, and no WiFi or Bluetooth. A pretty basic PDA, but if that’s all you need it is a good one.

Seems like Palm may be dropping the Z22 since their given them away with the T|X and supplies are limited. Could be clearing out remaining stock.

Get a TiVo factory-renewed HD DVR for just $199.99 with a commitment for 1-year of services at $12.95/month, or one-year pre-paid service at $129. That’s $100 off the $299.99 MSRP. Available while supplies last or until April 2, 2008, whichever comes first. The factory-renewed boxes come with TiVo’s regular product warranty and 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

Paramount has returned to the fold:

Paramount Home Entertainment quietly came onboard via a statement sent exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: “We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer,” the statement reads. “As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly.”

Via EngadgetHD.

If you’re looking for a multi-stream CableCARD, aka an M-Card, for your TiVo HD (and, really, what other major consumer product uses M-Card today?), then this is for you. Sound and Vision Magazine has written a great article which includes their ‘Official M-Card Guide‘.

It is worth a read. The author makes one (common) error though:

Cable Guy No. 2 came by. He removed the old CableCARD from my TiVo (which turned out to be a regular CableCARD — it didn’t say “M-Card” on it) and popped in a real M-Card. He thought the M-Card had the ability for two-way interactivity, so I could order pay-per-view, on-demand, that kind of thing. I explained to him that two-way CableCARDs weren’t on the market yet. He wouldn’t believe me.

I used to be confused about this myself, so I really have to cut him some slack. All CableCARDs are ‘two-way’. I used to be confused because two-way functionality was generally lumped in as a ‘CableCARD 2.0′ feature, along with multi-stream. But that was incorrect. All cards, from day one, are two-way. What wasn’t finalized was the spec for hosts to support two-way. So the cards are two-way, but there haven’t been any two-way consumer devices available. Those are just appearing, as ‘Tru2Way’ devices – the system formerly known as OCAP.

I spotted this via EngadgetHD.