Amazon is running another Blu-ray sale, this time you buy any four of 22 Warner Blu-ray discs along with an eligible player, and you save $100 by entering code AMAZONBD when you check out. The Blu-ray titles range in price from $16.95 to $25.95. There are three eligible players: the 80GB Sony PlayStation 3 for $399.99, the Sylvania NB500SL9 for $199.98, and the Samsung BD-P1500 for $211.73.

Personally I don’t think the Sylvania is worth consideration. It is a Profile 1.1 deck, one of the many rebadged versions of the Funai NB500. With the Profile 2.0 Samsung less than $12 more, there is no point in considering the Sylvania. So it really comes down to the PS3 vs. the BD-P1500. They’re both Profile 2.0 / BD-Live with the latest firmware. The PS3 is generally reviewed as one of the best, if not the best, BD deck available, but the Samsung is no slouch either. So if you’ll use the PS3s other features - gaming, broadband content downloads, etc, enough to justify the extra ~$200, go with that. Otherwise the Samsung is a solid choice and a good value.

According to the offer details, it is running through December 31, 2008. Though I expect they may shuffle the products available in the bundle over the next few months.

From Blu-ray.com

According to China Tech News, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has approved eleven Chinese firms, ncluding TCL, Malata, and Desay, to begin producing Blu-ray players and discs, starting in 2009.

While some HD DVD die hards pointed to CH-DVD as if it were some kind of phoenix in the form of which HD DVD would rise from the ashes, it looks like even those hopes have been dashed. The BDA points out that since the demise of HD DVD, Chinese manufacturers have been flocking to Blu-ray, and that while the number of members in the BDA has increased to 187, the number of members in the DVD Forum (which backs DVD and HD DVD) has decreased from 240 to 163! The BDA last fall began evaluating Chinese codecs for inclusion in the BD specification. China has made support of the codecs a requirement for any advanced format released in China, and the codecs were the main difference between HD DVD and CH-DVD. This license development could hint at progress in including those codecs to support a domestic BD release in China.

Video Business reports that high-end consumer electronics retailers expect Blu-ray players to begin outselling DVD players as early as this August, riding a wave of increased player availability and lower prices. On a dollar basis, retailer Crutchfield is already reporting that Blu-ray is outselling DVD 60:40, but that’s largely due to the higher prices on BD decks.

The current Home Media Magazine has a product guide which provides an overview and comparison of the forthcoming Blu-ray players that have been announced. It is worth checking out if you’re thinking about buying a BD deck. Personally I wouldn’t even consider a Profile 1.1/Bonus View deck at this point - stick with Profile 2.0/BD-Live - at least BD-Live Ready.

From Blu-ray.com and Blu-ray Stats.

Rumored last September, and announced in January, Funai’s first entry into the Blu-ray player market is beginning to appear on store shelves with an MSRP below $300. The Funai NB500 Blu-ray player has appeared on Wal*Mart shelves as the Magnavox NB500NG9 with a $298.00 price. The player is Profile 1.1 aka Bonus View, so no BD-Live capabilities. But it is the lowest priced Profile 1.1 player, by far.

Funai OEMs hardware for a number of brands. The NB500 is also the Sylvania NB500SL9, and is expected to appear under the Emerson, Insignia, and Pye brands as well. The owner’s manual for the Magnavox deck is available online as a PDF. According to the manual (page 14), the system is capable of bitstreaming advanced audio codecs such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD HR/MA over HDMI, but it cannot internally decode them. If LPCM output is selected instead, then Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD fall back to Dolby Digital, and DTS-HD falls back to DTS. A similar fall-back happens if you use the coaxial digital output for audio instead of HDMI. Video output is supported as 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p/60, and 1080p/24.

All in all it doesn’t seem like a bad player, if you can forgo BD-Live, for under $300.

From Blu-ray.com via EngadgetHD.

Great news for film buffs and Blu-ray fans alike, Criterion has announced their Blu-ray plans. Starting in October Criterion will be releasing Criterion Collection titles on Blu-ray. The high-def Blu-ray releases will have all of the bonus features of the standard definition DVD releases, and, even better, at prices equivalent to the standard definition releases. Criterion has released the list of their first BD lineup:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

This is great news. Criterion releases are fantastic, and getting them in HD will be awesome. Picked up from Blu-ray.com.

And, fulfilling the inevitable, following their earlier announcements, Paramount has stated that they’ll be re-releasing all of their back catalog Blu-ray titles. The re-releases will be identical to the original releases, down to the SKU. Basically they’re just putting them back into production as-is. Via High-Def Digest.

Ever since the death of HD DVD the question has been out the HD DVD exclusive studios would enter, or re-enter, the Blu-ray market. Universal announced their plans a couple of weeks ago, and now Paramount has announced their initial Blu-ray plans, which also includes DreamWorks Animation.

Their re-entry into the Blu-ray market will begin with Face/Off, Next, and Bee Movie on May 20th. Following those, two weeks later on June 3rd Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood hit. And then on June 24th their first day-and-date title, The Spiderwick Chronicles, streets.

I am a little surprised that their announcement didn’t mention bringing their existing Blu-ray titles back into production, but I would expect that to follow fairly quickly since the authoring work is done.

Picked up from High-Def Digest.

EDIT: Catching up on some more blogs (I’ve been busy with work the past couple of days) I see that after making their first announcement, Paramount made another one announcing the return of many legacy titles. Blades of Glory, which was pulled at the last minute when Paramount went HD DVD, so late that some copies still found their way to shelves, finally streets on May 20th. In addition many of the titles previously released on BD also hit May 20th: Aeon Flux, Babel, Black Snake Moan, Coming to America, Disturbia, Dreamgirls, Four Brothers, The Italian Job, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow, Trading Places, The Untouchables: Special Collector’s Edition, The Warriors: Ultimate Director’s Cut, U2: Rattle and Hum, We Were Soldiers, and World Trade Center.

Via Blu-ray.com.

Their press release:
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Blu-ray.com has overhauled the player information section of their site. It is a great resource for information on the various Blu-ray players on the market, as well as forthcoming announced players. You can list players by Blu-ray region (A, B, or C), or list them all, search the players, and even compare players to help make your decision.

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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Blu-ray.com had this quote:

Peter Faricy, vice president of movies and music at Amazon.com commented, “The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions. Our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray titles have increased from just over half of our high-definition sales to over three-quarters of our high-definition sales since early January. In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest Selection’ of Blu-ray products.”

Great to see Amazon stepping up as a leader in the market and taking a stand by making Blu-ray their ‘preferred digital format’. You know, as opposed to, say, HD DVD.

I mean, I love Amazon and all, but they could’ve just said “Me too!”