Netflix has done a deal with Starz Entertainment, immediately adding 1,000 titles to Netflix’s streaming service, with 1,500 more to follow in the coming weeks. Following on Netflix’s deals with Disney and CBS to stream current and back episodes of TV content, this is a solid step towards increasing the relevance of their streaming service. The largest drawback to the service to date has been the dearth of first tier content.

From The Hollywood Reporter.

Amazon and the Tribeca Film Institute have partnered to digitize rare films, launching ReframeCollection.org. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Launching Monday at ReframeCollection.org, the site will provide free digital copies of video and “at-cost” conversion of films to content owners, then rent or sell the digital download or DVD versions on a nonexclusive basis. Reframe will use Amazon’s DVD on Demand service for physical copies and its Unbox service for digital downloads to rent or sell.

The site is launching with 500 titles, which should expand to 1,500 over the next few months, with a goal of 10,000 within the next year. This could add some interesting rare content to Amazon Unbox, and hopefully it will be available via Amazon Unbox on TiVo.

Tuesday, March 4th, will see the last HD DVD releases from Paramount and DreamWorks Animation - Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire, both from Paramount. All previously announced HD DVD releases due after 3/4 are canceled. Those titles are Bee Movie (3/11), The Jack Ryan Collection (3/25), The Kite Runner (3/25), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (4/1), and There Will Be Blood (4/15). So, while Paramount and DreamWorks Animation were the last major studios to official announce the end of their HD DVD effort, it seems they will be the first to actually drop the format due to the abrupt nature of their plans. They did the same thing when they switched from format neutral to HD DVD, canceling Blu-ray releases that were already in retailers’ hands.

This means no high-def releases from the two studios for a couple of months, as they plan to begin distributing their films on Blu-ray this summer. I imagine that the HD DVD films that were dropped will be undergoing a crash remastering effort for Blu-ray. Picked up from High-Def Digest, Video Business, and The Hollywood Reporter.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that ‘reliable industry sources’ tell them Toshiba is finally ready to give up on HD DVD and will pull the plug ‘in the coming weeks’. Toshiba, of course, maintains that no decision has been made:

Officially, no decision has been made, insists Jodi Sally, vp of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. “Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings,” she said.

But she hinted that something’s in the air. “Given the market developments in the past month,” she said, “Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players.”

They also report that, for the week ending 2/10, BD took 81% of disc sales to HD DVD’s 19%. That would be a large backslide for HD DVD from the previous week’s 74:26 split, almost back to the 1/27 82:18 split. And this with heavy discounting on HD DVD players, a Super Bowl ad that reportedly cost Toshiba $2.7 million, and a number of concurrent promotions on both players and media. They also caught a few Blu studio converts that I’d missed:

Blu-ray support among independents is rising. ADV Films, Tai Seng Entertainment, Topics Entertainment and National Geographic have all confirmed they are going Blu-ray exclusive, while more than one indie that was releasing titles just on HD DVD, including Surround Records and Opus Arte, will now offer Blu-ray as well.

This is still firmly in the rumor category, but it really seems inevitable. Toshiba cannot continue to bleed red ink on every HD DVD player they sell. Their deep price cuts were also deep cuts to the corporate wrist. A desperate cry for attention - but one that doesn’t appear to have worked. The only upside could be clearing out stock from their warehouses so they aren’t stuck with too many units when they finally announce that HD DVD is dead.

Picked up from High-Def Digest.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Blu-ray is seeing explosive growth in Europe. Just two months after reaching the one million unit mark in movie sales they’d reached the two million mark. Media Control Gfk International reports movie sales total 2.4 million units, accounting for 79% of high-def discs sold to date across Europe. The sales period before Christmas was especially strong, with over 500,000 BD discs sold, besting HD DVD 3:1. BD is also growing faster than DVD did after launch:

“DVD-Video was first introduced into Western Europe in 1997, and the following year some 230,000 DVD players were installed and 2 million discs were sold through,” the group said. “In comparison, Blu-ray Disc made its first tentative launch in Western Europe in 2006, and the following year some 3.2 million PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles and 34,000 standalone players were installed, while 2.3 million Blu-ray discs sold through.”

Via Blu-ray.com.

In hardware news, What Hi-Fi? Sound And Vision reports on Harmon Kardon’s Blu-ray plans. At a product launch in Munich Harmon Kardon announced that they’ll be releasing a BD player at the IFA Show in Berlin in September, priced between £450-£500 (the site is in the UK). Details have yet to be announced, but HK also stated that they will add additional BD systems to their lineup, including an all-in-one system, next year.

More incredibly, HK says they’re working on a high-end HDD/BD recorder. The specs are pretty extreme:

Harman Kardon is also working on a Blu-ray/HDD recorder that can record up to eight channels of TV. The DVC 600 digital video entertainment centre (above) has a 1 Terabyte hard drive, twin built-in digital TV tuners and can record up to eight standard- or high-definition TV channels simultaneously.

What’s more, a ninth channel can be recorded in the background using the manual or automatic timeshift function, and a tenth channel can be viewed at the same time. Quite when you might have time to watch all your recordings is another matter.

See What HiFi? for more details. Via Blu-ray.com.

And Home Media Magazine had some kind words for Blu-ray from Lionsgate president and Co-COO Steve Beeks:

Beeks said Lionsgate Blu-ray revenue in January was about seven times higher than last year. The studio has already shipped as many BD releases this year as in entire 2007.

“We expect the industry to unite behind Blu-ray by the summer, which should drive the current HD market to triple in size from $300 million in 2007 to more than $1 billion this year,” he said. “It is exciting again to have a true growth opportunity in home entertainment as we expect Blu-ray revenue to be largely incremental in the near term.”

Things continue to look pretty good for Blu-ray.