The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

There are a couple of minor omissions, but on the whole the set is absolutely worth your time and money this holiday season, so do check it out. Enjoy! Also, in announcement news today, Warner Home Video has FINALLY set John Boormans long-awaited Excalibur for Blu-ray release on 3/8/ The title, which had previously appeared on HD-DVD, will include all the extras from the DVD release, including audio commentary by Boorman and the films trailer. Id say thats about enough for the moment. Ill be back to check in with additional release news tomorrow. Ive got a few more bits of information for you from last weeks Blu-Con conference, and then Ive got to get working on a major Blu-ray review that I hope to post later this evening or early tomorrow morning. I hope you all had the chance to check out the video of my panel discussion from Blu-Con on bringing classic films to Blu-ray. See Fridays post. Those of you interested in the topic will be very pleased to learn that, in one-on-one discussions with many of the studio reps on hand at the event, I was told almost across the board that 2011 is going to see significant increases in efforts to deliver deeper catalog titles and classic films on the Blu-ray format. The general belief among studio decision-makers seems to be that were now crossing a threshold or tipping point for the market. Catalog sales are increasing reportedly double-digit growth and enough Blu-ray players are now in the hands of consumers to warrant greater catalog efforts. I dont think its any mistake that studios like Universal have recently stepped up their catalog BD efforts, and I would expect that trend to continue from all the major studios going forward. Certainly, the recent announcement that the Star Wars films are coming to the format next year can only help encourage this. Now then, during the afternoon session at Blu-Con, Andy Parsons SVP of Pioneer Electronics and chair of the Blu-ray Disc Associations Promotions Committee gave a presentation on the current state of the Blu-ray format that included some statistics and information I thought you might all be interested to hear. Andy was kind enough to provide me with a copy of his report Thanks, Andy!, so here at the By the end of 2010, there are expected to be 25 million households with TV-connected Blu-ray playback devices, including stand-alone players and PS Source: Adams Media Research Considering that there are currently some 115 million TV households estimated by Neilsen, that means Blu-ray is installed in over 1/5 and is approaching 1/4 of all TV households. The adoption curve for Blu-ray is fairly consistent with that of DVD in its first 5 years there were roughly about 30 million DVD players in homes at the end of the same period, including stand-alone players and PS By 2015, Blu-ray format penetration is expected to hit 45% in the, with some 20% of that capacity BD3D capable. There are currently over 3, 000 Blu-ray software titles available in the States. At the same time, the unit sales numbers for Blu-ray software are effectively doubling every year. This year, theyre up 116%, or 94% for 200 Source: Adams Media Research BD player sales in Europe are increasing steadily as well, with a current 9 million installed players today, and a projected 7 million installed by 20 Source: Futuresource Consulting BD players also dominate in Japan 65% of all videodisc hardware in the country is Blu-ray, compared to 35% standard DVD. Source: GfK Japan On the Blu-ray 3D front, 19 models of BD3D player are now available, with more due at CES. The expectation is that by the end of next year, anyone buying a new, affordable Blu-ray player model will have a hard time finding one that DOESNT have 3D capability. Currently, there are 8 million 3D HDTVs in the, compared to 3 million regular HDTVs. By 2015, there are expected to be 1 million 3D HDTVs in the compared to 3 million regular HDTVs. Source: Futuresource Consulting What this means in my own opinion is that 3D is definitely here to stay, but as Ive said often its going to have a very slow adoption curve. At Blu-Con, Avatar director James Cameron suggested that autostereoscopic 3D display is possible, and is certainly the future, but deploying the technology widely is probably a good 8-10 years away. Its likely to require a doubling of display resolution to achieve it. Note this Wired article from 2008 about a Philips technology demonstration of the technology. In any case, at some point in the mid-term future, this technology will go widespread. When it does, 3D will become standard, completing the transition thats just now really The Unbearable Lightness of Being slowly started. Speaking of Avatar, some interesting notes on Foxs Avatar 2D Blu-ray: 20% of ALL sales of the title were on Blu-ray. Thats 5 million copies sold in the and 8 million worldwide. Some 24 BD3D titles are expected to be released before the end of the year, not including titles tied to hardware as exclusives, so those 8 million 3D households will at least have something to watch. Source: DEG Digital Entertainment Group By the way, for data recording purposes, the BDA added two new recordable BD specs this past year for both BD-R and BD-RE multi-layer BDXL discs, capable of recording 100GB RE and 128GB R. One other issue: Compared to downloading and streaming, BD provides more than 10x the data rate of the average households broadband connection, currently estimated at 6Mbps. Source: Akamai Bottom line: The Blu-ray format is doing quite well compared to standard DVD, and especially well given the recent recession. Home The Unbearable Lightness of Being sales in general are also finally starting to recover from the recession. All so thats the latest on the Blu-ray format from last weeks Blu-Con 2010 industry conference. We finally have an anticipated street date for Disneys Bambi: Diamond Edition Blu-ray. Look for it to arrive in stores on 3/1/ Meanwhile, Sony has set Easy A for Blu-ray and DVD release on 12/21 SRP 95 and 95, followed by Animal Kingdom on both formats on 1/18/11 SRP also 95 and And Paramount and Comedy Central have set Gabriel Iglesias: Im Not Im Fluffy for Blu-ray release on 1/11/ Heres a look at the cover art for DreamWorks Dinner for Schmucks due 1/4/11, along with Sonys Easy A and El Mariachi/Desperado: Double Feature also Okay, with a little luck Ill be back later tonight definitely by tomorrow morning with that big new Blu-ray title review. The aforementioned James Cameron MIGHT have had a little something to do with it. Stay Okay, more interesting announcement news First, DreamWorks and Paramount have officially announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of the comedy Dinner for Schmucks on 1/4/ Extras will include deleted scenes and 5 featurettes including The Biggest Schmucks in the World, The Men Behind the Mouseterpieces, Meet the Winners, Schmuck Ups and Paul and Steve: The Decision, all in HD. The DVD will include just the deleted scenes and 2 featurettes The Biggest Schmucks in the World and Schmuck Ups.