Home Media Magazine - September 2-8, 2007 - (Page HD14) blu-ray tour Blu on Tour By Thomas K. Arnold alt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has hit the road to promote Blu-ray Disc. The studio launched a national mall tour to tout the next-generation format’s advantages to consumers, complete with towering widescreens, interactive video game and movie stations, and a mini theater. Disney’s Magical Blu-ray Tour is visiting 18 malls nationwide for a series of three-day runs. The objective is to tackle consumer confusion, both about the two competing high-definition formats and about high-definition in general. A recent study by The NPD Group showed a whopping 83% of reported high-definition disc purchases are actually regular DVDs. “We know this because the titles aren’t available on high-def disc,” says analyst Russ Crupnick. Another study, by Leichtman Re- W Disney is taking its Blu-ray titles on the road search Group, found that nearly half of the 24 million households that have HDTVs aren’t watching high-definition programming of any sort. “Our goal with the Disney Magical Blu-ray Tour is to reach as many people as possible and to help educate the consumers across all demographics,” said Bob Chapek, president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. “Our presentations and demo areas will hold something of interest for everyone, from kids and their parents, to older adults and teens. “Even early adopters won’t be disappointed with the first looks of the bonus materials that we’re rolling out for our future titles. Since high-defini- tion is for everyone, we made sure that the tour elements reflected that as well.” The tour, sponsored by Panasonic, began the weekend of Aug. 17-19 in Los Angeles, at the Topanga Westfield mall in Woodland Hills, and concludes Dec. 21-23 at the Chandler mall in Phoenix. Along the way the Disney Blu-ray road show touches down in such major cities as San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Houston. At each stop, consumers walk around a pair of giant blue towers crowned with widescreen monitors. At more than a dozen interactive stations, they can preview Blu-ray Disc versions of recent Disney animated hits Cars and Meet the Robinsons, and play the “Liar’s Dice” game from the Blu-ray edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. One of the Blu-ray Disc kiosks at the Portland, Ore., stop of the Magical Blu-ray Tour. Photo: Erica Mueller Berliner Studio/BEImages 14 HOLLYWOOD goes HIGH-DEF September 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.