Home Media Magazine - November 4-10, 2007 - (Page 10)

HIGH-DEF www.homemediamagazine.com Panasonic Bows Next-Gen Blu-ray Player $499 DMP-BD30 supports picture-in-picture and other features By Thomas K. Arnold n a significant development for the Blu-ray Disc campaign, Panasonic unveiled a next-generation Blu-ray Disc player with enhanced interactivity, including picture-in-picture and audio mixing. The DMP-BD30 will ship Nov. 5 and should be in stores nationwide within a week, according to Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, VP of corporate development for Panasonic and GM of its Blu-ray Disc Group. Tsuyuzaki expects stores to have the new player in time for the holiday season “by the bucketload.” The $499 player is the first Blu-ray player with Final Standard Profile, with a variety of new and enhanced features. Among them is audio mixing, which lets users switch sound between the main and secondary windows when using picture-in-picture. The 1080p player also includes an SD memory card slot for playback of high-def content recorded in the AVCHD format. The slot also allows viewing of digital still images recorded to a high-capacity HD SD card. Gene Kelsey, VP of the Panasonic Entertainment Group, said the introduction of the new player should “contribute greatly to Blu-ray’s mounting lead over the competing Report: Consumer Indifference High for High-Def Formats By Erik Gruenwedel he Blu-ray Disc Association is rolling out the stops for a pre-holiday marketing blitz. Select retailers have cut the price of Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player below $200. (See cover.) But new Jupiter Research indicates just 24% of consumers even consider high-def discs when upgrading their home entertainment systems. The report found that an abundant supply of DVDs, versus a limited number of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles, has resulted in little motivation for consumers to adopt. In addition, the study found that the same consumer electronics manufacturers attempting to forward high-def packaged media have undermined efforts by ﬂooding the market with inexpensive players that I format (HD DVD). “One of the more intriguing aspects of the Final Standard Profile is the picture-in-picture feature that allows the movie fan to access a variety of entertainment enhancements, such as having the director or an actor pop up to discuss the scene you are watching, or when watching an animated movie, allowing you to see the actor performing their character’s voiceover, all while still watching the movie,” Kelsey said. The DMP-BD30 also comes with various other technological advances, including deep color compatibility and HDMI 1.3B, which bumps the step gradation from 8-bit 256 all the way up to 12-bit 4,096. The player also provides 1080/24p playback, so the consumer can enjoy the same 24-frames-per-second reproduction as the original movie. Similar to its predecessor, the DMP-DB30 features the EZ-Sync HDAVI Control that lets consumers operate their Panasonic home theater systems with a single remote. With one touch of the EZ-Sync button, all the components turn on, the correct TV input is chosen, the TV’s built-in speakers are muted and the home theater starts playback. The new player, Tsuyuzaki said, “doesn’t take away anything we’ve done — but it does add another level of interactivity for the creative community to express [itself].” T claim to up-convert standard-DVD movies to HD-quality resolution. “The real competitor that both of these formats face is not each other, but rather [these] low-cost DVD players … that pass the ‘good enough’ test for most consumers,” said Michael Gartenberg, VP of Jupiter Research and author of the report. The study found that increased penetration of broadband in households, portability of entertainment between devices and downloadable video content have undermined high-def packaged media. “The abundance of material in such a wide variety of formats is going to make adoption of any single standard very difﬁcult, as consumers may well opt for a combination of what is already available,” said David Schatsky, president of Jupiter Research. BLU-RAY TOUR HITS NEW YORK By Anne Sherber ARDEN CITY, N.Y. — Disney’s Magical Blu-ray Tour set up shop at the Roosevelt Field mall Oct. 26-28. It was the only New York area stop on the tour, which is co-sponsored by Panasonic. Interactive stations showcased Blu-ray features, including movie-specific games, integrated menus and high-def bonus materials. Staffers gave hourly demonstrations of the format’s features on Panasonic‘s new G John Grantham (left) and Eisuke Tsuyuzaki at the Garden City, N.Y., stop of the tour 1080p 42-inch plasma HDTVs. Nearly half the 24 million households with HDTVs don’t watch HD programs because they don’t have the necessary hardware, according to research cited by tour spokesperson John Grantham. About 6 million of those households don’t know they’re not watching HD programming. A steady stream of customers stopped by the interactive stations. Some seemed confused to learn that nothing was for sale. “We knew that consumer awareness and outreach would be important in general,” said Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, Panasonic corporate VP and GM for Blu-ray. “Once [consumers] see it, they get it.” Tsuyuzaki said the tour’s staff hasn’t had to address consumer concerns about format wars because the war is already over. It’s easy to convince consumers that the technology and available content, make Blu-ray a better value, he said. “HD DVD is just a souped-up DVD player. Blu-ray is the real deal,” Tsuyuzaki said. TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS H IG H -D EF SELLER S Week ended October 28, 2007 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS HI GH- DE F S E L L E RS Aggregate by Title Week ended October 28, 2007 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE Cars H IG H -D E F CO M I NG U P STREETING Beowulf & Grendel Blu-ray Starz/Anchor Bay Street Date: 11/6 Best of Action BD & HD DVD Warner Street Date: 11/6 Best of Family BD & HD DVD Warner Street Date: 11/6 Cars Blu-ray Disney Street Date: 11/6 I Now Pronounce You HD DVD Universal Street Date: 11/6 Oldboy Blu-ray Tartan Video Street Date: 11/6 Pixar Short Films Blu-ray Disney Street Date: 11/6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Transformers Heroes: Season 1 Meet the Robinsons Mr. Brooks Hostel: Part II Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead … 300 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse … 300 Planet Earth: The Complete Series HD DVD HD DVD Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray HD DVD/DVD Blu-ray Blu-ray HD DVD Para./DreamWorks Universal Disney Fox/MGM Sony Pictures Disney Warner Disney Warner BBC Video 100.00 47.91 44.88 14.41 13.65 13.01 12.05 11.61 11.26 11.22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Transformers Heroes: Season 1 Meet the Robinsons 300 2001: A Space Odyssey Planet Earth: The Complete Series Mr. Brooks The Shining Hostel: Part II Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead … HD DVD HD DVD Blu-ray BD; HD DVD/DVD Blu-ray; HD DVD Blu-ray; HD DVD Blu-ray Blu-ray; HD DVD Blu-ray Blu-ray Para./DreamWorks100.00 Universal 47.91 Disney 44.88 Warner 23.32 Warner 20.91 BBC Video 17.49 Fox/MGM 14.41 Warner 13.80 Sony Pictures 13.65 Disney 13.02 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data TOP 5 HIGH-DEF BLU-R AY D ISC Week ended October 28, 2007 LABEL INDEX TOP 5 HIGH-DEF HD DVD Week ended October 28, 2007 LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE 1 2 3 4 5 Meet the Robinsons Mr. Brooks Hostel: Part II Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of … Disney Fox/MGM Sony Pictures Disney Disney 100.00 32.11 30.41 29.00 25.88 1 2 3 4 5 Transformers Heroes: Season 1 300 Planet Earth: The Complete Series 2001: A Space Odyssey Paramount/DreamWorks 100.00 Universal 47.91 Warner 12.05 BBC Video 11.22 Warner 10.51 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Home Media Magazine November 4–10, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - November 4-10, 2007

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