Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008 - (Page 10)

HIGH-DEF www.homemediamagazine.com Harris Poll Spells Trouble for Blu-ray A By Chris Tribbey new Harris Interactive poll of more than 2,500 U.S. adults doesn’t spell good news for Blu-ray Disc. While 87% of respondents own DVD players, only 4% reported owning a standalone Blu-ray player, while 5% reported owning a PlayStation 3. Only 9% responded that they planned on buying a Blu-ray player in the next year. Two-thirds of respondents said they were aware of the end of the format war, and nearly seven out of 10 said they were aware that Blu-ray had BRIEFS I ENCORE TO GO HD The Encore channel will be in high definition by July, Starz Entertainment said. Movies that will show on Encore HD include: Gone in Sixty Seconds, Cars, The Guardian, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Contact and The – Chris Tribbey Mummy. won. But while nearly a quarter of respondents who were aware of the format war said they were waiting for a winner before buying a player, none had done so by the end of April. “Since Blu-ray Disc player pricing averages more than $300, which is well above the cost for the latest generation of standard-DVD players with upconverters, Blu-ray Disc players may be encountering price sensitivity despite the advanced technology,” said Joan Barten Kline, VP of the Harris Interactive Media & Entertainment Practice. Those who do plan on buying a player are going for a first-generation Blu-ray player (10%) or a PS3 (11%), instead of the more-expensive standalone players that are including profile 2.0/BD-Live capabilities (6%). Only 14% of HDTV owners (one-third of the respondents) said they planned on buying a Blu-ray player at all. Only 6% reported they owned an HD DVD player, and 1% said they owned an HD DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360. Nearly half the HD DVD owners in the poll said they will continue buying HD DVD movies as long as they are available. I MICROSOFT SAYS NO BD DRIVE FOR XBOX 360 Microsoft has denied reports out of China’s Economic Daily News publication that a Blu-ray Disc drive is in the works for the Xbox 360. Earlier in May, the newspaper reported that Microsoft had tapped Pegatron Technology to manufacture Xbox 360s with internal Blu-ray drives, with the new gaming systems hitting stores in the fall. “Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles,” Microsoft told – Chris Tribbey GamePro.com May 5. Panasonic Touts New Blu-ray Players, System By Chris Tribbey NIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Panasonic debuted its third-generation Blu-ray Disc player at its Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory, as well as a complete wireless home theater system with an integrated Blu-ray player. With the wireless SC-BT100 system, Panasonic chose affordability over functionality, giving Bluray consumers one-stop shopping for $999.95, but only a profile 1.1-enabled Blu-ray player. However, the standalone player, the DMP-BD50, adds BD Live (Profile 2.0) functionality and the ability to handle all BD audio codecs, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Retailing in June for $699.95, the player adds an Ethernet connection and an SD Memory Card slot, and employs Panasonic’s Uniphier digital video processor. It upconverts DVD to 1080p. “This is our big brother to the BD-30,” said Takeshi Kuraku, manager of the audio and video U marketing team for Panasonic in Japan. The BD30 (Profile 1.1), Panasonic’s second-generation player, will remain for sale for $499.99. The BD-50 will be only the second BD Liveenabled player in the market, the first being the PlayStation 3. Panasonic DMP-BD50 Panasonic showed off the video of the new player with the BD-30 on two 50-inch HDTVs. The BD50 looked marginally sharper than its younger brother. “We were very happy with the picture of the BD-10 at the time,” he said. “[And] we’ve improved our software compared to the BD-30.” Paul Sabo, national audio marketing manager for Panasonic, showed off the new features on the home theater system, including an iPod dock that plays the music and videos on the Apple device, displays the menus and charges it. The remote control works the iPod as well. “This is the simple, ideal solution for those embarking on the high-definition home theater experience,” Sabo said. While the system only includes a 5.1 speaker set-up, it’s wireless out of the box, upgrades to 7.1 on just the speakers included and can be upgraded to 7.1 channels with the purchase of a supplemental package with two more wireless speakers and a second transceiver, for $199. Sabo was especially proud of the new subwoofer design — which reduces vibration and undesired noise — and the bamboo make-up of the speakers. The system also includes a “whisper” mode for latenight viewing. I BEST BUY, CIRCUIT CITY CONTEST FCC FINES Best Buy and Circuit City Stores issued oppositions to the Federal Communications Commission regarding nearly $1 million in combined ﬁnes levied on the retailers for allegedly failing to remove from shelves television sets that will become obsolete following the transition to digital broadcasts next February. The FCC last month imposed ﬁnes of about $6 million against several retailers and TV manufacturers for allegedly not properly marking dated TV sets and informing consumers about the pending – Erik Gruenwedel digital transition. TOP 20 HIGH-DEF BLU-R AY D ISC Week ended May 11, 2008 LABEL INDEX TOP 20 HIGH-DEF B D M A R K E T S HA R E Percentage of Sales Per Title vs DVD Week ended May 11, 2008 LABEL PERCENT TITLE TITLE H I G H -D E F CO M I NG U P STREETING Bee Movie Blu-ray Paramount/DreamWorks Street Date: 5/20 Cloverfield Blu-ray Paramount Street Date: 5/20 Company Blu-ray Image Street Date: 5/20 National Treasure 2 Blu-ray Disney Street Date: 5/20 V for Vendetta Blu-ray Warner Street Date: 5/20 PREBOOKING 10,000 B.C. Warner Persepolis Sony Pictures Blu-ray Pre: 5/20, Street: 6/24 Blu-ray Pre: 5/22, Street: 6/24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Twister The Golden Compass P.S. I Love You I Am Legend First Sunday Planet Earth: The Complete Series 27 Dresses Over America Juno Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 300 No Country for Old Men Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Casino Royale Independence Day Enchanted Cars Blade Runner: Complete Collector’s Edition Ratatouille Hitman Warner New Line Warner Warner Sony Pictures BBC Video Fox Topics Fox Fox Warner Disney/Miramax Disney Sony Pictures Fox Disney Disney Warner Disney Fox 100.00 91.88 59.22 47.99 43.54 32.88 32.21 28.84 27.15 23.23 22.26 22.05 21.07 16.55 15.48 14.59 14.25 13.05 12.76 12.74 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Over America* Twister Independence Day Blade Runner: Complete Collector’s Edition Planet Earth: The Complete Series Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 300 Casino Royale Cars Ratatouille I Am Legend Hitman No Country for Old Men Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem The Golden Compass Enchanted Juno First Sunday P.S. I Love You 27 Dresses Topics Warner Fox Warner BBC Video Disney Warner Sony Pictures Disney Disney Warner Fox Disney/Miramax Fox New Line Disney Fox Sony Pictures Warner Fox 100.00% 76.93% 55.85% 37.18% 30.35% 27.04% 25.53% 23.46% 18.70% 17.08% 16.86% 16.48% 13.30% 9.34% 8.52% 4.77% 3.17% 2.79% 1.97% 1.89% Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data *Exclusively available on Blu-ray Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data 10 Home Media Magazine May 18–24, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://GamePro.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008

Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008

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.