BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 2nd Gen Blu-Ray players confirmed for Europe

We talked about these models last month when they were announced for the US market, but the official confirmation that these will now hit European stores in the next few weeks came today at IFA. The BDP-S350 effectively replaces the current BDP-300 whilst the BDP-S550 takes the place of the BDP-S500. Both feature the usual 24fps True Cinema feature, Bravia Sync, Xross Media Bar and 1080P DVD upscaling.

The 350 is Bonus View Capable but only BD-Live ready out of the box – but a firmware upgrade directly downloadable to the unit via its ethernet port in October will enable this feature.

The 550 on the other hand is BD-Live and Bonus View capable out of the box and features additional audio support with a DTS-HD Master Audio Decoder and 7.1 Ch analogue audio output.

BDP-S5000ES High-End Player Touches Down

Another mouth-watering piece of kit was announced by Sony today at IFA Berlin. Designed to complement some of the other new ES series products we talked about earlier in the week (the SCD-XA5400ES and the 5400ES amp, which in Europe will be prefixed STR and not TA-DA), the BDP-S5000ES has got to be the most highly spec’d Blu-Ray player to date and will surely be at the top of every home cinema enthusiasts’ shopping list. What sets this apart from the other players out there is the quality of the hardware and components. Everything has been designed to give the highest possible performance and best possible audio-visual experience. For example the analogue audio board is isolated from the video and servo sections to avoid interference, and the player offers Linear PCM and HD audio decoding with bitstream output, and 7.1-channel analogue outputs. It will handle all formats up to Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, either decoded internally or output as bitstream.

On the visual front it features a new “HD Reality Enhancer” that continually analyses the image coming from the disc, sharpening edges while not over-emphasising other elements of the picture, reducing the effect of grain on the original filmstock, and increasing the colour depth from the 8 bits on the disc to the equivalent of 14 bits. I will be interested to see how this works in real-life, but it sounds very appetizing. Meanwhile Super Bit Mapping, should ensure smoother colour tones.

It goes without saying that this model is fully BD-Live and BonusView compatible so that you can make the most of all of those Picture in Picture commentaries and multi-angle replays and other live content that is now appearing on more and more BD releases.

A natural consequence of this is that the player has an ethernet port that can be used for directly updating the firmware via the internet on to the unit and of course additional BD-Live content can be downloaded and stored on the inbuilt 1GB flash storage.

The player also features the user friendly XrossMediaBar menu system and comes with full Bravia sync capabilites for control over HDMI.

Here are some more photos of this beautiful unit:

Blu-Ray Releases For August 25-27th, 2008

Another week, another set of Blu-Ray discs hit the streets. A number of new releases will be hitting the streets on different days this week in different parts of the world. I’m going to start with France, as once again they seem to have got some interesting titles coming out this week that have yet to debut on BD in other regions.

The titles that caught my eye on Amazon.Fr were:

Ong-Bak (Thai action / comedy with Tony Jaa)

Taxi 3 (the third episode in the French comedy franchise featuring Samy Naceri – we seem to be working our way backwards through this series of films on BD as episodes 3 & 4 are now both out but the first two films have yet to appear)

The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada starring Tommy Lee Jones

Death Sentence (a pretty grim tale featuring Kevin Bacon about the consequences of revenge, from director James Wan)

All of these titles have yet to appear on BD in the US or UK. The big release in both these regions this week is Heroes. Available either as a boxset of Seasons 1 & 2 or in individual sets for each series. I thought both seasons of Heroes were very good in places, but Season 1 got a bit too caught up in its own plot twists halfway through the season and struggled to work its way back out of a corner. Season 2 on the other hand was not as bad as some reviewers have made it out to be, but overall still lacked some of the dramatic punch of the start of the franchise.

The full list of releases this week for the US reads as follows:

• Action Starter Pack (Universal)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (Warner)
• Afro Samurai: Season One (FUNimation)
• Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar Live! (Rhino)
• Dude, Where’s My Car? (MGM)
• End of Days (Universal)
• Heroes: Season One (Universal)
• Heroes: Season Two (Universal)
• Miami Vice (2006) (Universal)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (Walt Disney)
• Pale Rider (Warner)
• Postal (UMVD)
• Redbelt (Sony)
• U-571 (Universal)
• What Happens in Vegas (Fox)

Blu-Ray Releases For August 19th, 2008

A new week of Blu-Ray releases for the third week of August brings some rather interesting movies. Out of the ten movies listed, I’ve only seen one. Prom Night was a better than expected horror movie, but I did see it with two girls (8 and 10) that I babysit sometimes. The scariest moments in the movie were amplified as my arm was being grabbed every time a loud noise or an unexpected moment happened in the movie. I can’t remember if they covered their eyes, but honestly, it was the perfect introductory horror movie for a younger adult. Camp Rock seemed pretty interesting, anyone see it? The inclusion of Justice League: Season One is an interesting trend: Will we see more animated movies in HD? Where are my Hayao Miyazaki Blu-Ray movies?

• Camp Rock (Walt Disney)
• Hannah Montana And Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour (Walt Disney)
• Justice League: Season One (Warner)
• The Life Before Her Eyes (Magnolia)
• Nixon: Director’s Cut (Walt Disney)
• Prom Night (2008) (Sony)
• The Proposition (First Look)
• The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (Universal)
• Street Kings (Fox)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete First Season (Warner)

Blu-Ray Releases For August 12th, 2008

It’s that time again – a new week of Blu-Ray releases that cover all the bases. Dead, drug-addicted musicians seem to be the theme this week with The Doors and Elvis: Viva Las Vegas coming out simultaneously. Out of all the movies listed below, The Doors was probably my favorite – it is probably one of Val Kilmers best roles. However, it becomes very easy for one to get tired of the hallucinagenic excess found in the movie, but Oliver Stone had no choice..that was the life of Jim Morisson. I have also heard good things about the movie CJ7, but never had a chance to see it.

• 7 Seconds (Sony)
• Belly (Lionsgate)
• CJ7 (Sony)
• The Doors (Lionsgate)
• Elvis: Viva Las Vegas (CMT)
• Felon (Sony)
• Half Past Dead (Sony)
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (City Lights)
• Maximum Risk (Sony)
• Prison Break: Season Three (Fox)
• The Secret (2008) (Image)
• Smart People (Walt Disney)
• xXx: State of the Union (Sony)

Blu-Ray Releases For August 5th, 2008

I remember seeing Starship Troopers in the theater when I was about 13 years old. I also remember my Father and I leaving the theater about a hour before the movie ended because it was so poorly made. I suppose the graphics were good at the time but honestly the acting and the overall story was just uninteresting. Most males (including myself at the time) who watched it just wanted to see Denise Richards topless. Nim’s Island seemed like a cool concept for children, but even the two girls I babysit (ages 8 and 10) didn’t even want to see it when it came out so I’m not really sure what age bracket that movie appeals to. I would probably get The Counterfeiters or the beautiful Wild China documentary, which I saw recently on cable.

• The Counterfeiters (Sony)
• Epic Conditions (Madacy)
• Korn: Live at Montreux (Eagle Rock)
• Lonesome Dove (Genius)
• Nim’s Island (Fox)
• Robin Hood: Season One (BBC)
• Starship Troopers (Sony)
• Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (Sony)
• Starship Troopers Trilogy (Sony)
• Wild China (BBC)

Blu-ray Movie Discs Could Outsell DVDs By 2011

Market reports in the US indicate that the global sales ratio of Blu-ray movie discs to DVDs will rise to an estimated 40:60 in 2010 and the sales volume of BD movie discs may surpass that of DVDs in 2011, according to Asia Pacific vice president Tim Meade for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE).

The global sales value of BD movie discs as a percentage of all types will increase from 9% at the end of 2007 to 20% in mid-2008, and further to 25% at the end of this year, Meade indicated. This is mainly because the number of BD movie releases is growing considerably. Additionally, the global sales volume of BD players as a proportion of all video players will rise from 7-10% in 2007 to as high as 15% in 2008, Meade explained. During the first half of 2008, the sales volume of BD players in the US and Europe increased on year by four times and six times respectively, Meade noted.

More than 650 movie titles have been released on Blu-ray so far in the North American market, of which 122 are published by SPHE. The figures for the Asian market are 130 and 84 respectively, Meade indicated.

Blu-Ray Releases For July 29th, 2008

Huge list of Blu-Ray releases this week. Alot of great classic action movies from the ’90′s are included, such as: Clear and Present Danger, The Hunt for The Red October, Patriot Games, Top Gun – they will probably sell quite well. Both Harold and Kumar movies are debuting which should satisfy the high definition appetites of the potheads amongst us. Leave a comment with your preferred choices, if you wish.

• The Band’s Visit (Sony)
• Beowulf: The Director’s Cut (2007) (Paramount)
• The Big White (Echo Bridge)
• Clear and Present Danger (Paramount)
• Dark City (New Line)
• Doomsday (Universal)
• Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (New Line)
• Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (New Line)
• Human Body: Pushing the Limits (Image)
• The Hunt for Red October (Paramount)
• The Lost Boys (Warner)
• Lost Boys: The Tribe (Warner)
• Mortuary (Echo Bridge)
• Never Back Down (Summit)
• Patriot Games (Paramount)
• Perhaps Love (Tai Seng)
• Robin Hood: Season One (BBC)
• Salvage (Echo Bridge)
• Shine a Light (Paramount)
• Stargate: Continuum (MGM)
• The Sum of All Fears (Paramount)
• The Tiger Blade (BCI)
• Top Gun (Paramount)
• Vengeance (2006) (BCI)

Sony Announces Availability of Multi-Codec Video Encoder for Professional Blu-ray Disc Authoring

Sony Creative Software, a leading worldwide provider of professional video and audio production applications, today announced the availability of Sony’s new multi-codec video encoder for Blu-ray Disc authoring developed in conjunction with Sony Electronics and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Originally announced by Sony Electronics at NAB 2008, the BAE-VX1000 encoder is priced to bring high-speed, high-quality Blu-ray Disc authoring within reach of smaller studios.

“As Blu-ray Discs become consumers’ high-definition format of choice, industry demand for affordable and powerful studio encoding tools is rapidly expanding,” said Dave Chaimson, Sony Creative Software vice president of global marketing. “The BAE-VX1000 encoder was designed to meet the changing needs of the growing professional encoder market. It can decrease total encoding time by up to 30 percent over the previous Sony BAE-VA700 solution through enhancements such as parallel capturing and pre-processing and increased encoding algorithm efficiency.”

Multiple Format Compatibility

A multi-codec design enables BAE-VX1000 encoder compatibility with most common Blu-ray authoring applications, such as Sony Creative Software’s Blu-print. It offers the option of using H.264 AVC or MPEG-2 technology to give production professionals more flexibility, depending on their project deadlines, client preferences or individual workflow requirements. MPEG-2 encoding for traditional DVD authoring is also available in the BAE-VX1000 encoder.

Auto Customize Function

To shorten recording times, the BAE-VX1000 offers an Auto Customize function. This can automatically detect parts of the picture that are difficult to encode, then perform multiple encoding using up to five possible bit rates set up in advance. When two-pass encoding of the entire title is finished, users can review these multiple versions and select the most suitable one based on its picture quality and disc size.

Frame-by-Frame Customization

Each encoding parameter can be customized frame-by-frame for best picture quality. The graphical user interface shifts to another color to indicate where the parameters have changed. After customization, segment encoding allows users to input the smallest range required for re-encoding. This delivers optimum picture quality in the shortest time by avoiding the need to re-encode the entire title.

Scalable Three-speed Configuration

Engineered to suit individual production needs, the BAE-VX1000 offers multiple settings to give Blu-ray Disc producers the most flexibility, while not compromising picture quality. An “Express” mode supports AVC real-time encoding with one PC, when encoding speed is the top priority. When using additional networked processors, “Fast” and “Quality” modes are also available to meet higher performance and quality requirements. The BAE-VX1000 also offers a built in real-time AVC elementary stream decoder that improves the efficiency of quality checking procedures.

Supports Single and Multiple PC Networks for Optimum Studio Flexibility

The BAE-VX1000 encoder can support a simple and affordable single PC configuration that can accomplish AVC encoding in real-time, which is ideal for smaller production houses. The encoder can also be easily expanded to a networked distributed processing configuration, offering large-scale studio encoding studios a new and affordable tool for greater operational flexibility.

Pricing and Availability

The BAE-VX1000 encoder is offered as a turn-key system priced at $55,000 U.S. The system is compatible with 64-bit operating systems on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, XP and Vista. For more information, please visit: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/bluprint.asp?page= otherencoders (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser´s address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

Blu-Ray Releases for July 22nd, 2008

This week’s Blu-Ray disc releases are pretty solid as most of the movies grossed nearly or above $100 million in box offices worldwide. Movies like The Perfect Storm, The Mummy series, and 21 should be quite popular. I was quite excited at seeing Daft Punk’s Electroma (thinking it was a concert or something), but after watching some of the movie on Google Video it seemed to be a little too esoteric for my tastes. I will note that Electroma has a solid musical score, however. Anyone picking up any of these titles?

• 21 (Sony)
• The BBC High-Definition Natural History Collection (BBC)
• Daft Punk’s Electroma (Vice Records)
• Earth: The Biography (BBC)
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Sony)
• I Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony)
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (City Lights)
• The Mummy Returns (Universal)
• The Mummy (1999) (Universal)
• The Perfect Storm (Warner)
• The Scorpion King (Universal)
• Urban Legend (Sony)