PS3 2.30 Update Now Available

Tax Day in the United States brings good news if you’re a PS3 owner. Yet another update is now available for the system – this one giving the PS3’s built-in Blu-ray player DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio support.

The 2.30 firmware update also gives users a new version of the online Playstation Store (see photo). The store will also be updating the amount of content it features in the coming days and weeks.

Latest Update To PS3 Coming Soon

Sony confirmed this week that the lastest firmware update for the Playstation 3 - due in April, but possibly available as early as late March - will bring the installed Blu-ray player up to 2.0 profile specs.

Blu-ray 2.0, also known as BD-LIVE, will give users the capability to download further content, get ringtones, play online games, and more - depending on what a particular Blu-ray release has to offer. The new PS3 update will also allow users to run photo and music playlists on their PS3.

The first Blu-ray films with BD-LIVE features are due to release in April. Sony's last PS3 update, if you recall, added picture in picture capability to the PS3.

The Future Is Blu

Paramount has stated that they'll be going back to Blu-ray soon, although they're expected to honor the HD DVD releases they've already announced. Likewise, Universal (who we thought would be last, but weren't) announced their intention to go Blu-ray earlier in the week.

Warner Bros., which was already planning to go Blu-ray exclusive in June, announced that they are sticking with their current plans and will still release HD DVD titles up until that date. The most likely reason for this is beacuse those HD DVD titles are probably already pressed and sitting in the studio warehouses, so they might as well release them.

With all the major Hollywood studios in the Blu-ray camp by this summer, everyone will finally be able to put this format war behind us and concentrate on making Blu-ray the best it can be for the home consumer.

RIP HD DVD

Although the writing has been on the wall for a number of weeks now, the demise of the HD DVD format is coming much faster than anyone expected.

Last week, major retailers such as Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-Mart announced their plans to no longer carry (or at the very least, no longer promote) the HD DVD format. Now comes word from Japan that Toshiba is totally abandoning HD DVD, with an official announcement expected possibly as early as this week.

We suspect that the official announcement from Toshiba will be followed shortly by announcements from studios Paramount and Universal that they will no longer be releasing movies on HD DVD. While the major studios have future HD DVD releases scheduled until at least the end of May, we suspect that some of them might be cancelled, although some of the bigger titles may be honored. We’re also guessing that no future HD DVD release announcements will be made. In short, expect all the major studios to be Blu-ray committed (yes, even the reluctant Universal) by the beginning of summer.

Fortunately, those who invested in HD DVD still have 100s of movies available to watch in HD (although if you don’t have a certain title, you may want to pick it up now while stock can still be found) and the majority of players are excellent upconverters for standard DVD releases.

Hey, at the very least, you may be able to sell yours for a downpayment on a shiny new Blu-ray player.

UPDATE: Tuesday morning, Toshiba officially announced it was getting out of the HD DVD business. Their press release can be read HERE.

Listen To The Bell, HD DVD

It isn’t over yet, but the bell you hear tolling is for the now-struggling HD DVD format. Ever since the announcement a few weeks back that Warner Bros. would be going Blu-ray-only this summer, HD DVD sales have taken a hard hit.

Just a week after Warners’ announcement, Blu-ray beat HD DVD in hardware sales by seizing a whopping 93% of the market. Software sales have decreased for HD DVD as well, including right here on DVD Empire – where Blu-ray has gone from having a 3 to 1 advantage to over a 4 to 1 advantage in sales, and growing. Reports from other retailers have the sales gap even wider. While HD DVD rebounded somewhat in overall sales this past week, the overall trend is clear: more and more people are investing in Blu-ray.

To add to HD DVD’s struggles, retailer Woolworths (not a bastion of hi-def sales to be sure, but a major company) announced that they would no longer stock HD DVD; while some Circuit City stores nationwide have launched clearance sales on their HD DVD player stock, selling them for as low as $100.

Can HD DVD possibly survive? Toshiba will make their last-ditch effort to save the format this coming Sunday: a $2.7 million 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.

Talk about a “Hail Mary”.

The War Is Over! Warner Bros. Turns Blu!

The rumors had been circulating, but the shock was still great.

In a move that can only mean the ultimate end of the HD DVD format, powerhouse studio Warner Bros. announced today that they would be going exclusively Blu-ray. The change will go into effect in May of 2008.

The official statement from Warners’ Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer is as follows:

"Warner Bros.' move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want. The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers."

With Warners out of the HD DVD business, Paramount and Universal are the only two major studios supporting HD DVD exclusively.

Blu-ray Picture In Picture Titles Hit Market

It took a while, but some Blu-ray releases are finally offering the picture-in-picture commenatries that HD DVD has been offering on releases for quite some time. The recent 2.10 firmware update for the PS3 brings those players up to Profile 1.1, meaning the PS3 can now use the picture-in-picture feature, if owers update their units.

Hi-Def DVD Empire got a chance to review two of the upcoming releases that offer picture-in-picture, and we're happy to report that the feature does work as well as HD DVD, although the results are a mixed bag.

The picture-in-picture on the release of Sony's Resident Evil: Extinction uses such a small window for the commentary that the text identifying the speakers has actually been placed outside the commentary box.

On the other hand, Fox's Sunshine gets picture-in-picture right, offering a bigger box for the picture-in-picture commentary, with the picture within (at least by our estimation) being a much sharper one than the one we saw on Resident Evil: Extinction.

With the specs now in place to compete with HD DVD on every level, Blu-ray owners can expect lots more releases with picture-in-picture features to be released in 2008.