The Wall Street Journal has a quick little summary of some of the new ways you’ll be watching movies. Many, if not all of them, are already familiar to us here: BD-Live, watching movies on your iPhone then moving them to your TV, kiosks at Blockbuster that burn burn movies to discs, etc.

Laughably, there’s also a mention of movie theaters’ attempts to draw people to their theaters. Apparently they’re trying to get people back to the theaters by classing them up a bit: fancy drinks (instead of soda) and upscale entertainment (“tinkling pianos in the lobby”). Never mind that the people who would appreciate such luxury already have tremendous home theaters.

Nothing too crazy, though. Y’all are already up to speed for the most part. Besides, we all know the best way to watch movies is to grab ‘em off Usenet then use a long HDMI cable to connect your computer to your TV.

Denon today announced what they say is the the world’s first high-end Blu-ray universal player [JP], meaning it can play Blu-ray discs, SACDs, CDs, DVD-Audio and DVD-Video. The DVD-A1UD (strange name) is the successor of the DVD-A1XV.

Denon says its DENON Link 4th technology (in combination with HDMI 1.3) dramatically reduces jitter, leading to an improved sound quality from all digital sources. Hirofumi Ichikawa, the company CEO, claims Blu-ray, DVD, SACD and CD users will get the best audio and video results they have ever seen.

Internal DTS-Neo6 and DolbyPro IIx doesn’t sound too bad but there is no 24p output for DVDs. Also, BD-Live isn’t integrated yet but should become available with a future firmware update.

The DENON DVD-A1UD will hit Japan at the end of January (price: a whopping $5,800). At time of writing, DENON said the device will become available in Europe in March 2009 with an MSRP of 4,000 Euros. Buyers can choose between a black and a silver version.

Nobody takes the fun out of life more than lawyers and Disney’s 57-page EULA on its Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release. The agreement must be accepted before disc access is allowed and then there is another 63-page Privacy Policy agreement screen before access to BD Live material can be accessed. The whole ordeal is a tad annoying. It’s understandable that Disney wants to protect its assets, but this is a little much.

Hot on the heels of Sony’s BD Live firmware updates comes Samsung’s BD-P1500 BD Live-capable firmware. All owners need to do is update the firmware via the players GUI or by downloading the update on Samsung’s website and then burning it onto a CD to enable BD Live. This update might signal a turning point in Blu-ray’s sales battle as it joins Sony’s BDP-350 as another sub-$300 BD Live-equipped Blu-ray player. 

Samsung via EngHD

Having problems accessing the BD-Live content of Iron Man? Turns out you’re not alone, and Paramount thinks it knows what’s going on: the movie is just too gosh darn popular!

The movie, which was released on Blu-ray last Tuesday, is so popular, Paramount says, that the record number of people trying to access the BD-Live content have overloaded the servers. And when the servers are under so much strain is when you see the connectivity issues.

That being said, Paramount says the issues should be gone by now, as it has shored up the relevant servers.

Also, is the movie any good? I don’t want to waste precious BitTorrent ratio on a cruddy movie.

Well look at that. Circuit City is offering up the LD BD300 for $50 under the launch MSRP of $399. Better yet, the shipping date is only a few days away on October 10, 2008. Amazon however, still lists the unit at $399 so no word if this is the price is from LG or if it’s a Circuit City promotion. Either way, this is one hell of a deal. You get not only a Blu-ray Profile 2.0 BD Live capable player, but also a Netflix streamer. So what are you waiting for? Santa?

Disney has always been in Blu-ray’s pocket and now Mouse & Co. is bringing their 2-ton gorilla to the struggling high-def format. The media company is trying to spur consumer interest about the format with five of their classic animated films. Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Beauty and the Beast are now added to the queue previously occupied only by Sleeping Beauty. These titles will be coming out over the next two years and will all support BD Live.

This strategy might just work. Most AV nerds already have an interest in Blu-ray but the general consumer might not. Why should they if none of the titles watched in their home are available? Sure, new releases come out on Blu-ray but back catalogs are emerging slowly. Households with kids, mine included, will tell you that it’s a great thing that DVDs don’t wear out ’cause the favorites get played multiple times everyday, all week long.

Opening the Disney vault and bringing back the classics will force at least this father to re-purchase the catalog. Other studios should take note and expanded past the action / adventure / thriller genres back releases that are currently coming out on Blu-ray and give us some kid, and dear I say romantic, titles.

 Quick question? Would you purchase more Blu-ray titles if there were more child films available?

Most AV guys will tell you that, currently, the best Blu-ray player on the market is the PS3. That reign is going to come smashing down when the Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD hits the market though. Simply put: this is one bad mother. 50lbs of steel and aluminum, this Blu-ray player is the stuff some guys dream about. Well, maybe just our dreams.

The BDP-09FD is the first Pioneer unit to support Profile 2.0 and BD-Live, 4GB of internal storage, along with some amazing audio and video tech. Each one of the units 7.1 analog outputs are equipped with their own digital to analog converters. Video comes by the way of one of the industries leading image processors and is fed over two HDMI 1.3a jacks. This AV wunderkind even allows for HDMI breakup, allowing one HDMI single to feed the video and the other the audio. 

Obvously, this Pioneer Elite isn’t going to come cheap. But then again, AV elitists have been paying top dollar for equipment as long as it’s been made. Ready? $2,200 and available soon.

Hands on treatment to come at CEDIA.

via Gizmodo

Everyone knows the Blue-ray release of “The Dark Knight” is going to be a must have this Christmas. This could be a lot of people Warner could download content to and promote upcoming projects. I don’t think anyone could pass up this kind of marketing opportunity.

I’m sure most of the fanbois are already aware that 2.2 was let loose earlier tonight, but in case you’re working the late shift or you’re not at home then this is for you. BD-Live is now in full effect.

Now with HD DVD out of the picture, the Blu-ray camp is free to promote the format’s cutting edge technology, no matter how dull that edge may be. USA Today has a puff piece today on Blu-ray’s upcoming Profile 2.0, known colloquially as BD-Live. The new standard, which is scheduled to debut this fall, requires that Blu-ray players have built-in Internet connectivity capability, something all HD DVD players had at launch in 2006.

No, you won’t need a BD-Live player to watch Blu-ray movies, but you will need one to enjoy several new features. Movie studios are loading future BD-Live-compatable discs with things like MoLogs, which stands for movie blog, where movie fans can share audio and video with each other as the movie plays. (Who would want to do that, and why?)

Other more benign features include trailer downloads and extra language tracks. Didn’t the HD DVD version of 300 do that? But Blu-ray’s superior… Apparently free ringtones could also be part of the deal, but unless they expect people to network their Blu-ray player to their computer then send tones from said computer to their phone—not at all for the consumer electronics novice—it’s seems like a stretch.

Yup, having one high-def disc format is much better for everyone. I’m not saying the format war was a good thing, but now Sony et al. can sit back and claim they’re innovating when, you know, they’re really not.

New features coming for Blu-ray DVD format [USA Today/Yahoo!]

Blu-ray 2.0 gets demoed and looks kind of cool. I feel like a lot of the stuff going on in the video has been available on HD DVD, but I could be wrong.

Video can be found here.

During IFA, Daewoo, maker of all things cheap and imported, announced it would be dipping its feet into the waters of the Blu-ray market with its first player, the DBP-1000. Sleek blue looks aside, the player is slim and supports full BD-R specifications. It can access live content, output in 1080p via HDMI, upscale DVDs and photos to full-rez, and can playback DivX files.

The DBP-1000 can also playback any burned CD or DVD, as well as burned BD-R and BD-RE discs in case you have friends with a lot of data (or burned movies). All inputs you’d expect are available, including digital sound, and a USB port is included on the front for flash drives. Sounds like an awesome player. As much as I’d love to get my hands on it, Daewoo failed to mention anything about price or availability.

Daewoo demos ‘Blu-ray Disc 2.0′ player [Reg Hardware]