Shane Buettner

Tough talk isn't confined to the Blu-ray camp when it comes to sales forecasting and some impressive data on current titles.

In addition to a wealth of impressive title announcements, the Blu-ray association adopted the sternest language I’ve yet heard in offering some very compelling sales numbers and statistics to state its case that Blu-ray will be the decisive winner of the format war. According to the BDA’s stats, the war is already over in Japan with Blu-ray scoring 96% of the high-definition player market there.

Following LG Electronics’ release of the Super Multi Blue Blu-ray/HD DVD combi player come rumblings among members of the press that the player might not be a full HD DVD player. Scuttlebut has it that the player will not be compatible with HD DVD’s HDi interactivity layer, which is the logic layer that supports the cutting edge interactivity features that run in full motion with HD video.

The Blu-ray Association’s CES press conference featured numerous pieces of fascinating information and significant new title announcements that I’ll comment on in subsequent Blogs, but perhaps none carries as much weight as Disney’s announcement that Pixar’s <I>Cars</I> and both <I>Pirates of the Caribbean</I> films will be released by Summer ‘07.