|  Nov 17, 2006

Last night I went to a rock concert and a product launch broke out. But seriously folks, as you're all probably aware Sony's long awaited PlayStation3 game console officially went on sale at midnight last night around the country. I attended the San Francisco launch at the Sony Metreon, where fans, er consumers, were camped out and lined up around the building and down the street for the privilege of buying the consoles as they went on sale at the stroke of midnight.

 |  Nov 12, 2006

IC manufacturer Broadcom made waves this week by introducing the industry's first integrated chip solution that will allow manufacturers to support Blu-ray and HD DVD in a single player. No OEM deals were announced, but this development offers a glimmer of hope to manufacturers and consumers alike, many of whom have been waiting to discern a "winner" in the next-gen HD disc format war before either building or purchasing a player that supports only one format.

 |  Nov 09, 2006  |  Published: Nov 10, 2006

Microsoft announced this week that it has secured deals with a number of major studios to sell downloads of movies and TV shows through its Xbox Live Internet service for the Xbox 360 game console. Although the bulk of the programming available will be standard definition, some content will be available in HD out of the gate, with more to follow. The service will go live November 22nd.

 |  Nov 05, 2006

Blockbuster Video this week announced two significant upgrades to its rental programs. First, Blockbuster Online users are now allowed to return movies either through the mail or into a Blockbuster store. The "Total Access" service includes one free in-store rental per month, but customers are awarded an additional free in-store rental for each movie returned to a Blockbuster store.

 |  Nov 01, 2006  |  Published: Nov 02, 2006

Hollywood Reporter reports that Fox is doing a rush job on a Blu-ray Disc release of <I>X-Men: The Last Stand</I> to get it on store shelves on November 14th, just three days ahead of the arrival in the US of Sony's Blu-ray based PlayStation3 game console. The story quoted Fox executives as saying that the PS3 will lend Blu-ray an "unbeatable advantage" over the rival HD DVD format, hence the rush to market for <I>X-Men</I>.

 |  Oct 29, 2006

Now that the HD transition is finally kicking into gear friends and colleagues who have been around long enough to know that something new is always around the corner have asked, what comes after high-definition? And answer of course, is higher-definition.

 |  Oct 27, 2006

Vidabox LLC recently announced an interesting entry into the next-gen HD disc format war in the form of two lines of "dual HD" Media Center PCs that will playback both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. In addition to playing standard DVDs, Vidabox's LUX and MAX dual HD systems analog and dual HDTV tuners allowing users to record as many as four TV programs at once, obviating the need for a DVR.

 |  Oct 22, 2006

If things keep going the way they have been Toshiba's HD DVD format just might win the format war by forfeit. Reports began circulating around the web Friday that Sony's BDP-S1 standalone Blu-ray player would not only miss its scheduled debut on October 25th, but wouldn't appear until early December. Sure enough, the SonyStyle web site that is taking pre-orders for the players now shows its targeted availability as "on or about December 4, 2006."

 |  Oct 18, 2006  |  Published: Oct 19, 2006

The big releases on next-gen HD media keep pouring in just in time for the holiday season and again, Warner is leading the charge by releasing one of the real treasures in its catalog, <I>Casablanca</I>, on HD DVD. The Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman classic joins the somewhere between camp classic and minor classic sci-fi flick <I>Forbidden Planet</I> starring none other than Robbie the Robot, and 1962's <I>Mutiny on the Bounty</I> starring Marlon Brando on HD DVD.

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