17:04: David Walstra, Director Sony Home Entertainment Europe, takes the stand. Discusses HDTV uptake in Western Europe. Sales, he says, have gone through the roof, but viewers find that HD content is not readily available. This is a great opportunity to provide consumers with HD content.
Sales figures for HD DVD and BD standalone players (no games consoles) are shown. HD DVD appears to have made something of a comeback lately.
A pie chart is shown comparing BD and HD DVD installed base, this time including games consoles. According to the chart, BD has 94% of the market.
17:08 1.3 million units of the PS3 sold in Europe. David says that this is an essential move.
17:09 David mentions BD's great support from consumer electronics companies. He mentions that these companies provide HDTVs as well as BD players. He specifically mentions HITACHI, who promise a significant Blu-ray announcement that will be unveiled at their press conference tomorrow.
17:10 BD and the IT industry. The top 4, apparently, are HP, Dell, ACER, and Lenovo. ACER is significant, because they've just joined the BDA. These 4 companies have about 50% of the computing/IT market.
17:11 China specifically mentioned. The China Huala Group have joined the BDA. CHLF and China Film Group will team up to offer Blu-ray Disc Authoring for the Chinese market. Export possibilities briefly touched on.
17:12 Japan: BD has a 90%+ share for both hardware and movies.
17:13 USA. The $500 BD player - the BDP-S300 - has helped things.
17:14 Disc sales. BD movie sales in the US market, year to date, has 66.3% of the market.
17:14 And in Europe: software sales have 70% of the High Def Optical Disc market.
17:15 Eagle Rock, Tartan, Entertainment In Video, Momentum, 2Entertain (format neutral), and more, are publishing on Blu-ray Disc.
17:16: Discusses content providers in the rest of Europe.
17:20: Here's Stephen Foulser! He's the VP Marketing & Business Development at Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
Disney has believed in BD from the outset and they are pleased with the progress. Dual layer 50gb offers Disney 'endless' interactive features.
Success already had with the 30 titles launched across Europe.
17:22 Sleeping Beauty is coming out on Blu-ray. Box art of the DVD shown. Disney releases of Platinum titles are only made when Disney feels the format is worthy. Release: next Autumn.
"National Treasure" is coming out on BD. It will be the first BD-Live title.
"Finding Nemo" and "Chronicles of Narnia" will both feature Full PiP bonus features.
17:24 Danny Kaye from Fox/MGM takes the stage.
"Fox continues to be exclusively committed to the number 1 selling HD packaged media format."
Ten day and date BD/DVD new releases, 19 "must have" BD titles from the catalog, and Fox's first-ever TV on BD, Prison Break.
Today some dates are being announced: "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" will be a BD50 with AVC/MPEG4 Compression. It's about time!
"Die Hard 4" is BD50, AVC too. Good thing what with all those action scenes...
17:27 A video begins, it's a Fox promo reel. It's really badly standards-converted, ironically enough! "Seamless Interactivity" mentioned as one of the key points, but no surprise titles appear to be being shown.
17:29: Monica Juniel from Warner Home Video Europe.
The best selling WB titles on BD: Blood Diamond, Superman Returns, Flags of our Fathers, The Departed.
WB in Q4 2007: more titles in Q4 than in Q1, Q2, and Q3 combined!
"300" is mentioned. It's already out in America though, and in 3 European territories. This one is expected to rake in the megabucks (megaeuros?)
"Ocean's Thirteen" will be released together with the other "Ocean's" movies in Q4.
The Harry Potter movies are coming to BD in Q4.
Other titles are coming out too. "Blade Runner" and "Eyes Wide Shut" look like two of the best ones. (Here's hoping "Eyes" is region free like the rest of Warners' titles, so that Americans can watch the uncensored version!)
"Polar Express" and "Happy Feet" coming to BD.
17:33 Don Eklund, Executive VP Advanced Technologies within Sony Pictures, takes the stage.
17:33 Film clips. The director of Casino Royale loves how it looks on BD. "It's something I never expected. I'm a huge fan of it".
Eli Roth has popped up on screen. "You get the closest experience to watching the movie in the cinema. The picture is so sharp! ... It looks so beautiful on Blu-ray. It's so satisfying to me as a director that the film is gonna live on in High def and that's how people are gonna see it."
Ray Harryhausen is endorsing the BD release of one of his movies. He's happy that it's being colourised for BD release!
17:36 The director of "RV" (forget his name) is telling us why BD's storage capacity is an amazing experience.
17:36 Eklund apologises for the fact that the clips were played in Standard Def. We forgive you.
17:37 Over half a million BD discs have been sold across Europe. They say it has 70% of the software market. Casino Royale is the best selling title.
Spider-Man box set discussed. They're really excited about the release of it. Coming to Europe in October. Two discs are included, due to the huge number of features.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Three versions on a BD50 thanks to seamless branching. They've worked with Steven Spielberg to make a definitive version.
"The Tudors" Complete Season 1, successful US TV series. Coming to BD.
17:41: Sony working with retailers to promote BD and HD. A Sainsbury's promotion is shown, which tells shoppers, "Your PS3 can play Blu-ray movies!" Tie-in promotions with BRAVIA, VAIO brands planned.
17:42: Thilo Roehrig from Sony Germany comes to talk about the German BD Promotions Group. It's there to serve consumers, retailers, and us, the press. Aw.
17:43: Official kick-off of the Blu-ray Group Deutschland is at IFA, this year.
Sales figures shown. Blu-ray has actually lost ground compared to HD DVD in Germany - this are more evenly split now. (Figures will be added later).
17:46: BD Deutschland plans to target Journalists, Retail, then Consumers. They "want to persuade us that Blu-ray is the better format, the format from the future".
17:49: Launch of
www.blu-ray-deutschland.de as a promotional tool.
17:50: The executives line up on stage for Q&A Time. DVD Times goes down. Uh oh.
