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[sonycowboy]

Looks like a HUGE portion of their film library will be available at once, which may force Warner Bros / Universal / Paramount hand a bit more on the HD-DVD side, where they were going for a bit more of a gradual roll-out.

By Clive Akass at Cebit

Sony is making digital masters of all its films in high-definiton (HD) format so they can be sold on Blu-ray disks when HD players hit the market, the company announced today.

Speaking at Cebit, the world's biggest IT show, Chris Deering, president of Sony Europe, said: 'There will be an immense choice from day one.'

High definition is a major theme at Cebit, as it was at CES in January, though the industry is split between competing Blu-ray and HDTV formats for players and recorders. The two camps will be battling it out at rival press conferences later this week.

BskyB is to pilot HD broadcasts next year, but initially the techology will be used in Europe primarily for viewing recorded content. HD-ready TV sets are already on sale - Sharp showed an LCD model with a 65in screen today - and Deering pointed out that PCs can also be counted as HD platforms.

Sony's film offerings will include some 6,000 titles it bought with MGM Studios.

Deering said: 'High definition will become the cornerstone of [Sony's] activities in video, audio, TV and movies.'

He added, referring to next year's launch of the Playstation 3 console: 'You can bet that HD is part of Sony's Playstation programme.'

Deering also said that the revolutionary Cell processor powering the Playstation, will have much wider applications.

 

[sonycowboy]

Also:

Matsushita Invites Hollywood to Test Blu-RAY

, 03.09.05, 12:30 PM ET

Asia Pulse Pte Ltd

TOKYO, March 9 Asia Pulse - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TSE:6752) will set up a theater in Hollywood where movie experts can view videos burned to Blu-ray discs and provide feedback.

Blu-ray is one of two next-generation optical disc technologies, and the Matsushita camp, which also includes Sony Corp. (TSE:6758), is rushing to catch up to the high-definition DVD group, which is ahead in the race to mass-produce discs.

Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory in Universal City, California, will install a machine that transfers high-definition movies to Blu-ray disks. It will invite movie experts to view the pictures and evaluate their quality.

Matsushita plans to use this feedback to accelerate the process of developing a mass-production technology for Blu-ray discs.

 

[Midas]

He added, referring to next year's launch of the Playstation 3 console: 'You can bet that HD is part of Sony's Playstation programme.'

Well, that's good to hear.

 

[bitwise]

off topic

 

[sonycowboy]

off topic

Do you know who Chris Deering is? And didn't you see the Playstation 3 prominently mentioned.

The fact is that Blu-Ray / HD-DVD plays a huge part in this next gen conversation, although I'm sure that there's a certain percentage of the population who would rather it be forgotten because it is an area of deficiency for them.

We aren't calling UMD movie topics off-topic. I wonder why.

 

[maharg]

I'm sorry, but this is about FILMS on a new media format that, while connected to next generation consoles, is not exclusively so. A tiny mention of a next gen console is not enough to make this a gaming topic when the article is clearly about Sony pushing film content to a video format.