March 28, 2008

Blu-ray Disc Sales Skyrocket, PS3 Gets Blu-ray Profile 2.0

Blu-ray disc sales have skyrocketed this year, recently passing the 9 million discs sold landmark, with a full third of those sales coming this year alone. This, according to stats from HMR Research, means that Blu-ray is on track for 15 million sales this year. This numbers come upon the release of Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men, selling over 68, 000 copies in its first week, besting the previous best first-week average of between 10, 000 and 30, 000 copies.

In other Blu-ray news, Sony has announced that its latest Playstation 3 update will include Blu-ray Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live, which enables PS3 movie viewers access to interactive features such as downloadable content and games related to BD disc being viewed. Requiring an internet connection and at least 1 GB of free storage space, Sony's first BD-Live releases, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The 6th Day, are slated for release April 8.

The newest PS3 update will also allow users to transfer music playlists and photos to the Sony PSP, the first step by Sony in turning the PS3 into a mobile home theater hub. Other features included with the Profile 2.0 update include:

"Resume play" will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.(*1)

"Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.

PS3 system's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's view speed will be improved.

DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.

"Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.(*2)

*1 BD-J format disc is not supported.
*2 BD discs recorded with BDMV format are not supported.