Blu-ray ready to roll

Samsung player to debut June 25, software on June 20

By Susanne Ault and Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 6/16/2006

JUNE 16 | Key retailers showed they were ready for the Blu-ray Disc format launch, as advertising and merchandising plans bowed last week.

Samsung is slated to launch the first stand-alone Blu-ray player June 25, with software titles debuting June 20.

CompUSA headlined its Sunday, June 11 circular with the approaching Samsung Blu-ray bow, encouraging consumers to pre-order the player and hyping Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Underworld: Evolution and The Fifth Element, both due June 20.

Samsung spokesman Jose Cardona said the company expects to have players in 2,000 storefronts, including the Best Buy and Circuit City chains, by its June 25 launch. “Pre-orders have been incredible,” he said.

Bjorn’s, a consumer electronics superstore in Texas, will have 10 Samsung players at launch and plans side-by-side demonstrations of Blu-ray and HD DVD in order to objectively sell the competing formats.

In other high-definition DVD news:

• Toshiba is offering firmware upgrades to address certain glitches with its HD DVD players. Owners of Toshiba models HD-XA1, HD-A1 and HD-D1 can access the upgrade by using their players’ high-speed Internet Ethernet connection and logging onto www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvd/hddvd.asp or by getting a disc in the mail. The downloaded software should improve problems associated with the players’ HDMI connectivity, which allows for maximized video quality. Image pixilation and noise interruptions during disc playback also should be resolved. “As with DVD nine years ago, there are always going to be updates needed,” Toshiba VP of marketing Jodi Sally said. “The great thing about these players is the Ethernet connection. So it’s easier for consumers to perform the upgrades themselves.”

• Universal Studios Home Entertainment is moving to a lower price point for most of its HD DVD titles. July 11 releases Friday Night Lights and Pitch Black will be the first to debut at $29.98. Until now, Universal had been releasing titles from its library on HD DVD at $34.98. All titles released to date will be priced at $29.98 beginning Aug. 8. However, the studio’s first dual format HD DVD/standard-DVD releases, Aug. 8’s National Lampoon’s Animal House and Unleashed, will carry the $34.98 price point.

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