Blu-ray reached an interesting milestone last Tuesday; the release of it’s 1000th title.  For me, it is only appropriate that a Walt Disney film marked the occasion as I grew up watching Mickey and friends and have always been fond of animation (especially on the big screen, especially on my big screen).  The landmark release was Pinocchio and we are starting to see Blu-ray finally pick up some respectable market share as it continues to fight against DVD and Internet downloads for customer dollars. When the format war with HD-DVD was finally decided, I only assumed that Blu-ray would quickly become the go-to format.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been the firestorm I thought it would and, in fact, it’s created some confusion among consumers.  There are even some who think the format will fail or be replaced (I can’t say I completely disagree with this possibility).  Although the format war with HD-DVD was certainly the most obvious obstacle, I think there are a couple of underlying problems Blu-ray has to overcome to be hugely successful.

The Players: Manufacturers can’t seem to get their head around what features they want on their players and at what cost.  At CES 2009 I could not even count the number of new players being released this year with the focus on Internet connectivity and online content over quality disc playback.  I think we need to check the expiration date on the sales and marketing research.  Although most of the people I talk to are pleased that the players are inexpensive, they would still pay more for higher quality playback.  An interesting side note is there are only a few “high-end” players currently on the market as several elite manufacturers are holding Blu-ray at arms length to make sure it’s something they want to invest substantial amounts of R&D money into.

As far as all the “new and cool” interactive disc features and BD Live - I haven’t actually met anyone who takes advantage of these.  As a matter of fact, most of the people I know have never seen nor want to see the special features on DVD’s either.

Video Display: There is a lot of customer confusion as to if they even need a Blu-ray player.  They’ve seen the ads, heard about the quality but are not sure how it will work with their system.  My take on this so far is, if you don’t have a quality 1080p display then you can hold off on buying a Blu-ray player for a while.  Although the new players will do a nice job of scaling DVD’s to match your displays native resolution, there’s just not enough difference to warrant a new purchase - especially if you already own a decent DVD player.

Audio: Simple - does your receiver decode the new audio formats?  If not, can it accept analog inputs from a player which does on-board decoding?  Wait, actually that’s not as simple as it first sounds.  This is one of those areas where customers can really use some advice.  Good news is more and more equipment is handling the new HD audio formats so soon this will become an obsolete question.  In the meantime, speak with your personal a/v consultant to see if your system is ready as this problem goes beyond what the player and receiver can do, it includes connectivity which can bring HDMI into the mix.

Content: Here’s where I have a big problem with Blu-ray.  It’s not the number of titles available, it the quality of the titles.  Where is Lord of the Rings, or Gladitor or Star Wars or the dozens of other big-time-big-hit-blockbusters?  I simply do not need Groundhog Day or Pretty Woman on Blu-ray.  The once in a decade viewing those movies get when there not being run back-to-back-to-back on broadcast TV simple does not warrant all the fuss, I am perfectly happy with a DVD copy.  Especially when you consider the next point…

Price: The cost for these movies is borderline.  Yes, I’ll pay a little more for high quality video and audio but I fear that I am paying a lot extra for special features that I may never watch.  I wouldn’t mind a smaller price tag for a “Movie Only” version.  (ps: and I don’t need 20 minutes of trailers or advertising telling me how good Blu-ray is.  I know it is, I’m watching it…or at least trying to).

So, although this post may seem negative on Blu-ray, I assure you it’s not.  I’m simply trying to point out a couple of reasons why I feel the format has not taken full flight yet.  Here’s my positive points: Blu-ray video can be just awesome, it’s that simple.  We’ve done a number of installs with terrific results and some very happy homeowners.  The more I tweak my own system and try different settings on both the projector and player, I am constantly amazed at the clarity, color depth and dynamic performance of the picture.  The same excitement carries over for the new HD audio formats.  Even if the soundtrack is just seven channel PCM it’s a big improvement over normal Dolby Digital and DTS.  Of course the new gems, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA, are very engaging and a significant improvement.  Together, with the right equipment, blu-ray can be a truly immersive experience.

More and more Tuesday releases are being done on Blu-ray which is great.  Some of the new movies either recently out, or coming out, definitely deserve the format, I only hope that we start seeing more older movies re-issued.

My most desired Blu-ray titles:
Star Wars
The Lord of the Rings
Braveheart
Gladitor
Blade
Heat
Tombstone
X-Men Triology (Good news here…April 21st!)

My favorite released Blu-ray titles:
The Dark Knight
Pirates of the Carribean Triology
Casino Royale
The Matrix
300
Planet Earth
The Police: Certifiable
Cars

Continuing on with the CEDIA 2008 coverage…

Sooloos had an impressive display on the show floor this year.  They have been working on several new products and had working prototypes of all of them.  I can’t definitively say any one was better or more exciting than the other as they are all great product offerings.

Stores: The two box storage solutions (Store:One and Store:Two) have been discontinued for three new models.  All models now feature removable hard drives giving you the option to buy a disk drive from Sooloos with your order, or you can purchase it on your own.

Ensemble: Single disk drive with all space being dedicated to storage, backup via ControlPC.
Twinstore: Two drive solution with automatic backup; one disk for storage, one for backup.
Quadstore: Four drive solution with automatic backup; two disks for storage, two for backup.

Source: The Source:One and Source:Five remain with no changes. However, it was announced that new versions of these units, with significantly upgraded DAC’s, will be available soon. As you may or may not know, the DAC’s have been abused in recent reviews and it’s great to see Sooloos taking action. There will be an upgrade program for all existing sources.

Control: The Control:One, with its outstanding user interface, still remains the highlight of the product line. The 17″ touchpanel will soon be joined by a wireless handheld, which has been talked about for many months. ControlPC, the desktop software application, remains in the line up with a UI update due shortly. There have been several updates in recent months and the software now includes the ability to import music from your computers hard disk or internal CD or DVD drive, backup and restore, edit metadata and, of course, manage music and playlists.

Additionally, you can now control your Sooloos music server with an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Finally, the new Control:Bridge is used for seamless integration with Crestron.

Software: There will be new skins available for the UI in the next couple of weeks, which is really cool, but the major announcements from CEDIA are the addition of the DVD and Blu-ray support as well as a photo collection interface. These will use a new product called the Cinema which will process the audio and video from the store and send it to one display and audio source. The Cinema is only compatible with the Twinstore and Quadstore. Ensemble owners will still have photo access, management will be done via ControlPC and images will be displayed on the Control:One touch-panel.

The last big announcement for the software is the integration with the online digital music service Rhapsody. While the exact details have not been fully released, this will make the Sooloos system even more attractive to own.

So, that’s the latest on the new releases, here’s my take on everything. First, all of the new products and features are very exciting and will secure Sooloos in the music serving market. The DVD and Blu-ray support remains to be proven simply because they are getting to the dance a little late. The industry has seen a number of companies getting into the market segment in addition to the ones who were already there. The good news for Sooloos is they have the luxury of seeing what others have successfully (and unsuccessfully) accomplished and will hopefully use this a guide for releasing they solution. The preview looked great but until we get a chance to actually use it in a live environment the jury is still out.

The photo management software and display looked great. The ability to easily manage your entire photo collection and share it to TV’s through out the house could easily be one of the leading selling points of the system.

So, Sooloos (btw: it’s pronounced sue-loose) had a very good showing at CEDIA. I stopped by the booth at different times throughout the show and they were always busy with attendees. We’re definitely excited about the new products and I’ll report back as they start hitting the streets.

Well it’s time for the annual CEDIA Expo and once again it’s being held here in Denver.  I actually had a chance to get on the show floor a little early this year to help a couple of manufacturers setup their booths. In doing that I was able to get a sneak preview of a couple of interesting technologies and products that are coming out.  I’ll definitely be reporting on everything of interest over the next couple of days, in the meantime here is a quick preview on a couple of technologies I’ll be looking at and what we might expect.

Blu-ray – still the topic of major discussion even though HD-DVD is out of the picture.   McIntosh has announced it’s new player (due later this year) and several other manufactures have 2nd or even 3rd generation players announced for the show.   I suspect we’ll see a bunch of inexpensive players by Christmas and probably some expensive, high-performance models too.

OLED and SED – these are new display technologies that will change the flat panel industry from thin to very, very thin. This will be an interesting market segment to follow.

Projection – now that the initial wave(s) of 1080p players have reached the market we’re going to see a bunch of high-end projectors hit the market.  So far, the buzz is about Meridian, Wolf, Christie, JVC and, of course, 8250’s personal favorite,  projectiondesign with their new avielo product line.

Whole house distribution – a lot of new products are recently out or coming out which do various forms of HDMI distribution throughout the house as well as some innovative audio products as well

Media servers – another growing market segment is media serving. Obviously 8250 Theaterworks is interesting in Sooloos and their new product offerings as well as Kaleidescape.

If anyone out there is interested in any other technologies, manufacturers or products, let me know and I’ll be sure to check it out and report back.