Sony today announced the latest firmware update for the PlayStation 3 - version 2.20. Planned for release later this month, the update adds Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 (or BD-LIVE) support, enhanced PSP integration, and a host of other features. BD-LIVE format movies will arrive in April, and allow studios to add features to Blu-ray movies such as ringtones to send to your mobile phone, and network-enabled games.
Amazon have added over thirty HD DVD titles to their 50% off sale including Black Snake Moan and Transformers. Hit the jump for more HD DVD and Blu-ray bargains.
Sony has revealed one damn good reason to like Blu-ray Profile 2.0 - at least if you own a PSP. Studios releasing movies on Blu-ray will have the option of including a version of the film optimized for portable devices like the PSP. Sony demonstrated using the Portable Copy feature of a PlayStation 3 to copy a Blu-ray to a PSP memory stick.
Gizmodo tells us the movies will be around 1GB, and will take approximately 3-5 minutes to transfer to a PSP over USB - and apparently the process could be made available for all existing Blu-ray titles.
Does anyone else feel like their investments in PSP/PS3 hardware just keep paying off?
via Three Speech
Director Michael Bay, the man behind Transformers, The Rock and Bad Boys, has accused Microsoft of some well planned sabotage of the video format market. On his official website he claims:
Microsoft wants both [HD DVD and Blu-ray] formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about
They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just [to] embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray [sic]
A conspiracy theory regarding Microsoft’s plan for world domination? Bay may need to be reminded that this has been done many times before.
via ShackNews
