Format War Central

Sony BDP-BX37 Blu-ray Player Hits Costco Shelves

Tyler Pruitt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:57:55 +0000

The latest “Costco Version” of the Sony Blu-ray Player line has landed on Costco shelves. The new model is the Sony BDP-BX37 Blu-ray player, and is priced at $159.99. This is the Costco version of the Sony BDP-s370 Blu-ray player. The only difference is the BDP-BX37 comes with an HDMI cable included inside the box.

Remember, this is not one of the new Sony 3D Blu-ray ready models.

SONY 3D Blu-ray Players In The Wild At Best Buy

Tyler Pruitt — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:44:40 +0000

Sony’s new 3D capable Blu-ray players are now available at your local Best Buy! The new 3D models are the Sony BDP-S470 ($199) and the Sony BDP-S570 ($249). Both these models are 3D Blu-ray ready (with a future firmware update), but do not include the 3D Active Shutter Glasses or the IR emmiter that is needed to keep the 3D glasses in sync with the 3D Blu-ray movies.

Both of these Items will be availible for purchase around the same time the first 3D Blu-ray movies are released.

The funny thing is that both of these players are still only available for preorder on the Sony Style website.

You can buy the BDP-S470 on Amazon right now for $198

Are you planning on buying a 3D Blu-ray player this year?

LOTR Trilogy Blu-ray HD Trailer

Tyler Pruitt — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:33:21 +0000

Here is the HD trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. The sad thing is, they are only releasing the Theatrical Versions of the films at this time.

You can pre-order the trilogy on Amazon for $65.49 (the street date is April 6th 2010)

Here is a direct link to the video on YouTube

Milk Blu-ray Giveaway Winner Announced

Tyler Pruitt — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:29:34 +0000

The winner of our giveaway for the Blu-ray version of “Milk” is:

Wayne Yerby!

If you didn’t win this time, and new giveaway starts This Friday!

No related posts.

Blu-ray Giveaway: Milk

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:38:34 +0000

This Blu-ray giveaway is for “Milk” starring Sean Penn

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. (Mehar is helping out with Canadian only giveaways).

You can only win once every 6 months.

The Winner will be announced Wednesday Dec. 23rd.

Winner will be selected by a Random.org number sequence.

How To Enter:

Reply in the comments with your answer to the Questions Below(please use your real
email address) Will you buy the Theatrical Versions of the “Lord of the Rings” Blu-ray Trilogy? or will you wait for the Extended Versions that will come out at a later date?
You Must also be a Subscriber to either our Full Content RSS Feed or to our Daily Email Updat e.
This is because the winner will be announced via RSS/Email and will not
be listed in this post or on the main page of the site.

Thanks again to all our loyal readers, without you this site wouldn’t exist.

Pictures of Black Friday Blu-ray Madness

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:51:28 +0000

We ventured out into the humanity that is called Black Friday so we could see the Blu-ray buzz for ourselves.

We visited a gaggle of stores in a whirlwind shopping trip that started at 3AM and ended around 10AM!

Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Sears, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Target.

Here are some pictures we took during the trek:

if your browser doesn’t support flash, here is a link to the pics on Flickr.

Did you purchase any Blu-ray related items on Black Friday?

Sony BDP-n460HP Blu-ray Player Hits Costco

Tyler Pruitt — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:09:37 +0000

During a recent Costco shopping trip, we noticed a stack of new Sony BDP-n460HPs priced at $229.99. This is the Costco version of the BDP-n460, but this version includes an HDMI cable inside the box.

This Sony Blu-ray player is their first that includes the NetFlix Streaming technology. YouTube viewing is also supported in this player. While those two services are nice, Sony is really playing catch up in this area compared to LG and Samsung.

Twitter Buzz October 14th 2009

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:35:51 +0000

CBHD Player Unboxing and Import Info: If you’re living outside of Asia and were hoping to import a CBHD p.. http://bit.ly/Nln3X #
Blu-ray New Releases for 10-13-2009: The following are the Blu-ray new releases for Tuesday, October 13th, 2009.. http://bit.ly/OuQGt #
Blu-ray Bargains – Save up to 55 Percent at Amazon http://bit.ly/eUnui #
Western Digital announces WD TV Live HD Media Player http://bit.ly/2ifm4y #
VUDU throwing Rotten Tomatoes reviews on every movie it sells http://bit.ly/UQjxm #
Panasonic Talks 3D, Blu-ray, and the Future http://bit.ly/ugooL #
HD Nation Episode 14: 1.2 Inch Thin HDTV! Nvidia Ion HTPC Tested, 480Hz HDTVs, Katamari Goes HD… http://bit.ly/UQjxm #

Vudu Comes to LG BD390 Blu-ray Player, Other Players Bow Down

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:59:53 +0000

We had a feeling the LG BD390 was poised to have the Vudu service added to it. This was because for the last week or two, the Vudu Logo had been displayed on the BD390 page of LG’s website. So when the press release from Vudu hit our inbox, we did a face palm…. kicking ourselves for not posting a story last week about the Vudu logo on the website.

In any case, this news is great for BD390 owners, and should solidify the BD390’s spot as the most feature rich Blu-ray player at ANY Price Point.

Lets go over the goods, the BD390 has Netflix Streaming, Cinemanow, YouTube, Vudu, plays back MKVs via USB/Disc/Network and is fine Blu-ray disc player. Ohh wait, it also has 7.1 Analogs and 802.11N wireless built in.

One thing does bother us about Vudu coming to the BD390….. We have no use for our stand alone Vudu box… Looks like we might have found our next FWC giveaway item!

Vizio VBR100 Blu-ray Player Unboxing Video

Tyler Pruitt — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:00:06 +0000

We just got our hands on the new Vizio VBR100 Blu-ray player! The player is only available at Wal-Mart right now, and is priced at $178.00. We decided to debut the VBR100 in our new Unboxing Video Series.

This is our first video, so please give us any feedback you have (we’re working on getting an external Mic).

Here is a link to the video if your reader doesn’t allow embedded flash videos: Vizio VBR100 Unboxing

Blu-ray Benchmark Giveaway Winner Announced!

Tyler Pruitt — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:02:07 +0000

The winner of the Spears & Munsil Blu-ray Benchmark Giveaway is: Jon!

If you didn’t win this time, a new giveaway will start this Friday!

No related posts.

Magnavox Blu-ray Player Only $98 After Wal-Mart Price Rollback

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:34:30 +0000

Wal-Mart has just lowered the price on the Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-ray player. The new price is $98, which is a rollback from the previous price of $168. This is the same model player that was sold on Fathers Day weekend for $128.

Normally we would steer people clear of the low end Blu-ray players, but at this price we can’t think of a single reason not to buy one. You can buy 3 of these players for the price Wal-Mart is charging for the Sony BDP-S360!

Does this price tempt you to pick up a second Blu-ray player for the bedroom?

Blu-ray Giveaway: High Definition Benchmark, Blu-ray Edition

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:46:13 +0000

This Blu-ray giveaway is for the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark, Blu-ray Edition. This is a Blu-ray display calibration and test disc. The disc also includes a video montage filmed using a 4K Red One digital cinema camera. The winner will also get a set of the optional R-G-B color filters from Spears & Munsil.

For more information about the disc, visit http://www.spearsandmunsil.com

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. (Mehar is helping out with Canadian only giveaways).

You can only win once every 6 months.

The Winner will be announced Sunday July 19th.

Winner will be selected by a Random.org number sequence.

How To Enter:

Reply in the comments with your answer to the Questions Below(please use your real
email address) What type of HDTV do you currently use? How big is the screen?
You Must also be a Subscriber to either our Full Content RSS Feed or to our Daily Email Updat e.
This is because the winner will be announced via RSS/Email and will not
be listed in this post or on the main page of the site.

Thanks again to all our loyal readers, without you this site wouldn’t exist.

Target Deal: Free $50 Gift Card w/ Sony BDP-S360 Purchase

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:32:18 +0000

Just in time for Fathers day, Target has a deal on the Sony BDP-S360 in which you get a $50 Target gift card with purchase. The deal is going on now through this Saturday (June 20th), which is the day before Fathers day.

The Price for the Sony BDP-S360 is $299.99.

No related posts.

Sony BDP-BX2 Blu-ray Player is Coming to a Costco Near You

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:50:52 +0000

The Sony BDP-BX2 Blu-ray player should be hitting the shelves of most Costco warehouses within a week or two. We noticed a full page Sony ad mentioning the BDP-BX2 in the June issue of “The Costco Connection” magazine, which is sent out to all Costco members.

The BDP-BX2 looks to be a Costco only version of the Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray player, but with a free HDMI cable included inside the box. No price was mentioned in the magazine ad, but we expect it to be priced at $279.99.

At this price point it will be matched up with the Panasonic DMP-BD605, which is also a Costco exclusive model.

Has the BDP-BX2 showed up at your local Costco?

Twilight Blu-ray Giveaway Winner Announced

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:31:20 +0000

The winner of the Twilight Blu-ray Giveaway is: Akon!

If you didn’t win this time, a new giveaway starts this Friday!

No related posts.

Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray Player Now at Your Local Wal-Mart

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:28:20 +0000

Sony’s new BDP-S360 should be on the shelf at your local Wal-Mart stores. The BDP-S360 is priced at $288.00 which seems a little over priced for the feature set that Sony is offering with this player. Sitting right next to the Sony player is the Samsung BD-P1590 player that includes Pandora internet radio, as well as NetFlix’s Watch Instantly video streaming service.

Can someone please clue us in on what is the main selling point of the BDP-S360…. Besides the Sony name on the front?

Blu-ray Giveaway: Twilight

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:49:19 +0000

This Blu-ray giveaway is for “Twilight” From Summit Ent.

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. (Mehar is helping out with Canadian only giveaways).

You can only win once every 6 months.

The Winner will be announced Monday June 1st.

Winner will be selected by a Random.org number sequence.

How To Enter:

Reply in the comments with your answer to the Question Below(please use your real
email address) What Current or Upcoming Summer Block Buster are you most excited about buying on Blu-ray?
You Must also be a Subscriber to either our Full Content RSS Feed or to our Daily Email Updat e.
This is because the winner will be announced via RSS/Email and will not
be listed in this post or on the main page of the site.

Thanks again to all our loyal readers, without you this site wouldn’t exist.

Samsung BD-P1590 Blu-ray Player Spotted at Wal-Mart

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:37:28 +0000

It looks like the store specific model bandits have struck again. This time the culprit is Samsung BD-P1590 Blu-ray player, which looks to be an exact clone of Samsung’s BD-P1600 (MSRP 299$). The BD-P1590 is on sale now at your local Wal-Mart for $248.00. Our local store had just received a shipment of 5 of the players.

We think making store specific models (that are exactly the same except for the model number ) is a dubious practice, it is anti-competitive, and is intended to gouge consumers by avoiding price matching policies.

We do wonder who is fueling this fire? Is it the discounters like Costco, Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club?, or is it the retailers that sell the products for the full MSRP? *cough* Best Buy *cough*

Past Store Specific Models:

Sony BDP-BX1 (Costco)

Panasonic DMP-BD605 (Costco)

Samsung BD-P2550 (Best Buy)

Best Buy Shows Off Samsung BD-P2550 Netflix Streaming

Warner Launches “Red2Blu” HD DVD to Blu-ray Upgrade Program

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:54:52 +0000

Warner has announced a new HD DVD to Blu-ray trade-in/upgrade program. The program dubbed “Red2Blu” allows you to upgrade up to 25 Warner HD DVDs to the Blu-ray versions of the movie. The cost is $4.95 per disc (some multi disc sets are more) and a flat shipping fee of $5.95 per order.

Lucky for us (or unlucky?) , we only have 23 WB HD DVDs in our collection.

Are you planning to participate in this program? Do you think other studios will follow Warner’s lead and provide the same type of upgrade program?

Panasonic DMP-BD605 Blu-ray Player Lands at Costco

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:43:20 +0000

Panasonic has released it’s DMP-BD605 Blu-ray as a Costco exclusive model. The player is priced at $279.99, and as far as we can tell is the same exact player as the Panny DMP-BD60 (but with a free HDMI cable included in the box). We have a feeling this is to reduce the amount of returns from people that hook up their new Blu-ray player with the red-white-yellow composite A/V cables.

Panasonic’s choice to make a Costco (and maybe Sam’s Club) exclusive model number is no surprise, as it keeps price matching retailers like Best Buy happy. Sony did the same thing with their Costco exclusive model BDP-BX1 Blu-ray player last year.

We have just hooked up the DMP-BD605, so look for a unboxing/mini-review as soon as we can get it done.

Panasonic DMP-BD605k at Costco

No related posts.

Blu-ray Benchmark Disc Released, Includes RED Camera Footage

Tyler Pruitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:01:02 +0000

Video GURUs Stacey Spears and Don Munsil have just released their Blu-ray Benchmark Disc. The disc includes display calibration patterns, Blu-ray player and display evaluation patterns, as well as multiple clips for testing for proper video scaling and deinterlacing.

We are currently working on our full review of the disc, but we wanted to give some extra info that the press release, and other sites have yet to mention:

The disc begins with an opening video montage of which was all shot with a RED Camera at 4K resolution( effectively 4x the resolution of 1080p). The footage was mastered and color corrected at 4K, then down sampled to 1080p for final VC-1 encoding for the Blu-ray disc.

The Blu-ray Benchmark disc is available right now through Amazon.com. You also can purchase the disc from Oppo’s website, and the disc will be included in the box with every Oppo Blu-ray player when they are fully released to the public.

Blu-ray Giveaway: High Definition Benchmark, Blu-ray Edition

Blu-ray Accounts For 24% of DVD Player Sales In Denver

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:07:10 +0000

ABC News has a new story called “Blue Skies for Blu-ray” which is pretty much an overview of Blu-ray’s recent news, with a little caveat at the end of the story about the Digital Downloads threat to Blu-ray’s future.

One interesting tidbit that was mentioned is that in Denver, Blu-ray (players) have a 24% market share when it comes to total DVD player sales. This is a good sign if it can expand into a nationwide trend.

Have any of your non-enthusiast family/friends/coworkers purchased a Blu-ray player recently? I just had a friend’s Dad tell me that he bought a Sony BDP-s350 for his 34″ Direct View CRT HDTV. I would consider him a J6P type of person for sure.

Huge New Amazon Blu-ray Sale, 379 Titles Included

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:47:51 +0000

Amazon is having a big new Blu-ray sale, with prices start at $13.99 and 379 Blu-ray titles are included in the deal. Some of the titles that are part of the deal include: The 40 Year Old Virgin for only $14.49, the super funny/offensive movie “Waiting” for only $11.49, as well as the suspense thriller “The Descent” for only $13.99.

With 379 Blu-ray movies in this deal, it is a pain in the arse to browse through the endless pages of movies. So if you see any must buy titles in this sale, let us and the other readers know about them in the comments.

Disney Now Includes Anti-Smoking Ads In Blu-ray Movies

Tyler Pruitt — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:31:05 +0000

When we popped in the Blu-ray version Pinocchio into our PS3, we were greeted with a Disney themed Anti-Smoking ad. This kinda surprised us, as you would expect this to be a TV commercial, not a trailer on a kids movie. We wonder if this should be included on adult themed films instead?

Have you seen this anti-smoking ad on any other Disney Blu-ray movies?

The slideshow below has more screen shots of the ad:

No related posts.

Want to Write For FWC? Come Join The Team!

Tyler Pruitt — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:51:30 +0000

We are looking for 1-2 writers to join the Format War Central team. If you’re addicted to this stuff as much as us, then you might be the person(s) we are looking for.

Applicants should have the following:

* Extensive knowledge of, and interest in Blu-ray, or Digital Download technologies like Vudu, Apple TV, Netflix Streaming ect.

* Ability to write 2-5 posts per week

* Understanding of social media (ie Digg, Stumbleupon, Facebook etc.)

What We Offer:

* An opportunity to get paid to write about something you love.

* Payment on a per post basis (via Paypal)

* Access to cool new hardware, and media for review purposes.

* Press access to events like CES, Cedia, Home Media Expo, ect.

* A platform to have your voice be heard in the industry

How to apply

* Please email us and provide 2 examples of posts you would write for our website or have already written for another publication. They can vary in length from 150-300 word news posts, to longer review type posts not to exceed 500 words. Please include these within the e-mail, and not as an attachment (Links to articles are also acceptable)

* Tell us why you want to write for our website.
* Tell us what your home theater setup is (just for fun)
* Provide your name, and contact information.

If you have any questions just shoot us an email.

Tyler@formatwarcentral.com

No related posts.

Buy 2 Get 1 Free Blu-ray Deal

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:52:53 +0000

Amazon is having a small “Buy 2 Get 1 Free Deal” on a small selection of Blu-ray movies. This sale only offers 25 Blu-ray movies, but does include one of our favorites “Le Femme Nakita”.

Lets all hope the studios will provide their own “Economic Stimulus Plan” by offering some “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” Blu-ray deals in the near future

Zombie Strippers Winner Announced

Tyler Pruitt — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:15:33 +0000

The winner of the “Zombie Strippers” Blu-ray Giveaway is: William Ready

If you are the winner you will be emailed within 24hrs.

If you did win this time, a new giveaway starts Tuesday.

No related posts.

Kaleidescape Blu-ray On Track For 2009

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:29:38 +0000

It appears that Kaleidescape is no longer contented with a player that provides “a viewing experience that rivals Blu-ray” as declared in the downloadable datasheet for their 1080p Player.

According to their CEO, Michael Malcolm, they’re all set to release a player that will still look like the 1080p model but will fully support the Blu-ray disc format. The planned release date is set at the end of 2009. The Blu-ray Disk Player is expected to be fully compatible with all existing Kaleidescape Systems.

No word on whether or not the release date is being held up by the still un-finalized Manage Copy portion of the AACS Final Agreement.

[via WesleyTech]

Blu-ray Giveaway: Zombie Strippers

Tyler Pruitt — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:57:08 +0000

This Blu-ray giveaway is for “Zombie Strippers”

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. (Mehar will be helping out with Canadian only giveaways).

You can only win once every 3 months. we decided to lower this since we do giveaways so often.

The Winner will be announced Monday March 2nd.

Winner will be selected by a Random.org number sequence.

How To Enter:

Reply in the comments below (please use your real
email address) Tell us if you are a Netflix or Blockbuster Online Subscriber.
You Must also be a Subscriber to either our Full Content RSS Feed or to our Daily Email Updat e.
This is because the winner will be announced via RSS/Email and will not
be listed in this post or on the main page of the site.

Thanks again to all our loyal readers, without you this site wouldn’t exist.