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HD DVD player sales in the US during a week from Jan 6 to 12, 2008, declined 88% to 1,758 units compared with the previous week, Tech-On! is reporting citing research company NPD Group.

Tech-On! further reports, “The period measured was immediately after US movie studio Warner Bros Entertainment had announced that it had shifted its support from HD DVD to Blu-ray Disc Jan 4, 2008.

Meanwhile, BD player sales grew 42% compared with the preceding week to 21,770 units, NPD said. An NPD analyst said Warner’s announcement might have impacted HD DVD player sales.

HD DVD supporter Toshiba Corp announced price reductions for its HD DVD players targeting the North American market following Warner’s announcement.” More at Tech-On!

Related:

HD DVD is ‘Missing the Boat’ in Australia

In the Battle of Formats Blu-ray Outsells HD-DVD in Europe

Tokyo, Japan — Sony Corporation on Thursday, Jan 31, announced the development of a 35mm full size (diagonal:43.3mm/Type 2.7) 24.81 effective megapixel, ultra-high speed high image quality CMOS image sensor designed to meet the increasing requirement for rapid image capture and advanced picture quality within digital SLR cameras.

The newly developed CMOS image sensor combines unique circuit design technology with Sony’s advanced fabrication expertise, such as advanced planarization for minimizing fluctuation, to realize 35mm, full size, 24.81 effective megapixel resolution. Sony’s “Column-Parallel A/D Conversion Technique” also provides each column within the sensor with its own A/D converter, minimizing image degradation caused by the noise that arises during analog processing while at the same time delivering an extremely high signal conversion speed.

The enhanced image quality generated by the sensor’s 24.81 effective megapixel resolution, wide range of graduation expression achieved by its full size broad dynamic range, and the low noise, high resolution, ultra-responsive performance provided by Sony’s Column-Parallel A/D Conversion technique enable it to meet the ever-increasing requirements within high performance digital SLR cameras.

Sony will target for mass production of this CMOS image sensor within this year.

Major Features
1, High picture quality in 35mm full size image sensor with 24.81M effective pixels

2, “Column-Parallel A/D Conversion method” achieves high S/N and high-speed imaging

- CDS/PGA(24dB)Circuit (PGA: Programmable Gain Amplifier)
- 12bit-AD Converter on chip
- Diversified readout mode
- All-pixel scan mode 6.3 frame/s (12bit)
- Window readout

3, High-speed digital output (12 channel parallel LVDS output)

More at Sony.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Video Ezy and Blockbuster have thrown their support behind Blu-ray, saying HD DVD was “missing the boat” and not taking the Australian market seriously enough, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

SMH further writes, “Paul Uniacke, managing director of the Franchise Entertainment Group, which owns Video Ezy and Blockbuster in Australia, said the local roll-out of HD DVD had been too slow as its supporters did not see Australia as an important market compared with the US and Europe.

According to market-watcher GfK, 2241 stand-alone Blu-ray players have been sold in Australia to date, compared with 609 HD DVD players.

But Sony has moved more than 100,000 units of the PS3, which has a built-in Blu-ray player. Only 2461 add-on HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, which cost $249.95, have been sold so far.

The trend in player sales is consistent with sales of HD movies. More than 102,000 Blu-ray movies have been sold to date, as against just under 18,000 HD DVD movies.

Blockbuster in the US has supported Blu-ray exclusively for months and, locally, its head of product, John McKay, said Blockbuster would buy only Blu-ray titles “for the foreseeable future”.” More at SMH.

Remember last month NBC and FOX launched ad supported online video site Hulu?

The site is still in private beta and invitation only. I just received the invitation and here’s a sample clip from NBC’s 30 Rock, in which “Liz finally talks to Cerie about her inappropriate choice of clothing at the office.”

With a very quick look it sounds like Hulu have a fairly nice collection of SNL, 30 Rock, Tonight Show, The Office and other videos, considering its still in beta and the full screen resolution was  quite good.

If NBC and partners make full range of Tonight Show, SNL, 30 Rock and alike available at the full launch, the site will be booming with web viewers, making up for the market share NBC has lost in recent years.

You can sign up for private beta at  Hulu.

MUMBAI, India — Nov 28, ‘07  — Sony Online Entertainment is all set to open a game development studio in India, Vice President Business Development & International Operations, David Christensen, said on Wednesday.

The company is talking to developers and aims to set up the studio early next year, likely in the city of Bangalore, David Christensen, the company’s business development and international operations vice president, said Wednesday.

“We need to have Indian content for our games and we are looking for local partners,” Christensen said on the sidelines of a gaming conference in Mumbai, India’s finance and entertainment hub.

“We will contribute our technology to the joint venture,” he said. The local partner would be expected to provide the creative talent for the games and chip in toward setting up the studio.

Sony recently teamed with Virgin Comics, a Bangalore-based collaboration of self-help guru Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group Ltd. With Sony, Virgin Comics is developing a multiplayer online game based on “Ramayan 3329,” a comic book written by Chopra and Kapur and inspired by a famous Indian epic about a battle against demons.

Online gaming is just catching on in India with about 2.8 million devotees. Developers expect the market to explode as broadband penetration grows. Analyst firm Pearl Research expects the country’s online game market to reach $200 million by 2010, up from $4 million now.

The Ramayan comic was released in the United States last year, and Virgin is in talks on a movie version.

“If the game is successful in India, we will take it to Europe and North America,” said Christensen. “It is a fresh international story and if it is created into a movie it could be a big global property.”

Virgin’s president, Suresh Seetharamanin, said the company was in the process of adding to the creative team that would work on the game with Sony.

Sony Online is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the principal businesses of Sony Corp of America, the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-headquartered Sony.

PARK RIDGE, NJ — On Nov 26, Sony expanded its line of video projection systems for commercial applications with two new LCD models for larger-venues.

The new VPL-FW300L (7,000 lumens) and the VPL-FH300L (6,000 lumens) projector models are designed to deliver outstanding images while in the same room as the audience. This makes them ideal for smaller auditoriums, large classrooms and meeting rooms, museum exhibits, event centers, ballrooms and movie theaters for displaying pre-show content.

The VPL-FW300L projector has a WXGA+ resolution of 1366 x 800, while the VPL-FH300L unit delivers resolution of 2048 x 1080. Both models are housed in the same chassis, and share the same type of lenses, lamps, and filters as well as the same connections and network functions.

Both models use dual 275W lamps to essentially eliminate the risk of a blackout in the event of lamp failure. Their opposing design configuration allows for projector tilting for mirror or other uses. The lamps have an expected life of 1500 (high) or 2500 (standard) hours. This use of low wattage lamps saves energy and running costs, which in turn helps the projector run cooler and quieter when compared with other offerings.

The VPL-FW300L and the VPL-FH300L projectors are planned to be available in January, at suggested list prices of $27,000 and $40,000, respectively. More at Sony.

LONDON — Nov 27, ‘07 — In the battle of formats, High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold, says Reuters.

“Citing industry sales data by Media Control Gfk International, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market. But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony backs the Blu-ray standard”. More at Reuters.

CHIBA CITY, Japan –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 23, ‘07 — Sony Finance International and Sony Pro Techno Support opened a booth together and exhibited the Location Porter that enables simple relay broadcasts achieved by connecting a camera to a tablet PC and using an NTT DoCoMo FOMA handset to broadcast images in real time. The combination of a Sony proprietary high-resolution algorithm with “quality of service (QoS)” enables simple, real-time broadcast of high-resolution video.

The current exhibition features a new dual FOMA feature that enables video to be transmitted by simultaneously using two FOMA handsets. Using one FOMA handset, the theoretical bandwidth is 384 kilobits/second, with actual speeds reaching about 256 kilobits/second. With the dual FOMA feature, these speeds reach 450 to 480 kilobits/second to enable stable 15 frames per second of H.264/AVC video.

The Location Porter is available through a rental service starting at a two-week rental period. It is easy to use and takes advantage of the latest features of PCs with their ever advancing functionality.

Sony Finance will be offering the rental service. The rental fee for two weeks is $1360 (¥149,800 yen). The Location Porter will enable simple live broadcasts not only for professionals but also for businesses and the general public.

Tokyo, Japan — On Thursday, November 22 Sony released its 11-inch OEL (organic electroluminescent) televisions to roughly 400 large consumer electronics discount stores around Japan.

The official launch of the world’s first mass-market OEL TV was December 1, but sales of audiovisual products in Japan often start before the official release date, as soon as enough quantities become available.

Despite the small screen size, the $1,840 ( ¥200,000 yen) sets have received favourable reviews for their 3mm thickness and high image resolution.Sony plans to make 2,000 units of the OEL TV a month.

The company started accepting advance pre-orders on Nov 14 at its direct marketing Web site. The number of sets that had been made available for pre-orders ran out in just over one hour, according to Sony Style. More at (google translated) SonyStyle Japan.

Cleveland, OH — Nov 23, ‘07 — Sony Music must pay the founder of a small record company $5 million for failing to put his company’s logo on reissues of Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” album, a federal appeals court ruled.

Steve Popovich, 65, who started Cleveland International Records in 1977 and soon afterward signed the chubby singer named Marvin Lee Aday, persuaded Epic Records to release the wildly successful album. Epic was owned at the time by CBS. Sony, which bought out CBS Records, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and his former partners in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over royalties from the album.

The settlement required Sony to place the Cleveland International logo on future Meat Loaf albums but Sony did not add the logo to “Bat Out of Hell” for more than a year. In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a federal jury’s decision in 2005 awarding Popovich an extra $5 million in damages.

Sony has claimed that the logo omission was a mistake that later was corrected. In court documents, Sony also accused Popovich of trying to get money out of the company by trumping up the logo agreement.”Bat Out of Hell,” has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, according to court records. More at AP.

Antitrust: European Commission Fines Professional Videotape Producers Over €74 Million for Price Fixing Cartel

Brussels – November 20, 2007 –The European Commission has imposed a total of $109 Million (€ 74,790,000)  fines on Sony, Fuji and Maxell for fixing prices for professional videotapes sold to customers in Europe, in violation of the EC Treaty’s ban on cartels and restrictive business practices (Article 81).

Between 1999 and 2002, Sony, Fuji and Maxell managed to raise or otherwise control prices through a series of regular meetings and other illicit contacts. Sony’s fine has been increased by 30% for obstructing the Commission’s investigation during on-site inspections at its premises.

Fuji’s and Maxell’s fines are reduced by 40% and 20% respectively because they co-operated with the investigation under the Commission’s 2002 Leniency Notice. There was no immunity applicant in this case. For the calculation of the fines, the Commission applied for the first time its new 2006 Guidelines.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: “This decision sends two warnings to companies engaging in cartel activities: first, the Commission can prosecute cartels effectively even without prompts from immunity applicants, and second, obstructing a Commission’s antitrust investigation leads to severe penalties.”

The Commission started an investigation on its own initiative with surprise inspections, carried out at the premises of Sony’s, Fuji’s and Maxell’s European subsidiaries in May 2002.

The inspections proved particularly successful as abundant evidence of cartel activities was found. However, a Sony employee refused to answer oral questions asked by the Commission’s inspectors, in breach of Sony’s obligation to answer, while another Sony employee was found to have shredded documents during the inspection.

Fuji and, at a later stage, Maxell co-operated with the Commission and submitted additional evidence. Sony only acknowledged its involvement after receiving the Statement of Objections.

The cartel
The cartel covered the two most popular professional videotape formats at the time of the infringement: Betacam SP and Digital Betacam, which in 2001 totalled annual sales of some €115 million in the European Economic Area (EEA). TV stations and independent producers of TV programmes and advertising films are the main customers of professional videotapes.

Sony, Fuji and Maxell, with a combined share of more than 85% of the professional video tape market, organised three successful rounds of price increases and endeavoured to stabilise prices whenever an increase was not possible. They also regularly monitored the implementation of the price agreements.

The evidence uncovered describes in detail eleven meetings during which Sony, Fuji and Maxell discussed and agreed prices and/or exchanged sensitive commercial information as well as continuous contacts intended to monitor the implementation of their cartel agreements.

Fines
This is the first Commission antitrust decision where the 2006 Guidelines on Fines have been applied . Under the new method, fines better reflect the overall economic significance of the infringement as well as the share of each company involved.

More at European Commission.

Nov 20, ‘07 — Speaking exclusively with High-Def Digest, Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group says its previously announced Blu-ray / HD DVD hybrid disc won’t be hitting stores anytime soon.

High-Def Digest further explains, “roughly six months after unveiling “Total HD” plans, Warner announced it was delaying its plans for Total HD until early 2008, but said it remained committed to the concept, promising ten to twenty launch titles upon the format’s eventual release.

Though the studio had since remained mum on the status of its plans for the hybrid format, a Warner exec has now confirmed to High-Def Digest that all current plans for Total HD have been shelved in response to a perceived shift in retailer needs following Paramount’s move to HD DVD exclusivity. “The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold,” said Noonan citing reason that, they were the only studio producing content in both formats.

More at High-Def Digest.

Nov 19, ‘07 — Sony has halved the price, to $10,250, of a software development kit that designers need to make games for its PlayStation 3.

The attempt to woo game designers follows last month’s price cut on the PS3 itself. Although its predecessor dominated the games console market, the PS3 has struggled against the Nintendo Wii.

PS3 sales are particularly important for Sony because it plays the Blu-ray high definition DVD format, which is competing with the rival HD-DVD format. Sony says that sales of the PS3 have improved since its price was cut from about $599 to $499 in the US, Europe and Japan.

Sales of the PS3 in Japan beat the Wii for the first time in the week beginning 5 November. The PS3 is technologically more advanced than the Wii, but that makes it more difficult and expensive to develop new games for it.

Many of the companies that originally designed games for the PlayStation 2 are now bringing out versions for the Wii. Wii’s game dev kit runs around $2000.

Sony says that the price cut is part of its efforts to cooperate with software developers in the hope that they will design more games for the PS3.

Los Angeles  — Nov 17, ‘07 — In the first big-screen casualty of the Hollywood writers strike, Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures said on Friday it had postponed production on “Angels & Demons” based on the book by author Dan Brown, a prequel to its box-office hit “The Da Vinci Code” starring Tom Hanks.

“While the filmmakers and the studio feel the screenplay is very strong, we do not believe it is the fully realized production draft required of this ambitious project,” Columbia spokesman Steve Elzer said. “At this time, there is no new start date, but we are setting a release date of May 15, 2009.” The previous date was Dec. 19, 2008, according to Box Office Mojo LLC, which tracks release dates.

Writers stopped working on feature films and television dramas and comedies on Nov. 5 after negotiators for the Writers Guild of America failed to reach a labor agreement with the studios.

“Angels & Demons” is being adapted from the bestselling book of the same name by author Dan Brown.

Published in 2000, it was Brown’s first novel to introduce the character of Robert Langdon, the crime-solving Harvard professor of iconography and religious art played by actor Tom Hanks in the big-screen adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code.”

Hanks is on board to return as Langdon for “Angels & Demons,” which the studio optioned as part of its 2003 acquisition of film rights to Brown’s “Da Vinci Code.”

Despite mainly negative reviews after its premiere at the Cannes film festival in May 2006, “Da Vinci” went on to tally more than $753 million at the box office worldwide.

That film, like the book, teamed up Langdon with a young French cryptologist to solve a murder entwined with the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and a supposed alternate history of Christianity.

A central premise of the story was that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene, and that a clandestine society has for centuries protected the identity of Christ’s living descendants from agents of the Catholic Church.

In “Angels & Demons,” another murder investigation leads Langdon on a quest to thwart a plot by an ancient group, the Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican during a papal conclave.

Nov 14, ‘07 — FoxBusiness is reporting on Sony refusing to do a warranty repair on one of its PlayStation 3s because the console is “too dusty,” citing the console owner.

The Los Angeles-based gamer said Sony Computer (SNE) would not honor its 1-year warranty on his $500 console because the game system arrived at its technical support center with “excessive dust in it.”

“When I learned that Sony wouldn’t replace my Playstation because it was too dusty, I paused for a minute because it seemed so ridiculous,” said Reid Godshaw, the owner of the dusty Playstation.

The dirty Playstation story has flown around the blogosphere – especially on The Consumerist, a consumer-affairs blog where the story originated. The posts regarding the PS3 have gotten more than 150,000 views and have received more than 600 comments from readers.

Godshaw said the Playstation, which was a gift, stopped working last month, so he called the company after the malfunction and asked for a replacement.

After he put the PS3 in the mail, Sony called him to let Godshaw know that it had arrived in “good condition” and Sony would go ahead and diagnose the problem.

That’s when the trouble began, Godshaw said.

He said a technical support representative by the name of “Neil” called him back later that day to let him know that technical support had looked at the console, and determined that it was too dusty to replace. The decision was final.

According to Sony’s warranty on the PS3, the console is covered by “material defects in material and workmanship” but the warranty would be void if damaged by “acts of God, misuse, abuse, negligence, accident, wear and tear, unreasonable use or by other causes unrelated to defective materials or craftsmanship.”

Dust isn’t mentioned.

According to Godshaw, Sony’s technical support said that dust was related to negligence and therefore the console was not covered by the 1-year warranty.

“The guy said there was nothing they could do except either mail me my broken PS3 to me, or I would have to pay $150 for an out-of-warranty replacement,” Godshaw said.

However, in a recording that Godshaw made that he posted on The Consumerist, a Sony representative said specifically that dust is not a reason why Sony would not replace its console – sending mixed messages about dust.

While the general customer service representatives, who usually don’t have the authority to make warranty replacement decisions, told him that the situation was ridiculous and it should be replaced – the people on the technical side were incredibly rude, Godshaw said.

Godshaw said one manager by the name of Daria Woo told him Sony took pictures documenting the dust was inside the PS3, but would not share them. The pictures were “property of Sony,” and would have to be subpoenaed if Godshaw wanted to see them, he said the manager told him.

This leaves Godshaw in a customer service “Catch-22.” Sony’s technical support said the console is too dusty and won’t replace it, but Sony won’t show him. Like many electronic companies policies, customers are not allowed to open the inside of these products because it voids the warranty. He’ll have to take Sony’s word that excessive dust killed his toy.

The Playstation 3 is in last place in sales in the next-generation console war, according to consumer research firms. More at FoxBusiness.

PARK RIDGE, N.J – Nov. 14, 2007 – Sony Electronics’ latest HDV products include two new camcorders that feature interchangeable lens systems, native progressive recording, increased sensitivity for low-light conditions, hybrid solid-state recording and other features designed for video production professionals and pro-sumers.

The new models are the HVR-Z7U (handheld) and HVR-S270U (shoulder-mount) camcorders. Sony is also introducing the HVR-M35U playback and recording deck. These new products expand Sony’s line-up of HD production technologies, which includes the recently introduced PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX solid-state memory camera and the soon-to-be-available HVR-HD1000U shoulder-mount HDV camcorder.

Each camcorder comes standard with a 12x high-quality, multi-purpose Carl Zeiss lens for HD video, with a Vario-Sonnar T coating to reduce reflections.

The camcorders offer 1080, 24p and 30p native progressive recording. The 3 ClearVid CMOS Sensor system and EIP technology create true 1080p images, which can then be recorded as progressive signals by the HVR-Z7U and HVR-S270U camcorders in the HDV format. The progressive HDV streams can be output from an i.LINK interface and used for progressive editing with compatible NLE software.

The HVR-Z7U and HVR-S270U can switch between 1080p, 1080i in the HDV format, DVCAM, and DV recording, and both can down-convert material from HD to SD, and output the video signals through its i.LINK interface and other SD output connectors. The HVR-Z7U has an HDMI output. The HVR-S270U is available with HD-SDI or SD-SDI connectivity, and also supports embedded audio and timecode.

The HVR-M35U record and playback deck is compatible with HDV native progressive recording modes and supports HD/SD-SDI output with embedded audio and timecode data. It has a 60i/50i switchable function, and supports HDV1080i (60i/50i/24p/30p/25p) and DVCAM/DV (60i/50i). The new products are each planned to be available in February, at the following suggested list prices:

HVR-S270U camcorder, $10,500
HVR-Z7U camcorder, $6,850
HVR-M35U deck, $5,540

More at Sony.

TOKYO & SAN DIEGO –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 13, ‘07 — DivX today announced that DivX video technology will be integrated into PLAYSTATION3 (PS3) from Sony. The popular computer entertainment system will be added to the ecosystem of devices that currently support DivX video playback. To date, over 100 million DivX Certified products have been shipped into the market, and it is anticipated PS3 will significantly expand that number.

“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”

DivX is currently working to certify PS3 and deliver a superior digital media technology to consumers in the near future. Current PS3 end users will be able to add DivX functionality to their systems via a separate system software update at a forthcoming date. PS3 game title developers will be able to utilize DivX’s decoder technology by updating the system software of PS3’s Software Development Kit to version 2.00, which was released by SCE on November 2^nd. DivX.

Weybridge, 12 November, 2007 - Sony Europe’s IT Peripherals division today announced a new range of high performance AV cables designed to complete the high quality sound and viewing experience of Sony’s home theatre products.

Available for a number of Sony AV products, including BRAVIA flat screen TVs, VAIO PC and laptops, PLAY STATION 3 consoles or Blu-Ray Disc video players - Sony’s AV cable range has been specifically designed using the highest quality components to produce clearer, cleaner sounds and pictures. Following the same design principles as Sony’s home theatre products the range includes Digital HDMI, Component Video, SCART, Optical Digital Audio, Coaxial Digital and Stereo Audio cables.

The cables complement the midrange HDMI cables already introduced by Sony in April 2007 and provide a setup for more discerning users. Ready for HD viewing Sony’s Digital HDMI cables support full 1080P HD signals and the x.v. Colour standard for better looking HDTV. The cables also support Sony’s BRAVIA Theatre Sync one touch control, are PS3 compatible. Sony’s AV cable range is available immediately and comes in 1, 3 and 5 metre lengths.

Sony’s AV cable components have been carefully selected to mirror the audio and image quality of Sony home theatre products. The connectors are 24k gold plated, giving excellent signal transmission and protecting from corrosion within the home environment. More at Sony.

Tokyo, Japan — Nov 12, ‘07 — JapanToday is reporting on sales of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360 have exceeded those of Sony’s PlayStation 3 for the first time on a weekly basis in Japan, citing a survey.

The site further reports, “According to the survey conducted by research firm Media Create Co, Xbox 360 sales came to 17,673 units in the week to Saturday, against 17,434 units for PS3.

Xbox 360 overtook PS3 as the second best-selling video game machine in Japan, Media Create said. Nintendo’s Wii stayed the best-selling machine. The Xbox 360 machine performed strongly partly because Microsoft on Nov 1 cut its price by up to 5,000 yen. In the preceding week, Xbox 360 sales totaled only 3,718 units.” More at JapanToday.

Nov 09, ‘07 — Samsung said Friday it had stopped selling flat panel televisions and other consumer products in Japan, citing poor profitability.

Samsung has emerged in the past decade and a half as a global force in consumer electronics, taking on and even beating Japanese rivals in places such as the United States and Europe. But penetrating the competitive Japanese consumer market, home to rivals such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Sony Corp. and Sharp Corp., appears to have been a considerable challenge.

“We judged direct sales to individual consumers are less profitable than business-to-business sales,” Lee Eun-hee, a Samsung spokeswoman, said of the reasoning behind the decision. Samsung sold LCD TVs, DVD players, MP3 music players and other items in Japan via the Internet, but stopped at the end of October, Lee said. It had ceased sales in retail outlets in August last year, she said.

Samsung will sell flat screen computer monitors directly to businesses and will continue to sell components such as memory chips and liquid crystal displays, she said. The company will also keep supplying mobile phone handsets to Japanese telecommunications company Softbank Corp., she said.

Since 2004, Samsung has produced LCD panels at a joint venture with Sony to meet strong demand for flat screen TVs, which has soared in recent years as consumers have switched to the sleeker versions.

New York, NY — Nov 08, ‘07 — The head of Sony Corp., Howard Stringer, said Thursday that the Blu-ray disc format the company has developed as the successor to the DVD is in a “stalemate” with the competing HD DVD format, chiefly backed by Toshiba and Microsoft.

“It’s a difficult fight,” said Stringer, speaking at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in Manhattan.

Toshiba has been selling its players for as low as $99 at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, heading into the holiday season, while Blu-ray players cost around $450. The HD DVD camp also scored a significant win in August, when it induced Paramount Pictures to drop most of its support for Blu-ray and put out high-definition movies exclusively on HD DVD.

“We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,” Stringer said. At the same time, he played down the importance of the battle, saying it was mostly a matter of prestige whose format wins out in the end.

“It doesn’t mean as much as all that,” Stringer said. He added that he believed there was an opportunity of uniting the two camps under one format before he became CEO, and he wishes he could travel back in time to make that happen.

Nov 07, ‘07 — SlySoft is claiming to have that “impenetrable” copy protection technology BD+ cracked. 

SlySoft team member, Tom, at SlySoft forum proudly declares victory against BD+ with  their latest version of AnyDVD HD 6.1.9.6 beta. He also takes time to write a “loving” note to Twentieth Century Fox.

In his words:

“6.1.9.6 2007 11 07

• New (Blu-ray): AnyDVD ripper copies BD+ titles
• New (Blu-ray): Removed “BD+ not supported” warning, as all available BD+ titles can be copied with AnyDVD ripper, or can be watched on HTPC without HDCP using PowerDVD 3104 and AnyDVD. Reports indicate, that burned BD+ titles work on PS3 and standalone players as well.
• Note to Twentieth Century Fox: As you can see, BD+ didn’t offer you any advanced security, it just annoyed some of your customers with older players. So could you please cut this crap and start publishing your titles on HD DVD? There are thousands of people willing to give you money.
• Note to people considering to invest in HD media: Please buy HD DVD instead of Blu-ray. HD DVD is much more consumer friendly (e.g., no region coding, AACS not mandatory). Don’t give your money to people, who throw your fair-use rights out of the window.
• New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Support for more MKBv4 titles
• Some minor fixes and improvements
• Updated languages”

More at Slysoft.Forum.

Nov 06, ‘07 — Tech-On! is reporting on Sony, on the heels of its increased capabilities to record Holographic Disc more densly, recording 7-layer Holographic disc and further aiming to record 500GB of data on 20-layer disc by 2010.

In their words, “Sony Corp wrote and read data on a medium equivalent to a seven-layer disc by using “Micro-Reflector method,” a multilayer recording technology using holographic recording.

The company calculated the error rates of reproduced signals after signal conditioning such as equalizing. Until now, the company wrote and read on discs of up to four layers and announced only the eye patterns of reproduced signals.

This time, the achievement was announced at ISOM’ 07, an international conference on optical memory, which took place Oct 21-25, 2007, in Singapore. At the conference, Sony made speeches about speeding up data transmission speed, improving memory density per layer and increasing the number of recording layers even more.

In the Micro-Reflector method, lights are shed on both sides of a holographic medium. The focus points of the lights meet and interact with each other in a recording layer to form interference fringes. An interference fringe has an information amount of one bit. To read the data, a light is shed on one side of the medium.” More at Tech-On!

On the heels of MySpace, Facebook unveils Facebook Ads with  60 Leading Consumer and Internet Brands Announce Participation in New Ad System.

New York, NY — Facebook Social Advertising Event — Nov 06, 2007 – Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg today introduced Facebook Ads, an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want. Through Facebook Ads, these users can now learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends.

“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” Zuckerberg told an audience of more than 250 marketing and advertising executives in New York. “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

The keynote opened the Facebook Social Advertising event, which also featured senior executives from landmark partners including Blockbuster, CBS, Chase, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Sony Pictures Television and Verizon Wireless. More than 60 major consumer and Internet brand partners were highlighted at the launch of Facebook Ads.

Today, Facebook Ads launched with three parts: a way for businesses to build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences; an ad system that facilitates the spread of brand messages virally through Facebook Social Ads; and an interface to gather insights into people’s activity on Facebook that marketers care about.

More than 100,000 Facebook Pages Launch Today
Zuckerberg detailed how Facebook Pages allows users to interact and affiliate with businesses and organizations in the same way they interact with other Facebook user profiles. More than 100,000 new Facebook Pages launched today covering the world’s largest brands, local businesses, organizations and bands.

Distribution through the Social Graph
Advertising messages will gain distribution through what Facebook has termed the “social graph,” the network of real connections through which people communicate and share information. When people engage with a business’ Facebook Page, that action will spread information about that business through the social graph.

Unique Ads with Social Actions
“Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people,” said Zuckerberg. “It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.” More at Facebook.

Nov 05, ‘07 — Sony increased the surface recording density of coaxial holographic recording to 270 Gbits/inch². This is 1.5 times the density of the company’s existing holographic recording technology, which is 180 Gbits/inch².

A card type holographic medium called coupon medium was used as the recording medium. The achievement was presented at ISOM’07, an international conference on optical memories, which ran from Oct 21-25, 2007 in Singapore, as well as other events.

The company made two improvements to enhance the recording density. First, the NA of the objective lens was increased form 0.64 to 0.85. The improvement of NA was obtained by changing the design of lens group, etc. The enhancement of NA results in smaller interference fringes recorded on the medium, thereby increasing the recording density from 180 to 230 Gbits/inch².

Second, the recording capacity per page was increased from 95 to 135 Kbits. As a result, the recording density was improved from 230 to 270 Gbits/inch². More at Tech-On!