With DVD sales lagging, Paramount is testing out this new service, first with business clients and later with consumers, that allows you to search for a line of dialogue, scene, genre, location or actor and get the specific clip you want. That clip comes with a variable fee, depending on the value of the movie in question (so, The Godfather would be pretty expensive) as well as the length of the clip. It's really designed more for companies who want to use a quick clip in, say, an ad campaign—good, because it doesn't really make sense for the consumer. The service should launch Tuesday, and prices are as yet undisclosed. [New York Times]

Confirmed exclusively for the UK at the moment, the packages include an Xbox Elite, an extra controller and the related movie on USB (not DVD). You may also score some extra Microsoft points.

The offer is strange, not just because of the Hollywood branding or the lack of optical media. The offer is strange because Microsoft isn't promoting the free download of either movie through Xbox Live. USB sticks? Really? [MCV and VideoGamer via Kotaku]

You may have heard by now that Apple no longer has claim to the name Mighty Mouse, since small-volume mouse maker Man & Machine, who had labeled its own pointer "Mighty Mouse," managed to wiggle its way through all the red tape to a successful trademark application. There's a lot of messiness involved, but the truth of the matter is a) it was dumb for Apple to borrow a name from a cartoon character in the first place, and b) the Mighty Mouse was one of Apple's worst products to date. In the end, I'm thinking there's a hint of karma in this reversal of fortune. Hopefully Apple's next mouse will be mightier in deed than in name. [Engadget]

Even though movie-poster regulars such as Owen Gleiberman and Peter Travers have labeled it "freaky and terrifying" and "a potent frightfest" respectively, studio execs seem skittish about releasing Paramount's Paranormal Activity. Instead of manning up and giving it a nationwide release, the studio has asked potential ticket buyers to declare their intentions here. I'm all for crowdsourcing experiments, but this just seems like studio cowardice at its most yeller. They call it "the first-ever major film release decided by you"—it sure won't be the last. [Movie Site]

iPhone owners love to crap all over AT&T customer service whenever they get near a JD Power & Associates survey, but apparently, for the 1.5 million who get TV programming from the T, service couldn't be sweeter. Good ole JD released the results, naming AT&T best in the west and south, Verizon tops in the east, and WOW! numero uno in the north central region. (No, World of Warcraft didn't start a cable company... or did it?) It might not startle you to learn that none of the cable and satellite carriers who actually provide TV service to the majority of the nation appear in the (positive) results. Just wait till you serve as many people with TV as you serve with cellphones, AT&T. Then let's see where you stand. [JD Power]

Danny Sullivan, king of the search engine watchers, pinned down Sergey Brin after a Google event and showed him some bad results. Like if you type "car rental," all the major agencies are there, but when you type "california car rental," many companies disappear (including my personal favorite, Hertz). He also asked why searching "search engines" brought up discussion of search engines, but "search engine" just brought up many older search sites—notably excluding Google itself. Brin said people probably don't search for Google on Google, but Sullivan disagreed. I was actually under the impression that if you go to Google and type "google," you break the internet, so in either case, I'm just glad to be enlightened. [Search Engine Land]

More seriously, the rush to download Iron Man BD-Live content from Paramount left many consumers completely unable to download the content contained on Paramount's servers. The standstills got so bad that the hapless Paramount was forced to issue a statement on the server snafu:

"The Iron Man Blu-ray went on sale Tuesday and due to the overwhelming popularity of the release an unprecedented demand was placed on the BD-Live connection. The disc represents a truly state-of-the art Blu-ray presentation with a first of its kind BD-Live application. As such, the heavy amount of traffic strained the servers due to so many people heading to the same destination.

The bandwidth capacity was increased in preparation for the release but the demand exceeded all expectations so capacity was expanded dramatically last night and local servers were established worldwide to accommodate all the fans. The issue should be completely resolved but if anyone experiences a brief traffic jam, we have provided consumers with a menu option during disc startup that allows them to go directly to the movie main menu or continue to download the BD-Live features."

I suppose this is one of those "good problems to have," because it shows the popularity of the title (and Blu-ray? Maybe?), while at the same time "educating" Paramount on what not to do with the sequel. Or maybe it's just a straight up problem—you decide. [High Def Digest]

PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT'S FANTASTICAL HIT THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES LAUNCHES DAY-AND-DATE WORLDWIDE ON BLU-RAY

There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next
Also Released in Time for Memorial Day and Father's Day;

Focus Remains On Immersive High-Def Home Entertainment Experiences

LOS ANGELES (April 30, 2008) - Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE), a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), today announced its first day-and-date Blu-ray release, The Spiderwick Chronicles on June 24 and rolling out in key international markets beginning in July. Continuing its commitment to offer the best possible movie experiences for consumers, the studio will deliver the highest quality picture, sound and special features available with these upcoming Blu-ray releases. In the U.S., There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next will begin arriving May 20 to capitalize on Memorial Day and Father's Day. Internationally, The Spiderwick Chronicles will be followed by Cloverfield and the AcademyÒ award-winner for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men beginning in August.

"Paramount Home Entertainment continues to focus on the consumer and to explore avenues that allow fans to get more out of their home entertainment experience," said Kelley Avery, President of Worldwide Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures. "We will have a strong slate of titles for Blu-ray release throughout the year worldwide and are enthusiastic about expanding the format's offerings for a broad consumer audience while delivering an experience that goes beyond what viewers love about DVD."

The Spiderwick Chronicles launches PHE's day-and-date new release strategy. Based on the best-selling series of books, The Spiderwick Chronicles takes viewers on a fantastical journey into the unseen world all around us and the Blu-ray disc will include behind-the-scenes featurettes, an exploration of the Spiderwick world, an exclusive peek inside Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide and much more.

PHE's 2008 Blu-ray titles debut on May 20 in the U.S. with two sensational action-adventures: a Special Collector's Edition of Face/Off, the mind-blowing crime-drama starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, with special features such as multiple commentaries, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, the Making Of Face/Off and more; and the sci-fi thriller Next, which stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel in an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. The Next Blu-ray includes a Making Of featurette, "Visualizing the Next Move," "The Next Grand Idea" and "Two Minutes in the Future with Jessica Biel."

DreamWorks Animation's smash hit Bee Movie also will buzz onto Blu-ray on May 20. The hilarious animated adventure from renowned comedian Jerry Seinfeld took audiences by swarm and earned approximately $287 million in worldwide box office. The Bee Movie Blu-ray features a wealth of bonus materials including "Barry's Trivia Track" with fun pop-up trivia, changeable menus, a Build-A-Bee feature to allow viewers to create their own avatar, lost scenes, alternate endings and much, much more.

Following the initial wave of titles, Producer J.J. Abrams' monster hit, Cloverfield, arrives on Blu-ray on June 3. Earning over $166 million in worldwide box office to date, Cloverfield thrilled critics and audiences alike with its shocking, first-person video account of a horrifying attack on Manhattan by an unknown—and seemingly unstoppable—force. The Cloverfield Blu-ray will include an exclusive feature-length "Special Investigation Mode" with added details about the film. Additional features include a director commentary, Making Of featurettes, deleted scenes, alternate endings with commentary and more.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson's critically-acclaimed epic There Will Be Blood also arrives on Blu-ray June 3. The film was named by more than 200 critics as one of the top 10 movies of 2007 and stars Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and SAG Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis. The Blu-ray features a slideshow of vintage photos selected by the director and set to the unforgettable score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, deleted scenes, a featurette on dailies and more.

Interestingly, Dreamworks' sole upcoming HD DVD release has been shitcanned too, despite remaining tied to Toshiba's remarkably tight contract. We're still waiting to see what Universal's plans look like.

P.S. Sorry to keep beating this very dead horse, we're almost to the finish line. [High Def Digest, Hollywood Reporter]

We're not going to tell you that HD DVD will somehow come back from the grave to eat Blu-ray's brains or anything Romero-esque like that. Even China's CH-DVD—an easily mass-produced sibling to HD DVD—once a looming HD DVD mercenary force on the horizon, now seems to serve the opposite purpose. By keeping Chinese firms busy with something other than Blu-ray, Hollywood's movie content may be kept safe from piracy, and big electronics brands may be able to hold onto their profit margins—at least for a short while.

No, the earth is Blu, and we are at least grateful for having a winner. Now begins a different kind of shakeup, where once friendly compadres like Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic start to lock horns with one another. This will bring multiple benefits, but here's what all parties involved need to accomplish:

1. Get the Spec In Order
Now that Blu-ray is fully in the spotlight, it's got to get its act together spec-wise. You may recall that we lambasted many Blu-ray supporters for only building 1.0 spec players, including the $1000+ home-theater flagships from Sony and Pioneer. Except for Panasonic's DMP-BD30 and the PlayStation 3 with up-to-date firmware, no current Blu-ray player can even handle the 1.1 spec with picture-in-picture, already appearing in certain Blu-ray discs (and quite the handful of HD DVD titles—but we'll get to that).

The place to be is spec 2.0, referred to as "full profile." Suddenly, it's Sony who is looking the best here, with not only the amazingly upgradable PS3 but two new players announced this week, the BDP-S350 and S550. For $400 and $500 respectively, they are set to deliver all of the features promised in the Blu-ray palette, including both picture-in-picture and BD-Live internet connectivity (with USB storage for downloaded content). Nobody else, with the possible exception of Daewoo, has even muttered about a 2.0 spec player.

Samsung's BD-UP5000 dual-format player is purportedly compatible with 1.1, but besides the fact that it's pricey even at $550 and requires a firmware update for full compatibility, it'll soon be discontinued. Given our initial experience with it, we say that it's best to wait and see what its successor, the BD-UP5500, can do. Heck, dual-format playback may not be all that necessary for long. But that brings us to another reason why you should wait...

2. Finalize the Video Library
We only need dual-format players as long as the library is split down HD DVD and Blu-ray lines. We are waiting for Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks to jump to Blu, and even once they do, it's not a certainty that they can simply re-release everything currently out on HD DVD. Universal claims 150 titles—surely the Bournes will go Blu as soon as Uni does, but how long do I have to wait for a Blu-ray of The Big Lebowski? Hell, it's almost worth scooping up an ultracheap HD DVD player now just to enjoy that one movie alone, 47 or 48 times in a row. At any rate, some speculation suggests that the remaining HD DVD studios may not even come around until summer or fall, depending on weird smoke-filled-backroom negotiations with Toshiba.

Even when all the studios are on the Blu-ray tip, though, a new problem begins to surface: second-edition releases of movies already on Blu-ray. Think about it: a handful of big Warner titles like 300 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out with more deluxe HD DVD versions which include picture-in-picture and certain online capabilities. Who's to say Warner won't re-release their 300 and Harry Potter Blu-ray discs with the same compelling extras, now that it's feasible on the Blu-ray platform? Warner is easy to single out because we have that comparison, but who's to say that half of the blockbuster movies out on Blu-ray now won't get a re-release with more interactive content when the spec 2.0 players saturate the market?

3. Bring On the Old-Fashioned Electronics Store Competition
Sony's more affordable new Blu-ray player will hit the market this summer for $400. Nothing built by Sony or anyone else should be considered before then, the one exception being the PS3. But even the Sony standalone at $400 is expensive, especially for a player whose capabilities are more or less the same as Toshiba's HD-A30 HD DVD player, now (in a price nose dive) selling for around $130. Only when Panasonic, Samsung and LG announce their own Blu-ray 2.0 players, will true competition finally exist. (Pioneer will launch a 2.0 player too, but it probably won't get involved in a price war.) It surely wouldn't be long after that that we see a full-spec Blu-ray player for $200 or maybe even less. Our bet is Christmas, since Sony doesn't seem like it will have anything on the market until "summer" and no one else is talking about their next Blu play.

There you have it, the three big reasons why you need to hold off on buying a standalone Blu-ray player, and amassing a library of Blu-ray to rival your intimidating DVD collection. Don't worry though. Your patience will have its rewards. And Christmas will be here again before you know it.

[Blu-ray on Giz; image source for "halt" parody graphic]

When we talked to Jodi Sally, Toshiba's VP of Digital AV Marketing, she said, "We still feel there's some value in HD DVD, but we're watching the market closely, waiting to see how sales go." Saying there's "still some value" in something is clutching at a reason not to throw it out, like your old bowling ball you haven't rolled in three years, or your dusty Laserdisc collection.

Consequently, we have a pretty good grip on where HD DVD and Universal stand. We think that rumors Universal's contract had expired and they're getting ready to jump are false for a couple of reasons, and not just because Graffeo told us: "Nobody talked to us. Everything that you see out there has never been substantiated."

We've heard on background from several insiders that Universal's contract with HD DVD runs through 2009, and that the contract is null only when the format is declared non-viable. Graffeo repeatedly placing the onus on Toshiba to declare HD DVD dead seems to confirm this. In addition to the above quote, we specifically asked him how HD DVD would react to Paramount jumping ship, and he responded "That's something you would have to ask Toshiba." In other words, everyone is basically waiting for the other shoe (or studio) to drop.

But several weeks ago, before Warner defected, things could have turned out quite different. One reliable source confirmed to us a few days before the Warner/Blu-ray deal went down, a Fox executive called Robbie Bach (Microsoft's head entertainment exec) confirming they were going exclusive to HD DVD, not Blu-ray. And if Fox went, the deal was that Warner would go, according to the same source. At the last minute, Fox decided to stick with Blu, effectively taking Warner with it. Toshiba's total surprise at the Warner shift corroborates that it was an 11th-hour move. Graffeo also confirmed that a bunch of HD DVD execs were on the plane to Vegas when the news dropped, so they had no idea.

So what happened? Don Lindich at the PIttsburgh Post-Gazette says Fox was handed $120 million by Sony to stay put, and Warner received around $500 million for painting itself Blu. BusinessWeek put the Warner number "closer to $400 million," which trumped the $100 million Toshiba was prepared to offer it. In our phone call with him, Warner's Kevin Tsujihara denied that a bidding war was a factor. While we believe money was on the table, we do believe that what Tsujihara is, strictly speaking, true.

Every studio wants the war to end—it's dragging down HD disc and regular DVD sales as people don't wanna buy Betamax 2 or get double-dipped with an HD version in a couple years. Warner Home Video is the biggest player in the video market, with a 19.7 percent market share, so it also had the most to lose with a drawn-out war slowly sapping away profits from both its foundation (DVD) and future platform (HD). Its market clout (plus Fox's follow-me plan) made it the Sandra Day O'Connor of the format war, allowing it tip the scales in favor of whichever side it landed on.

Let's talk about the timing. Another source told us that Warner had actually planned to make its announcement at CES. Making it just before CES effectively cut Toshiba and HD DVD off at the knees, and according to that source, led our man Billy G to chop out a 20-minute (?) portion of his keynote dedicated to HD DVD, in which Microsoft would declare a full-steam-ahead push.

The end result of the early announcement was the effective elimination of HD DVD from the show. Literally, the HD DVD camp canceled its own press event. The biggest beneficiary from the revised timeline was obviously the Blu-ray camp. The nagging detail here is that Warner's incentive to let the cat out of the bag early is seemingly only indirect—what did it directly gain from sucker punching Toshiba versus a slightly later announcement? Or would it have been more humiliating for Toshiba and the camp if Warner had smiled and hugged everybody through the show and then performed its judo chop?

The question of payouts is trickier. Why? Insiders tell us that the purported amounts—in the hundreds of millions, varying by camp and studio—are pittances in what is multi-billion-dollar game. It makes little sense to those in the know (on both sides) that the studios would be swayed to either side of the river by a drop in the bucket, or even a bucketful of money. (There is an exception or two, studios known for penny-pinching and an eagerness to jump at just a sliver of a profit.) More likely the payouts constituted good will or in some cases, just free money, as the commitment itself wasn't as hard as the coin.

We think the real power play, if there was one, came from within Sony, but it's hard to get to the bottom of it, given the number of Blu-ray proponents—i.e. mum cronies—in the CE business.

Where we officially are: The ball is in Toshiba's court, and Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks Animation are sticking with Toshiba until it calls it quits, which it may do if the market" for its players turns sour—according to Toshiba, the most recent price cuts may well lead to a sales bump before any kind of bitter end.

Where we actually are: Blu-ray execs are 100 percent confident they have won—publicly and privately in our conversations with them; dual-format swinger Samsung thinks HD DVD's back was broken on the Hollywood front and will be relegated to personally recorded content; an IDC analyst told us Toshiba may fall back on dual-format players, like Samsung and LG. It could have gone either way just a few weeks ago, but now it really is over for HD DVD.

Studios, execs and insiders: Wanna cut through the cloak-and-dagger BS and set the things straight for us and all consumers? Tell us the score, straight up, on the record.

–Additional reporting by Mark Wilson

Blu-Ray made up 90% of all next-generation DVD player sales. Now, we aren't mathematicians, but that is a hell of a lot. In fact, it is so much, looking at this image now actually leaves a ferrous-like taste in our mouths, due to its shocking, 90% increased, ironic eye candy status. [Japan Today; image via Picasa Online]

"I'm hoping Toshiba, Universal and Paramount will take the high road and, for the good of the entire industry, bow out [of HD DVD]. Universal and Paramount, in particular, need to jump on the Blu-ray Disc bandwagon so we can go into the new year with a unified front and a unified mission: To educate consumers about the advantages of high-definition media and convince them the time to transition from standard DVD to Blu-ray is the day they bring that HDTV into their home."

Update: Following the Variety report, Universal's Ken Graffeo, executive VP of HD strategic marketing and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group, declared "Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format."

However, Variety article doesn't say that they are going to abandon HD DVD and stands by the story, mentioning that "neither studio is ready to throw in the towel immediately, however. On Thursday, Universal broke its silence about the matter to say that it plans to keep supporting the format for the time being, a pledge Paramount made earlier in the week."

According to Variety "Universal is committed to a series of HD DVD promotions in coming months." At this time, only Universal and Paramount support the format but no longer exclusively. Sony, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, Warner, New Line and HBO are all behind Blu-ray. Variety also argues that, with all those studios behind the format, retailers won't dedicate "premium shelf space to a dying format."

No matter how you look at it, the panorama is bad for HD DVD. It may be time to head to the bunker. [Variety and High-Def Digest - Thanks Randall and Jody]

Warner's switch already put 70 percent of Hollywood's output on Blu-ray—Paramount rolling Blu-ray too would leave Universal and Dreamworks as the last major studios in the HD DVD camp, promptly and undoubtfully closing the books on HD DVD's future in Hollywood. Imagine: Michael Bay is sipping a mojito somewhere with a smile on his face. [Financial Times]

The weirdest part of the AP article is not a quote from Stringer himself, though:

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.

Since it ended in September, the count doesn't include Michael Bay's reluctantly sold 190,000 Transformers HD DVDs, a figure which will probably continue to rise, adding to the HD DVD camp's overall numbers. And the numbers may shift more favorably towards HD DVD as Paramount and Dreamworks maintain exclusivity for at least 17 more months.

Nevertheless, it does suggest that, still without serious pushes from Fox and Disney, the Blu-ray posse is maintaining its lead, and even growing it: Since the advent of high-definition discs back in spring 2006, just over 3 million Blu-ray discs have been purchased stateside, while only around 2 million HD DVD discs have sold. [Reuters]

Among his reasons are the fact that the HD DVD spec is a "very consistent, stable specification." On the other hand, you've got the ridiculous tomfoolery with the Pirates Blu-ray disc, which was caused by Blu-ray's BD-Java implementation and its oft-changing spec. He says the increased size on Blu-ray discs aren't much use (not many movies even use this space). Also, there's the HD DVD's heritage to the DVD (it came out of the DVD Forum), Managed Copy and standardized internet connectivity from day one. Very few developers will develop content that can be downloaded onto Blu-ray if storage and an internet connection haven't been mandated on every player sold.

So what's the upshot of what he's saying? How does this affect your purchase decision? Well, it doesn't, at this point. Even if HD DVD is a better platform, it's all up to the studios and the HD DVD/Blu-ray camps to throw money around to try and gather support. In the end it's deals and money that will decide the winner of the format wars, not who has the better technology. [Ars Technica]

Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.

As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!

Did he really have a change of heart that fast? Maybe he really wasn't aware that Blu-ray and HD DVD are pretty much interchangeable in terms of quality to the normal person, and nobody really cares which one wins? Or maybe someone paid him a bunch of money to switch sides. Or perhaps it was that Paramount henchman theory, where they came to his house because he badmouthed their decision and...hold on, someone's at the door. [Shoot for the edit]