We haven't seen too many BD fiascoes of late, and Thomson's Technicolor is out to make sure it stays that way. As of this week, it has established the very first BDA-approved Blu-ray Disc testing facility in the United States, which promises to provide a place for advanced BD-Live / BD-Java testing before titles are publicly released. There's no specific word as to what studios it'll be stamping seals of approval / disapproval for, so we'll just assume anyone who feels like ponying up for its services can apply.

Didn't see anything that particularly suited your fancy at CEDIA? Then feast your eyes on CEATEC. As the Japan-based trade show hastily approaches, out pops a mind-boggling new home theater package from Panasonic. The system will include one of its marvelous 103-inch plasma HDTVs, a Blu-ray player and at least one set of fancy 3D goggles. Hailed as a world's first in some form or fashion, the Full HD 3D package utilizes an undisclosed format "employed by major Hollywood film studios" to "distribute full HD images of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels to each eye via synchronized shutter glasses." Panny is hoping to promote the technology and possibly get a leg up on Samsung (our assumption) by impressing wealthy homeowners and members of the Blu-ray Disc Association. As expected, there's no mention of a price, but rest assured -- you'll be stuck choosing between this and a new BMW.

[Via Impress]

More news from the DisplaySearch / NPD HDTV conference out in California, and this time it's from the Blu-ray Disc Association. Andy Parsons, the BDA's chairman, told attendees that Blu-ray player and disc pricing were behaving the same way as when DVD was the hot new thing. Parsons noted that "there [wasn't] enough market volume to lower prices," adding that firms first have to "build awareness and demand for the technology" before stickers can shrink. Granted, this opens the whole "chicken before the egg" debate, with pundits asserting that awareness and demand won't build until prices are low enough to be digested by the masses. Also of note, Andy suggested that consumers still wanted something "they could hold in their hands" when asked about the threat of digital downloads, but then again, would you really expect to hear anything different?

Out of seemingly nowhere, DisplaySearch has became way hot on Blu-ray. At a recent conference in Hollywood, the research firm reportedly announced its expectations that "global unit sales of standalone Blu-ray players will triple this year and will double next year as prices fall, more titles are released and a larger percentage of the population own high-definition TVs." As for numbers, that's 2.38 million BD decks this year and 5.31 million in 2009, which means Sony's PS3 would no longer be the biggest selling Blu-ray player by 2010. Look, we'd love for Blu-ray adoption to suddenly get off the ground and soar, but as if it hasn't been restated enough, we simply can't see it happening without at least a few sub-$200 players on the market. Guess we'll see soon enough, huh?

Barely a month after hearing rumors that the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) would be granting licenses to 11 China-based manufacturers, in flies official word that the very first Blu-ray Disc testing center has been established in that very nation. CESI Technology, a contributor member of the BDA, is the lucky winner, and as of today, "Chinese manufacturers can receive verification services for the official production of BD-ROM Movie Players at this center." Hopefully, this means that we'll be waiting less for the development and market launch of BD products. On a slightly related note, DigiRise DRA -- also a Chinese company -- found that its homegrown digital audio coding technology has passed an important milestone in the Blu-ray approval process. Not that we're crazy about having one more codec to juggle, but there you have it. More details on both points below.

Read - First BDA testing center in China
Read - DRA audio codec

We'd take all of this with a healthy dose of salt just now, but reportedly, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is looking to grant 11 China-based manufacturers with Blu-ray licenses. As we've already seen, select Chinese companies have long since been listed on the BDA's website of licensees, but according to recent reports, even more are being allowed to "undertake R&D, production and marketing of BD discs, players or drives." It's said that the 11 in question include TCL, Malata, China Hualu Panasonic AVC Networks and Desay, and that volume production is expected to begin from at least some of them as early as 2009. It'll definitely be interesting to see where this takes things, if these whispers are in fact accurate.

[Via HDTV Info, thanks gamedude420]

The last HD DVD exclusive studio to announce Blu-ray titles won't be the last to release, as Paramount has announced its first Blu-ray movies will hit the street starting on May 20th with Face/Off, Next, and Bee Movie. But the fun really starts in June, as the long awaited award winning There Will Be Blood and Cloverfield are both due on June 3rd. Then a few weeks later, the first day and date title will come with The Spiderwick Chronicles on June 24th. So with the last studio finally lined up, it won't be long until we really get to see DVD and Blu-ray go head to head and once and for all find out if the new Blu format can make a run at the defending champ.

[Via Blu-ray.com]

Think you're an HD aficionado? Insulted that we'd even begin to think otherwise? For what it's worth, we'd wager that even the hardest of hardcore HD junkies could learn a thing or two from CD Freak's top ten list of things you might not know in relation to high-def. For starters, high-definition (as a term) emerged nearly four score ago, the first HDTV was sold in 1998 here in the United States and the first "high-resolution television system" was actually created by the Soviets in 1958. Eager to take a peek at the other seven? Head on down to the read link and stock up on potential trivia knowledge.

[Image courtesy of Philips]

Oh, how the times have changed. Merely months ago we caught Frank Simonis, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, firing off all sorts of vitriol at the red camp, and now that the wheels are falling off of the HD DVD wagon, we're seeing quite the change of heart. According to a recent interview with Tech Radar, Mr. Simonis was quoted as saying that Toshiba and Microsoft, along with any other company, is "more than welcome to join the BDA." He continued by stating that if "Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD, it would extend the hand of friendship to them." Yeah, it's kind of cute to see such lovey-dovey phrases being thrown around, but we've all ideas none of these heartfelt feelings are easing the sting felt by Toshiba right about now.

It's almost comical how quickly the Blu-ray Disc Association gets its thoughts and feelings out to the world after crossing any milestone, and yet again we see the BDA rushing to pat itself on the back after moving some 2.37 million BD titles in Europe. According to recent sales figures, 79-percent of all high-definition movies purchased across the pond year-to-date have been of the Blu variety, and as expected, Sony's PlayStation 3 is given quite a bit of credit for the results. According to David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, passing the 2 million mark in Europe will allow supporters to "focus less on winning a format war and more on addressing the needs of the consumer in adopting the Blu-ray format." Confident, are we?

[Image courtesy of Messe-Berlin]
[Via Tech.co.uk, thanks L. R.]

While we wouldn't say this is anywhere near a last ditch effort, Toshiba's VP of marketing for the Digital A / V Group has affirmed that it will air a 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLII extolling the HD-A3, HD-A30 and HD-A35 players. The plug is said to be a part of its revised strategy to "reinvigorate HD DVD," and oddly enough, it won't be running its ad up against that other format. Apparently, the BDA decided not to buy discounted airtime for a commercial after realizing that it couldn't complete a "Super Bowl-caliber ad" in time, but it seems as if the Blu camp isn't worried about a thing. Andy Parsons, SVP of industrial solutions business research group for Pioneer and BDA loudmouth, noted that he "admired [Toshiba's] chutzpah," but continued by saying that "running a Super Bowl ad is not likely to convince consumers that HD DVD will win the format war." Go on Andy, tell us how you really feel.

As if there hasn't been enough debate over the inability of Profile 1.0 players to make the leap to Profile 1.1 / 2.0, the folks manning the Blu-ray booth at CES gave us all something else to yap about. According to BetaNews, BD representatives on hand proclaimed that early adopters "knew what they were getting into" when they purchased a player that lacked advanced functionality such as Bonus View and BD Live. Apparently, BDA President Andy Parsons felt the same way, as he noted that it was par for the course for technology to evolve and change. 'Course, we suppose there's no room to argue with that, but we can certainly sympathize with folks yearning for an easier way to receive Profile updates. Then again, it's not like the Blu camp had much choice but to pull the trigger and rush players to market if it wanted to keep pace with HD DVD, right?

[Thanks, Andrew and Jason]

Just a few weeks back, we were able to grab a sneak peek at Resident Evil: Extinction's Bonus View feature, and now Blu-ray.com has yet another preview we figure the BD camp will be interested in seeing. Apparently, CyberLink was busy demonstrating its forthcoming Profile 1.1-enabled PowerDVD 7 Ultra software at CES, which allowed Sunshine to be played back "perfectly" with picture-in-picture enabled. Also, they were able to confirm that the aforementioned application will indeed play nice with DTS-HD tracks and that DTS-HD MA support was just around the bend. Reportedly, the update will be available gratis to current owners of PowerDVD Ultra next month.

The Blu-ray Disc Association could be on cruise control right now. This time last year, they were already declaring victory, and while the opposition deals with key defections -- and rumors of more to come -- they're predicting 1 billion in software sales this year. Video Business reports that the NPD Group's session immediately following last night's BDA press conference confirmed many of the BDA's positive numbers from last year, but also identified possible resistance it will face in 2008 due to still high prices, confused and indifferent customers and competition from HD DVD / VOD / IPTV. Coincidentally, a suggestion for the BDA to get past this was offering a concierge service to educate customers, but we'll see what marketing initiatives they dream up to move people to Blu in '08.

We're on the ground at the Blu-ray Disc Associations CES press conference. We're not sure, but they might be in a pretty good and boastful mood. We don't know if the hyperbole could match last year's, but check out the liveblog to find out how it went down in 2007, and what to expect from blue in 2008.