Christopher

Sony Music Entertainment released a new specification of a CD format based on Blu-ray technology. I guess since the SACD format has not taken off as it should have (who was to blame for it: marketing or prices?), some of us (most likely Japan for now) will be able to witness a new high quality standard of CD listening experience. Supposedly, the new disks should be compatible with your current red laser players. Read more at engadget. View the full article

Sony Japan announced a high end speaker made of Hokkaido-maple and birch to bring the best audio to your ears (replacement to the SS-AR1 speaker). The choice of those materials was not accidental either, and interestingly there was even a special time (in November) when the trees had to be cut down. Check out the specs below (click on the image). Speakers are out in Japan on December 20th. They sure are beautiful and pricey like their sister speaker Sountina. View the full article

Thank you for the summaries of our downtime. We are working hard on this matter and will have it resolved soon - please just email me at christopher (at) sonyinsider (dot) com when it goes down instead.

Just a short note to let you know that the Hancock Blu-Ray release is actually making it’s debut this week (November 6th), courtesy of a worldwide exclusive from Amazon Germany. That’s almost three weeks before it’s available in the US (November 25th) and almost a month ahead of its UK debut (December 1st). The German edition comes in an exclusive metal case only available via Amazon for 24.95 Euro or in a regular plastic keep-case for the same price. The film itself is a special extended edition and features a full English TrueHD soundtrack, so if you can’t wait to see this one, head on over to Amazon Germany. Link View the full article

Partly because it has been a few weeks since we last did a Blu-Ray release post, and partly because there are a lot of titles out this week, I have decided to do separate posts for the two main markets we typically cover. Today we’ll take a look at the UK releases coming out tomorrow (Monday) and then I’ll follow that up tomorrow with another post to cover the new releases for the US market that will be hitting the shelves on Tuesday. First up is Mad Detective. This is a Hong Kong police movie with a twist. It has received great critical acclaim, including Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong film awards 2008 and was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The detective Bun, who has been thrown off the force for slicing off his ear as a gift to his boss at the chief’s farewell party, has a special gift that leads him to be called back into action… This release is also interesting as it is (as far as I am aware) the first release on BD for Eureka!. Their Masters Of Cinema series is a kind of UK equivalent to Criterion Collection, specializing in international cinema. Next, there is the final feature-length episode of Ricky Gervais’ comedy series Extras. This final episode features cameos from George Michael and Clive Owen. I’ll cover the releases that are common to both the UK and the US this week in tomorrow’s entry, but some other UK exclusives this week are: The Colour Of Magic (This was a TV adaptation based on the first of the popular Discworld series of fantasy novels) Zulu (The 1964 film starring Michael Caine about the Anglo-Zulu war in South Africa in the nineteenth century) And Paramount finally get up to speed on the back catalogue and release the Mission Impossible Trilogy, The Italian Job and Babel amongst others. These were the main titles that caught my eye, but you can check the full list of UK releases for this week at Amazon UK. View the full article

Guys, I just really want to come back to this and admit I really dropped the ball here lately..please accept my apologies.

I'm really sorry about that..the post has been deleted.

CNET has just posted a disastrous news item about Sony batteries that will be a big pain in the side, especially in these troubled economic times. Sony and the Consumer Product Safety Commission will announce Thursday afternoon that Sony is supporting the voluntary recall of 100,000 notebook battery packs powered by Sony’s 2.15Ah lithium ion cells. According to the CPSC, 32,000 Hewlett-Packard notebooks, 3,000 Toshiba, and 150 Dell notebooks are said to be affected. Sony has said that its Vaio notebooks are not included in the recall as they use a different type of battery. HP, Toshiba, and Dell have each set up their own Web sites where customers can fill out a form and receive a replacement battery pack by mail for free. The 2.15Ah lithium ion battery is also not the same Sony battery involved in the massive 2006 recall, according to the company. This also, so far, appears to be on a much smaller scale than during 2006, when more than 8 million notebook batteries were recalled. Sony says it first received reports of problems with the 2.15Ah batteries in June 2005. Since then, PC manufacturers have received reports of 40 overheating incidents worldwide. Some of the overheating resulted in smoke or flames, leading to some “small burns,” and about half of the incidents included “minor property damage,” according to Sony and the CPSC. Sony believes the battery problems are isolated to some 2.15Ah batteries manufactured between October 2004 and June 2005. “Machines settings were adjusted more frequently than usual on one line from October 2004 to June 2005, and we believe that a combination of such adjustments may have affected the quality of cells in certain manufacturing lots, creating the potential for such cells to overheat on rare occasion,” said a Sony spokesperson. Sony says it has not received any reports of overheating on any of the batteries produced after 2006. View the full article

The update is in place and I've tried to delete all of the spam. Please post links to any that are left.. Things should also seem faster, too! Thanks for your patience.

There are now filters in place to greatly minimize spam that occurs here and ATRACLife. I have been working very hard the last few days to bring stabilization to both sites and restore the speed that we all used to know and love years ago. Things are most certainly snappier now, and I will be monitoring it accordingly. Please email me immediately at christopher (at) sonyinsider (dawt) com if you notice any issues. The Gallery is having issues but should be fully fixed by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

Sony Japan announced an updated version of Rolly to be out soon - SEP-50BT. A new added color - Rolly in pink will definitely be a hit with ladies (to match VAIO type CS in pink). Two Gigs of storage has been added (Japanese models to this day have 1 Gig) and a new Bluetooth function has been implemented so that a user with a bluetooth enabled cell phone or notebook could control his or her Rolly movements(Motion Editor 1.1 and Rolly Remote software). If you got a Rolly family, you can orchestrate and stream your music to up to 7 Rollys as well. To the users of older Rolly’s - Sony is not leaving you behind in the trenches - forthcoming update will enable your babies to do the same tricks. Stay tuned to Sony Support site for now… Check out the video here. View the full article

Dead? What do you mean? I must admit myself that I could be more active with the forums, but with school, a girlfriend and everything else its hard to juggle such things. I do thank you for being a member of the forums, though, and I hope you continue to read Sony Insider.

Amazon.com is now offering a total of 49 Blu-ray titles in a heavily discounted sale. Retailers, such as Amazon, have been offering a range of Blu-ray price cuts to boost market share as some analysts predict that home entertainment sales may actually increase in these tough economic times. The discounted titles include 300, I Am Legend, Letters from Iwo Jima, Ocean’s Thirteen, March of the Penguins, and more. Click here to see all of the discounted Blu-ray movies at Amazon. View the full article

Thanks to our commenter haiiit, it is now possible for anyone using Windows XP or Windows Vista to use Sonictage 5, a Japan-only release. We previously covered the new version of Sonicstage in a previous blog post. Click here for the Sonicstage 5 Japanese download location. We are not responsible for any damage that this may cause to your existing Sonicstage installation, but it is reported that this version of Sonicstage can perfectly coincide with previous versions. First install East Asian language files on your computer: Open Regional and Language Options in Control Panel. On the Languages tab, under Supplemental language support, select the Install files for East Asian languages check box. Click OK or Apply. You will prompted to insert the Windows CD-ROM or point to a network location where the files are located. After the files are installed, you must restart your computer. Extract the files of SSV-5.0-PA-DL (Sonicstage V) with WinRAR (right click on SSV-5.0-PA-DL and extract); once it’s done enter in the Ssv-5.0-PA-DL/Common/OpenMG/ folder and click on Is_setup; this will install the OpenMG module. After this enter in the Ssv-5.0-PA-DL/Sonicstage/Japanese/ folder, click on setup, and it will install Sonicstage. Don’t forget to restart your computer! View the full article

We are aware of some issues with the new server and memory..we will be addressing that soon.

Sony is usually involved in a few charities and this time they came up with an idea to auction off one of its flagship VAIO TT series, i.e. the limited edtion VAIO TT with 007 logo. With only 100 in production, if you are a lucky bidder, you will get the seventh notebook in the series complete with an engraved 007 gun logo and matching leather carrying case. Sony will donate all proceeds from the auction to 1% For the Planet (www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/ ) — an alliance of businesses committed to creating a healthier environment. This special edition VAIO is outfitted with 64 GB of Solid State drive, so you know like Mr. Bond, you could quickly power it up and get access to your classified info. Check it out on Ebay and if you just want to buy that notebook, head on to SonyStyle.com/Vaio007 View the full article

I will be making an update to the forum soon that will nullify this with better captcha. Sorry about that, Ishi.

Starting October 22nd, buyers of VAIO TT, Z and CS-Series notebooks will be able to create personalized configurations for their purchases using a new custom order service. Available in the UK, France and Spain either online from Sony Style Store (www.sonystyle.eu/VaiobyYou) or by phone**, ’VAIO by you’ will give customers even more choice. The actual process of creating a custom order is very simple and breaks down into four easy steps. First, the customer chooses the base model, then they indicate the modified specifications. Once the configuration is complete, there’s a choice of services including different levels of warranty cover, and finally, a selection of matching VAIO accessories to round things off. “‘VAIO by you’ lets people become more involved, more hands-on with the purchasing process, which boosts their sense of ownership,” said Hidetoshi Takigawa, Marketing Director for VAIO Of Europe. “Their VAIO is going to be a personal possession, even a companion, and this is where the personalisation starts. It’s an open door to the VAIO experience.” As well as determining aspects of their VAIO’s configuration such as processor, hard disk, memory, optical drive, graphics card and warranty, customers will be able to order exclusive specifications not available through the retail channel. This can mean quite major customisation as in the case of the new TT-Series business ultra-portable. Using the ‘VAIO by you’ service, it’s possible to obtain a very special version of the machine equipped with a Blu-ray Disc™ read/write drive and even a 128GB solid state flash ‘disk’ instead of a conventional hard disk. These options turn the TT-Series into the lightest, smallest Blu-ray equipped notebook available, complete with HD playback and the benefits of super-fast, super-robust solid state data storage. A distinctive red finish is also an option for those who enjoy the ‘where did you get that?’ factor. Less obvious, but functionally significant, is the option to use ‘VAIO by you’ to obtain the new super-stylish CS1-Series with Genuine Windows Vista

Well, it looks like they wish to switch to a podcast now. Basic ideas include an interview with us about the site and we can also ask some questions too. I am making a new post at SI about what the community really wants to ask Sony. Not really sure if this will be a consistent or one time thing. More info soon.

Roger Kay, President of Endpoint Technologies Associates, says Blu-ray sales will experience a dramatic drop during the holiday season and beyond, delaying the adoption process and putting the serious hurt on sales. Instead of dropping big bucks on Blu-ray players, consumers will instead turn to the technologies they have available, such as Netflix — which now charges extra for Blu-ray rentals — and streaming video. “If you can get movies over the wire on demand and have an entire library at your disposal on the screen a la Netflix, that’s the way you’re going to go,” Kay told The San Francisco Chronicle. This bad omen comes after Steve Jobs called Blu-ray a “bag of hurt” and said Apple would delay integrating the technology into its products until “Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.” And Blu-ray definitely isn’t taking off yet — its market share has dropped, and Sony, Blu-ray’s leading backer, hedged its bets on end-of-year sales, a gamble that may fall flat given the current economic climate. Rick Clancy, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications at Sony, notes: “For much of the year, consumers have continued to shop and continue to buy CE products at a pace outdistancing the economy as a whole and other segments like housing and automobiles.

I can disable that, but I will need the URL it is linking to.

This will be fixed soon. Sorry about this.

I'm friends with him on facebook; I will pass the message.

The days of this forum being slow are now over. Thank you.

Philip Bloom is a UK-based Director of Photography, Editor and Director. Bloom is regarded as producing some of the most spectacular images seen from the Sony PMW-EX1, makes vast use of the undercranking and overcranking facilities on this camera, and is an advocate of using 35mm still camera lenses in combination with the EX1 and Letus 35mm still lens adapter. In this interview with MacVideo, Philip speaks about the successor to the PMW-EX1 - the PMW-EX3. He describes what he likes about Sony’s latest XDCAM EX camcorder and tells just why he regards the new EX3 as the EX1 done right. Check out Bloom’s website, which has a wealth of information for both the seasoned and junior film maker, as well as on the blog and forum. View the full article