Live from the Blu-ray press conference

BetaNews reports from the Blu-ray press conference, where the BDA talks up its expected win over HD DVD. But is the format war really over?

5:05pm PT: Press conference is beginning. Blu-ray Disc Association's Andy Parsons is speaking. Parsons heads up the BDA and comes from Pioneer. Other participants include Fox, Lionsgate, Disney and Warner Bros.

"I suspect there might be a few questions for [Warner]," Parsons joked.

5:10pm PT: Sales numbers for 2007 are 2 to 1 over HD DVD. Global market sales also 2 to 1 in software. Not clear if this includes PS3 games on Blu-ray or strictly movies. Hardware sales 85% to 15% over HD DVD including PlayStation 3.

Parsons: We always include PlayStation 3 in these numbers because it is fully capable of playing Blu-ray movies.

5:13pm PT: Danny Kaye, EVP of Research and Technology for 20th Century Fox. 500,000 Blu-ray devices were sold in 2007, along with 3 million PS3s. Consumers spent $170 million on Blu-ray devices.

2008 projections include 2 million Blu-ray devices, 4 million more PS3s and $1 billion in consumer spending.

Nearing inflection point for "next-generation" media approaching 2001.

5:15pm PT: David Bishop, President Worldwide for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment take the microphone. Says PS3 is critical to Blu-ray's success.

"It's incumbent on us to remind the consumers that the PlayStation 3 is a movie playback device." Sony says it bundled Spider-Man 3 with the PS3 for that exact reason. "We also took a money where out mouth was" and used PS3 advertising to promote the movie features.

"Now we're ready for the next phase: the phase to really fulfill the promise of Blu-ray technology. That's really to start to develop the interactivity....We're really at the early stages of this. When we go to market, it will be mainly traditional content like we have on DVD," but Bishop says Hollywood is excited about what Blu-ray has to offer.

5:18pm PT: Bishop: "We are showing off interactive technologies in our booth. Trailers can be downloaded to players" -- renewing the experience for the consumer. "We'll really get the chance to use our creative juices moving forward. You'll see multiplayer gaming, ringtones that can be delivered to the consumer."

"The last thing I want to mention is how we can increase the functionality of Blu-ray. We're now able to take a disc and put it into your PS3 and load it onto your PSP and the whole process will take 2 minutes."

5:21pm PT: Bob Chapek, President of Walt Disney Studios takes the microphone. He says the industry needs to educate the consumer on high-definition and the value of Blu-ray. Says Blu-ray met this challenge with retail outlet kiosks. Reading from a script, Chapek says Disney made a disc with Monster to help further educate consumers.

"Disney and Panasonic launched the Magical Blu-ray Tour," which took place in malls in 18 markets.

5:24pm PT: Showing video about the Magical Blu-ray Tour. Spots from CW news. Bishop says Disney is relaunching the tour with Panasonic. It will conclude in Chicago in July. "Consumers are becoming educated....Consumers are voting with their dollars, and they are voting for Blu-ray," Chapek says.

5:26pm PT: Ron Sanders, President Worldwide of Warner Bros. is speaking now. Sanders is also talking about educating consumers. Warner says it used advertising to convince consumers that Blu-ray is the real successor to standard DVD.

"Perfect marriage of high-definition TV and Blu-ray" promotion video is being played. Warner says Blu-ray only had 25% brand awareness in holiday 2006 -- that's now 80%.

Sanders says consumers are highly satisfied with standard DVDs, but they appreciate the difference when shown high-definition DVDs.

5:29pm PT: Steve Beeks, President of Lionsgate says Blu-ray has all but established itself as the one single unified format for next-generation DVDs. Beeks notes that USA Today said the format war is all but over.

"We believe 2008 will be a watershed year...The market has decided." Beeks says consumers are the ones that will decide, and "consumer preference is pointing the way for Blu-ray to emerge as the gold standard."

"Increasing certain conclusion," that Blu-ray has won the format war. "We believe 2008 to be the year in which the wasted effort in format competition will be put toward unifying the market and enriching the consumer experience."

5:34pm PT: Beeks says that adoption curve of Blu-ray is similar to that of DVD 10 years ago. "Imagine what we can all achieve when working together to take the home entertainment business to the next level."

"Consumers have made the choice; the challenge today is not to continue the format battle."

5:40pm PT: After question from BetaNews regarding consumer confusion over older Blu-ray players not supporting new features: Parsons notes that Blu-ray will have a "Bonus View" label on movies and players to ensure that consumers won't buy a movie and bring it home expecting new features like interactivity to work on older players.

5:43pm PT: Question about how to convince the consumer that the format war is over: Ron Sanders from Warner says that the marketplace will decide and retailers will follow.

5:44pm PT: Warner's Sanders says the move to Blu-ray didn't have anything to do with any incentive. Sanders did not specifically say Warner did not receive money, however.

5:45pm PT: Danny Kaye from Fox says there is no plans to have combination Blu-ray discs that have DVD compatibility like that available on HD DVD. Says Blu-ray doesn't want to "sacrifice the space on the disc." Kaye says that studios can bundle both versions in a single package if they want. [ed note: Of course, this won't happen because of the costs in manufacturing two discs]

5:49pm PT: Parsons says that Blu-ray burners are not a priority because of a lack of demand. Says DVD recording is not that desirable among consumers. They are out in Japan, but may not come to US market.

5:50pm PT: Bob Chapek from Disney says that Sleeping Beauty will come out on Blu-ray in October.

5:53pm PT: Question about region coding and traveling with Blu-ray discs. HD DVD has no region coding, questioner notes. Blu-ray Disc Association does not want to answer the question. None of the participants have anything to say.

5:58pm PT: Press conference ends.