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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Brings 3D Movies Into the Home With Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray 3D™ June 22, 2010
Posted: 06/09/10

Also Coming Soon on Blu-ray 3D™ are Monster House and Open Season

Culver City, CA (June 9, 2010) - Timed with the upcoming launch of Sony Electronics' 3D capable BRAVIA HDTVs and Blu-ray players, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) announced today the release of the studio's first Blu-ray 3D™ title in the US, Sony Pictures Animation's comedy adventure Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, debuting June 22, 2010.

The Blu-ray 3D™ release of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs will showcase the film's colorful environments and groundbreaking lighting technology crafted by an award-winning animation team in full 1080p high definition 3D, optimized for the latest 3D playback devices and eyewear. The disc will also include a 2D high definition version of the film that can be viewed on existing Blu-ray players.

The eye-popping Blu-ray 3D™ release of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs offers a variety of delicious special features and will also feature sneak peeks in 3D of Open Season and Monster House, also coming soon to Blu-ray 3D™.

"We are thrilled to announce the first Blu-ray 3D™ titles from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment," said SPHE worldwide president David Bishop. "We drove the industry in Blu-ray adoption and are now leading the way with compelling 3D content for the home. The addition of 3D showcases the versatility of Blu-ray and further demonstrates why it is being adopted by the mainstream as the home entertainment format of choice."

The animated hit, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs will be available on Blu-ray 3D™ bundled with select Sony Electronics 3D televisions, and will be the first Blu-ray 3D™ title to be sold individually at select retailers.

The Blu-ray 3D™ includes both 2D and 3D special features, including two featurettes, deleted scenes, a music video, 3D sneak peeks at Monster House and Open Season, and more.

The Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray 3D™ was mastered at Colorworks and authored at Sony Digital Authoring Center (DAC).

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Synopsis: When Flint Lockwood's (Bill Hader) latest contraption accidentally destroys the town square and rockets up into the clouds, he thinks his inventing career is over. Then, something amazing happens as delicious cheeseburgers start raining from the sky. His machine actually works! But when people greedily ask for more and more food, the machine starts to run amok, unleashing spaghetti tornadoes and giant meatballs that threaten the world! Now it's up to Flint with the help of weather girl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) and Steve, his talking monkey assistant, to find some way to shut down the machine before the world is covered in super-sized meatballs!

Written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs was based on the bestselling book by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. The film was produced by Pam Marsden.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs has a running time of approximately 90 minutes and is rated PG for brief mild language. Artwork and 2D digital clips are available for download at www.sphepublicity.com. Visit Sony Home Entertainment on the Web at www.SonyPictures.com.

Bonus Features:

• 3D sneak previews of Open Season and Monster House Blu-ray 3D™ titles
• Early Development Scenes
• Extended Scenes
• Progression Reels with Introductions by Visual FX Supervisor Rob Bredow
• "Raining Sunshine" Music Video
• Behind the Scenes of Miranda Cosgrove's "Raining Sunshine"
• A Recipe for Success: The Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Key Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray 3D™
Release Date: 6/22/10
SLP: $39.95

The Blu-ray 3D™ version of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is BD-Live™ enabled, allowing users to get connected and go beyond the discs via an Internet-connected Blu-ray player. BD-Live provides the opportunity to view exclusive content, register for Blu-ray Club rewards, provide feedback through our survey and experience interactive special features. The Sony Pictures Blu-ray Club rewards consumers in the U.S. for purchasing and registering BD-Live enabled Sony Blu-ray movies. Members can redeem accumulated points for cool Sony products, plus enter to win cash and prizes in daily sweepstakes and more. For details visit www.sonyrewards.com/bluray.

About Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation exemplifies the next generation of CGI storytelling to produce a variety of animated entertainment for audiences around the world. Sony Pictures Animation produces a full slate of films including the mouth-watering 3D comedy CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, which opened as the #1 movie in North America on September 18 and has grossed more than $230 million worldwide, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, now in pre-production, THE SMURFS, now in production with Columbia Pictures, and two films from Aardman Animations, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and PIRATES!. In 2007, SURF'S UP, was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature and won two Annie Awards. The company's first film, OPEN SEASON, was a box office success and the #2 DVD title of the year for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Its sequel, OPEN SEASON 2, released in 2009, was an international family hit and a new OPEN SEASON 3 is now in production. Sony Pictures Animation is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions.

SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in more than 130 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

Contact: Jason Allen
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Director, Worldwide Publicity
jason_allen@spe.sony.com
310.244.3502

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Partners with Gracenote To Deliver First Live, In-Movie Film Information with movieIQ
Posted: 08/31/09

BD-Live™ Enabled Technology to be Featured on Upcoming Blu-ray Disc™ Titles Including Angels & Demons and Easy Rider

San Francisco, CA (June 18, 2009) - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment today announced the launch of movieIQ, a new Blu-ray Disc feature powered by Gracenote® that offers viewers access to a real-time movie database. With a movieIQ enabled Blu-ray Disc and an internet connected Blu-ray™ player, movie fans can immediately access continuously updated information on cast and crew and explore relevant trivia such as production facts, music and soundtrack information all tied to scenes within the movie. SPHE will feature movieIQ on upcoming Blu-ray Disc titles starting in September and will offer it on all major catalog titles and new releases including Angels & Demons, Easy Rider, Punch Drunk Love, The Quick and the Dead, Silverado and sex, lies, and videotape.

"It has always been our goal at Sony Pictures to offer fans the ability to truly connect with their favorite movies using BD-Live," said Lexine Wong, Senior Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. "We know many people interrupt their movie watching experience to look up the filmography of an actor or to find out more about a song playing in the background. Now through movieIQ, movie lovers can dive into constantly updated information about the movie they are watching without leaving their sofa, further enhancing the experience of watching movies in this always-connected age."

movieIQ takes advantage of Gracenote's Video Explore solution, which brings powerful search and navigation capabilities to connected consumer electronic devices. Video Explore allows users to search the online Gracenote video database, linking together related cast, crew, movies, TV episodes, franchises, seasons, DVDs, and Blu-rays. Gracenote's global Video database contains rich video information for North America, Europe, and Japan, including factual metadata, synopses, credits, and detailed descriptive elements.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Sony Pictures to deliver movieIQ, a feature that takes full advantage of the Blu-ray format's internet connectivity and truly demonstrates that Blu-ray is the future of home entertainment," said Ross Blanchard, VP of Business Development at Gracenote. "Now, movie lovers will have access to an incredible new service where they can explore and discover all the rich details on their favorite actors, directors and movies."

The movieIQ feature is the latest addition to SPHE's BD-Live portfolio, which also includes social networking through cinechat, multiplayer games, and a customizable music video editor, as well as soundtrack playlists, e-movie cash, downloadable featurettes, and more, available on over 100 Sony Pictures Blu-ray titles worldwide since the technology launched in spring of 2008.

About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

About Gracenote
Gracenote, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, is a global leader in embedded technology, enriched content, and data services for digital entertainment solutions within the Internet, consumer electronics, mobile, and automotive markets. Formerly known as CDDB®, Gracenote delivers a substantially improved consumer experience in digital media devices and applications, plus media monitoring and other data services to the recording industry, making it an integral part of the digital media economy. Gracenote powers leading services including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, Winamp; home and automotive products from Alpine, Panasonic, Philips and Sony; and mobile music applications from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Europe), and others. Gracenote is headquartered in Emeryville, California. www.gracenote.com.

Next-generation Blu-ray Disc player now available at Sony Style stores and retailers across the country
Posted: 09/26/08

Sony's next-generation Blu-ray Disc player, model BDP-S350, is now available across the country at Sony Style retail outlets, sonystyle.com and other authorized Sony retailers.

The BDP-S350 supports BonusView (picture-in-picture), which is featured on select new Blu-ray Disc home video releases, and is also BD-Live ready, with an Ethernet port for easy firmware updates and access to Internet-based interactive content features. A firmware update enabling BD-Live is planned later this year.

It also features quick start up mode improving the player's boot up time to approximately a few seconds and offers an external port for local storage for BD-Live, allowing users to add an optional flash storage device (sold separately).

"We leveraged our expertise in film production and digital technology to build a machine that movie fans would truly love," said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. "An advanced Blu-ray Disc player like the BDP-S350 is a must for every HDTV owner because it delivers the ultimate video and sound quality, while unlocking features you can't find on DVD, downloads or video on demand."

Since many consumers own extensive DVD movie libraries, the BDP-S350 incorporates Sony's new Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology that converts standard-definition signals (480i) to 1080p and outputs a full HD equivalent resolution signal to 1080p TVs via HDMI. Additionally, the model also adds Sony's new Precision Drive HD, which helps to detect and correct wobbling discs from three directions, stabilizing playback of bent or scratched Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.

Not only does the new BDP-S350 model deliver enhanced performance, it is easier on the environment. Compared to Sony's previous BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc model, the new BDP-S350 model reduced the overall unit size by 55 percent, reduced packing material by 52 percent and reduced the unit's total weight by 38 percent. The compact size of the finished package allows Sony to reduce the C02 emissions related to shipping by approximately 43 percent.

In addition, the unit features 21 percent less power consumption in playback mode and 43 percent reduced power consumption in stand-by mode. It also features lead-free solder, all-paper packing and the user guide is printed on 70 percent recycled paper with Volatile Organic Compound-free vegetable oil based ink.

The model offers 7.1 channel Dolby' TrueHD and Dolby' Digital Plus decoding and bit-stream output, as well as DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output.

The BDP-S350 supports AVCHD discs encoded with x.v.Color™ (xvYCC) technology, an international standard for wide color space reproduction. The standard expands the current data range of video by about 1.8 times, allowing the players to output more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye actually sees in the natural world. The players also feature compatibility with an array of video formats, including BD-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on DVD/CD recordable media.

The new BDP-S350 is now available for about $400 at Sony Style stores, online at sonystyle.com, at military base exchanges, and at authorized retailers nationwide.

Why you should be dreaming of a Blu Christmas
Posted: 11/05/08 From: I4UNews.com

Remember the good ol' days when you couldn't pick up a techie magazine without finding some article about the intense battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD? When people actually paid attention to the studios that were behind their favorite movies, and the battle for your HDTV involved something other than video games?

Yeah, yeah, those days are all behind us now and Blu-ray is slowly being assimilated into our media consciousness. Just because the high-def format war is over, though, doesn't mean you should stop focusing on the latest developments in this medium, because Blu-ray is poised to make a big splash for the holiday season. We may very well be able to look back in media history books in the future and find the 2008 Christmas period to be when Blu-ray officially hit the kick pedal for its ride to HD format dominance, and we have everything you need to know to be a part of that.

1080p Exists For A Reason
Look, if you have a high-end HDTV and don't have a Blu-ray player, you're missing out on virtually the only medium out there right now that takes full advantage of your hardware. Those high-def TV channels you have are only presented in 1080i, which means that every pixel is only refreshing at half the rate that your TV can handle. Now, of course, it's still churning out an amazing picture and most people say the human eye can't really tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p.

But if you want to know for sure that you're getting the best picture possible, then you have to go with Blu-ray. It's the only current entertainment medium that requires all titles to have 1080p output. Not only that, but all Blu-ray movies support at least 5.1-channel audio output and a capacity that dwarfs that of DVD.

Internet Connectivity
Call it a gimmick if you want, but having the integration of the Internet into your movie-watching experience is one of the biggest trends over the past five years. Whether it's watching a flick over Movielink, downloading a new release on your Xbox 360 or nabbing an illegal copy of The Dark Knight online (don't tell the MPAA we said that!), the World Wide Web is crucial to all facets of getting and watching a movie.

Making its way into the Blu-ray scene right now is a feature - a platform, really - called BD Live. BD Live is the catch-all name for Blu-ray features that seamlessly connect through your Blu-ray player for next-gen interactivity. Disney's re-release of the classic "Sleeping Beauty" is one of the first to really push this next level of media innovation.

One feature is the ability to watch movies with other Blu-ray-connected friends. All users need to have a Blu-ray Disc player and the same BD movie, but once they're wirelessly connected the movie will play for everyone simultaneously. One person will be in charge of all controls, so if he/she pauses the movie, it will pause for everyone else.

Additionally, users can send instant messages to each other that pop up on the screen, during the movie. And you know those little games they pack in on DVDs as bonus features? They're usually pretty pathetic. The power of Blu-ray makes these mini-games a little more enjoyable, and with BD Live you'll be able to play them in online multiplayer mode.

Other touted features of BD Live include being able to download new bonus features, which can be constantly added to the server even after the movie comes out, the ability to buy movie-related products right from the BD disc, and other social interactions.

Is it gimmicky? Perhaps. But it's a start, and this is the wave of the future for home media.

Sony's Media Convergence
Alright, Sony haters. Let's get all that angst and outrage out of the air before we go on. "Sony is an evil corporate conglomerate looking to replace every part of your lives." There, now that we've covered that, let's look at why cross-media integration is a good thing.

If you know anything about Blu-ray, then you have no doubt heard a resounding opinion that the Playstation 3 is the best Blu-ray player out there. For over a year it was the cheapest player available, but even at a premium it is worth the added features of a complete gaming system, large capacity hard drive and all the other multimedia features contained in the system.

Some Blu-ray titles already available download minor amounts of data to the PS3 hard drive to make playback a bit more fluid. Plus, in the future, imagine being able to download a movie's soundtrack right to your PS3 hard drive directly from the movie's Blu-ray Disc. Or perhaps even get an exclusive demo of the Wall-E PS3 game from Disney's BD Live space. Buying a PS3 not only makes sense from a cost/benefit standpoint, but also from a functionality standpoint. Also, don't forget that with the PS3's built-in Wi-Fi, it's the only Blu-ray player right now that will be able to get future firmware upgrades and actually connect to BD Live.

For the true Sony die-hards, also take a look at the PSP. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show the Blu-ray Disc Association announced that by the end of the year, if you have a Blu-ray movie in your PS3, you'll be able to watch that movie from your PSP, anywhere in the world.

Conclusion
Sure, there are reasons to still be leery of Blu-ray. After all, you have your entire movie collection on DVD, the prices for Blu-ray Discs are higher and there's still no guarantee that Blu-ray will stand the test of time, especially with the emergence of digital downloads looming darkly over disk-based media.

The counter-argument to that is that there are already hundreds upon hundreds of Blu-ray titles available, and the Blu-ray Disc Association, made up of some of the most powerful movie studios in the world, is focused on the success of the format and will not dwindle without cause. There's really very little turbulence in their way at this point in time. Digital downloads are many years away from posing a serious threat to physical media (just look at CD sales, which are still beating out MP3 sales handily).

In short, if you're a fan of movies, a high-def nut, and/or a die-hard tech freak, well, then you probably already have a Blu-ray player, but go convince your friends to buy one.