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Universal Studios is preparing for its entry to the Blu-ray market with a plan to release 40 movies during the second half of 2008. The first Blu-ray titles from Universal will be available on July 22 and include “The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns” and “Scorpion King.” After which they plan to follow up with “The Incredible Hulk,” “Wanted,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”; “Mamma Mia” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” during the summer.

Along with the current and new releases, Universal will also release some of their back catalog on Blu-ray, which will include such titles as “American Gangster,” “Knocked Up,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Miami Vice,” “End of Days,” “U571” and “Land of the Dead.” Prior to the demise, Universal had been the biggest backer of the HD DVD format, they will of course continue to release titles on standard DVD as well.

Read [Reuters]

In a move that truly does not come as much of a surprise, Universal has followed in the path of Toshiba and announced they plan to drop HD DVD and pick up Blu-ray as their next generation format of choice.

“The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear,” stated Craig Kornblau, President, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms.

No word on when we will begin to see the Universal Blu-ray discs to hit the store shelves. Currently it seems HD DVD is all but a format of the past, Paramount is the sole remaining studio without a Blu-ray announcement, which is rumored to be coming before the week is over.

Read [Hollywood in HiDef]

Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. have announced plans to team up with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners to revolutionize what goes on behind the scenes at movie theaters.  Instead of delivering actual film to the theaters, they have announced that they will soon stream the movies over satellite and broadband connections.

This new technology would allow theaters to play movies on more screens so you don’t go home crying next time a premier is sold out.  They have yet to express the reason for the new method of delivery, but I’m thinking they’ve started to realize that delivering a hard copy to theaters around the world is a huge waste of money.  That or the MPAA has another “brilliant” idea to get people to stop pirating films.

Read [AP] Via [Gizmodo]

In an effort to drive their movie sales and maintain a hold on the market, Wal-Mart has partnered up with the “Big Six” film studios for their new “Video Downloads Store.” If you’re not familiar with the Big Six, it includes Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal - the power-houses of the industry.  By launching this service, Wal-Mart has not only beat iTunes to the punch, but services like Netflix as well (in that they’re launching 3,000 titles compared to Netflix’s 1,000).  The main issue here is that *for now*, the movies are only being distributed in WMV, so it can be locked down with DRM.  The videos will only be viewable on up to 3 PCs running Windows XP and IE6 or greater.

According to Gizmodo, the videos will be downloadable in both a PC format and portable format.  The PC format is “near DVD quality” - with a bit rate of around 1.3-1.6 Mbps, and the portable quality hasn’t been specified.  Wal-Mart also mentioned that the Video Downloads Store is not meant to cannibalize in-store purchases.  This is very evident through their pricing scheme.

Movies will run you from $12.88 to $19.88 at the time a DVD is released, and older movies will start at $7.50.  Also, the downloadable versions will be offered as a supplement to in-store purchases similar to what they did with Superman Returns back at launch.  When you buy a DVD in a Wal-Mart store, it will come with a code to download the portable version for a discounted price of $1.97, PC version for $2.97, and both for $3.97.

Since its glorious appearance earlier today, it rid itself of a stylesheet and is all jacked up.  Hopefully when you take a look it will be back up for good.

Update: The service works in IE, silly me for using Firefox.  Apparently they want Firefox users to be completely confused when a page of jumble comes up instead of giving a message that says “IE Only.”

Wal-Mart Video Downloads Store

Read, Read [Gizmodo]

Microsoft announced a deal last week with Universal Music Group stating that they would pay Universal for every Zune device that is sold.  It’s not clear why they’re doing this, but it’s starting to sound like they’re just trying to get the labels on their side.  UMG Chairman and CEO Doug Morris is showing full support for the new Zune, and nobody else.

UMG refused to license its music to the Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions.

“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” Morris said. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”

Read [Billboard]

Not only is Microsoft prepared to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to market and develop the Zune, but they’ve also struck a deal with Universal Music Group to pay them for every Zune device sold.  The deal was cut clearly in hopes “to have more freedom to allow song-sharing or other promotions” (AP).  In the few days before the Zune launches on November 14th, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Microsoft partnering with others in the music industry.

Kind of ironic that they’re trying to build a reputation on a “damn the man” approach, but still allowing the record industry to control their every move.  Maybe they can learn a thing or two from the YouTube approach - let people do whatever the hell they want, and strike deals with the industry so no-one gets sued.

Apple on the other hand, has no deals with the record industry on the sale of the iPod - only the sale of songs on the iTunes Music Store.  For products that are so much the same, we’ll just have to wait and see which strategy wins in the end.

Read [Yahoo News]

Ever since the original Napster was shut down, we’ve been waiting for the record industry to open their eyes to change.  They’ve made an attempt with iTunes, but what people really want is free music!  SpiralFrog.com has teamed up with Universal Music Group to offer such a service - with a twist.  According to Marshall over at TechCrunch, in order for your free music to stay active, you need to visit SpiralFrog’s website at least once a month.  If they’re smart and list all of the music on the website - and I presume they will - this will not be too much of an inconvenience at all. 

The company has quite the executive lineup as well.  They’ve got the former CEO of Universal Mccann (advertising firm), a 12 year Microsoft executive, and their board of directors is made up of big-wigs from around the recording industry (even the RIAA).  According to the Financial Times, SpiralFrog is also in talks with Warner, EMI and Sony-BMG for similar deals.

The music service will offer a desktop downloader for Windows Media files, that can be listened to on one PC and two portable devices...and unfortunately, at this time it doesn’t look like there will be any support for iPods.

Call us skeptics, but we’re not thinking this thing is going to take off.  If you’re going to offer a free service, then get rid of the DRM and make us download straight from the ad supported site.  It may sound bad, but at least it’s another step in the right direction.

Visit SpiralFrog

Read [TechCrunch]