Hands-on demos from leading technology companies will be available.
Refreshments will be served after the presentations.

“3D-Focus: 3D Blu-ray Authoring” is hosted by DTS, presented by MESA, THX and 3D@Home Consortium, and sponsored by DTS and Netblender

Pre-Register Now!

Preliminary program:

* Video Masters > Compression > MVC Encoding – Tools and Processes
* Authoring – Tools and Processes
* Menu and Subtitle Creation – Tools and Processes
* Human Factor and Physiological Review
* 7.1 Surround Audio for 3D
* Testing and Verification – Tools and Processes

The home entertainment industry promotional group will present four “Home 3D: Solutions and Strategies” panels on the second day two of the Summit, which is co-produced by The Bob Dowling Group and Unicomm, LLC, and presented in association with Variety.the 3D Entertainment Summit.

It’s been quite a year for Harryhausen, whose 1981 film “Clash of the Titans” was remade after a Blu-ray re-release of the original. He was also recently feted for his contributions to film with a special award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Harryhausen also worked on the original movies featuring King Kong, the character on which Universal Studios Hollywood’s newest tram tour attraction is based.

Harryhausen is best known for seamlessly blending stop-motion puppetry with live-action footage, such as the battle scene between seven articulated skeletons and Jason in the 1963 film.

The Sony ceremony will include a reception, a screening of “Jason and the Argonauts,” and the unveiling of a sign heralding the Ray Harryhausen Theater which recently got a state-of-the-art technical upgrade to allow projection in digital 3D stereoscopic with Sony’s 4K CineAlta projector system and RealD Z Screen technology and a modernization of the THX-rated theater’s audio reproduction system for 7.1 Surround sound.

“It’s an incredible honor to have this theater named at the studio I called home,” says Harryhausen. “It means as much to me as my Academy Award and the BAFTA honor I just received, especially knowing that it is a working theater where visual effects artists and animators work every day.”

“Jason” was originally produced and released by Columbia Pictures (now part of Sony Pictures Entertainment). Its release on Blu-ray by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the fifth Harryhausen Blu-ray title from SPHE, the most of any filmmaker from the label, and features new commentaries by Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, film historian Tony Dalton, and visual effects expert Randall William Cook, as well as a new interview of Harryhausen by filmmaker John Landis.

The theater, located on the Culver City, Ca. campus of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, is the screening theater of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Imageworks Interactive. Used on a daily basis in the creation of modern visual effects and animated features, the theater represents the living legacy of Harryhausen’s lifelong career.

After being inspired by the work of Willis H. O’Brien, the stop-motion photography pioneer of 1933’s “King Kong,” Harryhausen eventually found himself working alongside his mentor for 1949’s “Mighty Joe Young.” In the mid-1950s, he moved on to Columbia Pictures, where he created groundbreaking special effects for such films as “20 Million Miles to Earth” (1957), “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963), and, later, for M-G-M, “Clash of the Titans” (1981).

Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Creative Head, five-time Academy Award-winner Ken Ralston (the original “Star Wars” films, “Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) met Harryhausen when Ralston was 14 and has enjoyed Harryhausen’s mentoring for decades.

“What’s amazing – and unique – about his work is that he often brought a sympathetic quality to the creatures, especially during their demise,” said Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures’ Sr. VP, Asset Management, Film Restoration and Digital Mastering. Crisp, a film archivist and restoration specialist, and his team did the restoration of “Jason and the Argonauts.”

– By Scott Hettrick

Bagdasarian’s revelations (seen in 2 1/2-minute video below) came during a publicity event during pre-game activities at Dodger Stadium Saturday (April 4) to promote the Blu-ray release of “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” In addition to promos intermittently filling scoreboards, signage and the public address speaker system throughout the stadium, Bagdasarian threw out the first pitch (a rare strike) and Alvin, Simon and Theodore sang “American the Beautiful” and high-fived Dodgers manager Joe Torre.
– By Scott Hettrick

“Thank God for Blu-ray,” he said following the screening of a clip from the movie on Blu-ray Disc to selected members of the media for a presentation Tuesday, March 23, in a mansion in the hills above West Hollywood.
(Story continues following the 3 1/2-minute video below of Cameron’s presentation.)

Cameron and Landau also said that all that quality is, in part, what dictated the decision to release the movie on disc without a single bonus feature — not so much as a trailer — so as not to compromise a single bit of available disc space. Their logic is that with such a long movie that barely fits on the disc, adding anything else would require reducing the bit-rate for the movie. Besides, Cameron says he can’t stand watching “crap trailers.” Somehow none of those concerns about space and quality or their objections to “extraneous” content will prevent them from releasing the movie again only seven months later in November as a presumably more expensive Blu-ray “Ultimate Edition,” as noted by Landau, with lots of bonus features. And then there is an eventual 3D edition that one would assume would require significant more disc space, if not twice as much, to allow for the second hi-def 3D angle in the movie itself. But neither gentleman mentioned anything to do with 3D on Blu-ray.

The subject of 3D did come up twice, however, the first time when Cameron described another advantage for Blu-ray over theatrical presentations. He said that because 3D theater projectors have a polarized filter that reduce the light level by half, and then viewing the movie through the required polarized 3D glasses reduces the light by another 50%, the brighter “dynamics” of TVs restore the original brightness to the film. He didn’t say how the 2D Blu-ray compares to the 2D theatrical versions of the movie.

Most encouraging for the Blu-ray format, Cameron said pre-sales of “Avatar” indicate that consumers are favoring the more expensive Blu-ray version over standard-def DVD, just as most moviegoers chose to pay a premium price to see the film in 3D instead of 2D, and at Imax 3D theaters instead of traditional 3D theaters.
If this trend holds for Blu-ray, Cameron believes “Avatar” could help drive even stronger consumer conversion from DVD to Blu-ray.

– By Scott  Hettrick

Panasonic has teamed up with NVIDIA for the new software that allows any computer-based videogame to be displayed in stereoscopic 3D. It is expected to be available around June at a price point anticipated at less than $50.

The debut was part of Panasonic’s kickoff off a five-week 15-city  tour of new 3D and HiDef products. 3DHollywood.net /HollywoodInHiDef.com spoke with Panasonic exec Jeff Samuels about the tour in L.A. at the Hollywood and Highland Theater (video below) and with a rep from Nvidia which has partnered with Panasonic to deliver any videogame in 3D on Panasonic displays (separate video below).
Story continues below the following videos.

Panasonic’s full 1080p HD 3D TVs and Blu-ray players are available now exclusively at Best Buy stores via Magnolia Home Theater.

The total combined SRP of the Panasonic Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System components is $2899.99. The system consists of a 50-inch class Panasonic VIERA VT20 Plasma 3D HDTV (TC-P50VT20 – SRP $2,499.95) which includes one pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (TY-EW3D10U), and the Panasonic BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (DMP-BDT300 – SRP 399.95). Additional pairs of 3D eyewear will be available with an SRP of $149.95. The individual components of the system will also be sold separately.

A schedule of the next cities on the tour is below and at the Panasonic web site and Panasonic’s website of 3D products.

– By Scott Hettrick

Tour Dates & Locations

3/15 – 3/17         New York                      Penn Pavilion – 401 7th Ave at 33rd St

3/15 – 3/17         Chicago                        Tribune 445 – 445 S. Michigan Avenue

3/15 – 3/17         Los Angeles                  Hollywood and Highland – 801 Hollywood Boulevard

3/20 – 3/22         Boston                          Copley Place – 2 Copley Place

3/22 – 3/24         Detroit                           Detroit Opera House – 1526 Broadway

3/22 – 3/24         Scottsdale                     Fashion Square Mall – 7014 East Camelback Road

3/25 – 3/27         Philadelphia                   King of Prussia Mall – North Gulph Road

3/29 – 3/31         Minneapolis                   IDS Tower – 80 8th Street South

3/29 – 3/31         San Francisco               One Market Plaza – 1 Market Street

3/31 – 4/2          Washington, DC            Union Station – 50 Massachusetts Ave, NE

4/6 – 4/8            Dallas                           Grapevine Mills Mall – 3000 Grapevine Mills Parkway

4/6 – 4/8            Seattle                          Top of the Market – 93 Pike Street, Suite 307

4/7 – 4/9            Atlanta                          595 North – 595 North Ave, NW Atlanta

4/12 – 4/14         Houston                        The Warehouse – 4108 Dupont Street

4/15 – 4/17         Miami                           Ice Palace – 59 Northwest 14th Street

Here are highlights from the official Panasonic media release:

The Panasonic Touch the Future Tour features hands-on demonstrations of Panasonic’s 2010 cutting-edge products and features including Full HD 3D Plasma Home Entertainment Systems,  flat panel VIERA Plasma, , LCD and LED HDTVs; Blu-ray Disc Players, Home Theater Systems; and LUMIX Digital Cameras and Camcorders.  Highlights of the Tour include:

* Experience VIERA Full HD 3D Home Theater – Visitors to the Panasonic Touch the Future Tour will be able to experience the world of 3D for the home with Panasonic’s award-winning Full HD 3D Home Theater System featuring the VIERA VT25 Full HD 3D Plasma TV, the BDT350 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and Panasonic Active Shutter Eyewear.  Panasonic Full HD 3D Home Theater Systems are now available at select Best Buy Magnolia Home Theater stores.

* See the World’s First Commercial 3D Television Channels – Panasonic will be the exclusive presenting sponsor of DIRECTV’s new HD 3D channels set to debut in June 2010.  Demonstrations of the channels, which will deliver movies, sports and entertainment content from some of the world’s most renowned 3D producers will be on display at Panasonic Touch the Future Tour events.  DIRECTV’s HD 3D channels, powered by Panasonic, will offer a 24/7 3D DIRECTV Cinema and pay per view event channel focused on movies, documentaries and other programming, a 24/7 3D DIRECTV On Demand channel and a free 3D entertainment channel featuring event programming such as sports, music and other content.

* Test Drive 3D Gaming – Computer graphics innovator NVIDIA will debut NVIDIA 3DTV PlayTM, a software solution that allows consumers to connect their GeForce® GPU-powered desktop or notebook computer to new 3D TVs, for the ultimate in big screen 3D gaming action. For the launch of 3DTV Play, NVIDIA  is teaming up with Panasonic on the Panasonic Touch the Future Tour, where visitors can test drive 3DTV Play-based PCs running on Panasonic’s new VIERA® Full HD 3D TVs.

* Connect with Skype-enabled HDTVs – Panasonic and Skype are taking VIERA HDTVs to a whole new level of connectivity in 2010 with Skype on Your TV.  Visitors will see demos about how select Panasonic 2010 VIERA HDTVs will enable you to place free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls, make calls to landline or mobile phones at Skype’s low rates, receive inbound calls via a user’s online Skype number, access Skype voicemail, participate in voice conference calls with up to 24 other parties.

* Explore and Share with VIERA CAST IPTVs – Explore Panasonic’s VIERA CASTTM enabled HDTVs which give owners access thousands of television and movie titles, share photos and videos with family and friends, make video calls, listen to their favorite musical artists, and stay up-to-date with the latest sports news and information.  In 2010, VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs will feature wireless connectivity and add new features such as Netflix®, Twitter™, Skype™, Pandora®, and Fox Sports to an existing list of features which includes Amazon Video On Demand™, Google’s YouTube™, Picasa™ Web Albums, Bloomberg and weather services.

* Capture Your Memories – Learn about the intuitive features on Panasonic’s range of easy- to-use Camcorders and LUMIX Digital Cameras.  See how simple it is to take great photos and videos and share the with family and friends right on your HDTV and online via VIERA CAST.  Tour visitors will also be able to meet professional photographers from the LUMIX Digital Photo Academy to learn tips on how to take the perfect picture.  Visit www.panasonic.com/future for specific dates and times to meet professional photographers in each city.

* Join the Full HD 3D World – Panasonic’s Touch the Future Tour Sweepstakes* will award one lucky visitor (18 years of age or older as of 3/15/10) in each of the 15 cities on the Tour a Full HD 3D Home Theater System featuring a Panasonic Full HD 3D VIERA Plasma HDTV, Panasonic 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and one pair of Panasonic Active Shutter Eyewear.

Snow White was top-selling Blu-ray of 2009 with well over 1 million copies sold.

Meanwhile, Blu-ray disc sales catapulted another 70% last year and Blu-ray rentals were up 48%, combining to drive spending well above to $1 billion for the first time and all the way up to $1.5 billion, according to the annual year-end home entertainment report by DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

In the fourth quarter Blu-ray sales exceeded $500 million, representing 13.4% of all disc sales, a big leap from representing 8% in the previous three quarters.

New titles were up 35% and sales of older so-called “catalog” titles doubled.

Five Blu-ray Disc releases enjoyed sales in excess of 1 million units in 2009, led by top-seller “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” A number of distinct hits marked 2009 including “Twilight” (Summit Entertainment), “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (Paramount Home Entertainment) and “The Hangover” (Warner Home Video) as the three highest grossing home entertainment titles of the year.
(Story continues after 90-second video below featuring highlights of presentation at DEG event.)

Overall consumer spending on pre-recorded home entertainment content last year was down 5% to $20 billion.

“The home entertainment business is doing remarkably well given the overall economic environment,” said Ron Sanders, President, DEG and President, Warner Home Video. “We have seen tremendous growth in both Blu-ray hardware and software, consumer transactions are up and we are looking forward to seeing some stabilization in the packaged goods sell-through business in the coming year.”

U.S. CONSUMER HOME ENTERTAINMENT RENTAL & SELL-THROUGH SPENDING
(in billions)

Year    VHS/UMD    DVD    BD/Hi- Def    Digital    TOTAL
1999    $12.2     $1.1     $0.0     $0.6     $13.9
2000    $11.4     $2.4     $0.0     $0.7     $14.5
2001    $10.9     $5.3     $0.0     $0.7     $16.9
2002    $9.6     $8.6     $0.0     $0.7     $19.0
2003    $6.9     $13.1     $0.0     $0.7     $20.7
2004    $4.4     $16.7     $0.0     $0.7     $21.8
2005    $2.1     $18.9     $0.0     $0.8     $21.7
2006    $0.4     $20.2     $0.0     $1.0     $21.6
2007    $0.1     $19.7     $0.3     $1.3     $21.4
2008    $0.1     $18.4     $0.9     $1.6     $21.0
2009    $0.0     $16.4     $1.5     $2.1     $20.0

The DEG has re-stated its historical figures based on the 2009 revised reporting from Rentrak Corporation’s Home Video  Essentials.

“With Blu-ray titles topping $1 billion in sales and Blu-ray hardware now in 17 million U.S. homes, the format is well on its way to mainstream consumer adoption,” said Bob Chapek, Chairman, DEG and President, Distribution, The Walt Disney Studios. “With the industry’s recent finalization of 3-D specs, next year promises to be an extraordinary year for consumers to experience the expanded possibilities of Blu-ray.”

The group also noted that rental spending was up 4.2% to $6.5 billion for the year, according to Rentrak Corporation’s Home Video Essentials. Total annual spending on sell-through of Blu-ray Disc and DVD was down 13% to $11.4 billion.

HDTV
The DEG estimates that more than 71 million HDTV sets have sold to consumers. With the number of HDTV households at nearly 48 million, DEG estimates that 33% of HDTV homes have more than one set.

Blu-ray Disc players are available at more than 10,000 storefronts and are marketed from leading manufacturers.  There are nearly 80 Blu-ray playback devices available, with set-top models from as low as $99 (manufacturers’ suggested retail price – street prices may vary).
– By Scott Hettrick

Scott Hettrick

For jaded journalists like myself, it was a pleasantly surprising windfall of information and sneek peeks at many of the most intriguing upcoming 3D movies – “Tron Legacy” and “Beauty and the Beast” look particularly dynamic — and potential home 3D releases on a prototype Blu-ray system – the CarsToon short “Tokyo Mater” was most impressive. Even the Star Tours theme park attraction is getting a makeover and will be re-opened in 2011 with new film footage featuring characters and scenes from more recent episodes in the “Star Wars” series, some of which will be in 3D.
(Story continues below video highlights of 3D highlights from the four-day expo.)

A decades-old concept that has been finding new life of late with selected movies, 3D is not necessarily something you would expect to be hammered into the subconscious of people dressed like Mary Poppins or driving Volkswagen Beetles decorated like the iconic Herbie the Love Bug. These weren’t your stereotypical-looking earlier adopters of new technologies. Not exactly the demographic you would expect to be targeted for the latest new thing.

Nonetheless, it seemed that no matter what new product reel was running or what movie was being promoted during celebrity-filled arena presentations, 3D was a high-profile part of the message. Amidst clips for family comedies like “Old Dogs” (stars Robin Williams and John Travolta showed up to great applause), a nearly full-scale replica of the Mark Twain paddle-wheel boat at Disneyland filled with Muppets, and a performance by Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus of her crowd-pleasing hit “The Climb,” 5,000 enthusiastic people in the audience were asked repeatedly by Walt Disney Co. president and CEO Bob Iger and Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook to don those special 3D glasses to see clips for everything from “Tron Legacy” (December 2010), “A Christmas Carol” (director Robert Zemeckis introduced the first 3D trailer for the Nov. 6 release) and “Alice in Wonderland” (filmmaker Tim Burton was there to announce the March 5, 2010 release) to “Rapunzel” (the studio’s 50th animated feature, a CGI musical for holiday 2010 with songs by Alan Menken and starring voice of Mandy Moore) and “Toy Story 3” (Lasseter revealed the release date of June 18, 2010; Buzz becomes a Spanish dancer and adopts the language).
Doll Barbie’s male playmate Ken (Michael Keaton) joins the cast of “Toy Story 3,” with other new characters being voiced by Ned Beatty, Jeff Garland, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg, and former 007 actor Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants.
There was also a public premiere of the complete new 3D-rendered double-feature of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” (opening October 2 for a short run in theaters).

Easily the most popular element of the multi-faceted home entertainment Blu-ray/DVD showcase in the convention center was a 3D screening room where dozens of attendees at a time lined up to see a Panasonic 103-inch plasma screen displaying a loop of never-before-publicly-shown home 3D scenes from Disney movies such as “G-Force,” “Up,” “Bolt,” “Toy Story,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and the entire CarsToon Mater’s Tall Tales computer-animated short “Tokyo Mater.” The latter was perhaps one of the most vivid and effective 3D presentations I have seen so far, with the cartoon racing cars and the street signals and buildings alongside the streets of Japan popping off the screen and demonstrating the impact of 3D better than most movies in theaters.

Many smaller theater and conference room panels also often invoked 3D as part of the discourse, such as the presentation of the slate of upcoming Disneynature films to follow this year’s “Earth” (2.7 million trees, representing the number of tickets sold the first week following its Earth Day premiere, are being planted in a Brazilian rain forest). Oceanworld (not to be confused with the Earth Day 2010 release called “Oceans”) will be the first Disneynature film in 3D in 2011. Here’s hoping all future Disneynature films will be presented in Imax 3D. If ever there was a genre that would benefit most from both formats, it’s nature films, though Dick Cook reminded me later of the cost and logistical challenges of both 3D and Imax film and equipment, and the hours of footage required to be shot in the wild awaiting that one use-able moment.

Perhaps the most dynamic cinematic presentation was the 20 minutes or so of “Beauty and the Beast,” newly rendered in 3D. It is not overstating it to say that it looks stunning. And although many of the scenes feature tree branches and other objects that appear to pop out of the screen so dynamically that I guessed they surely must have been added for the 3D version, filmmaker Don Hahn told me after the screening and panel that nothing was added. Specific existing elements were simply separated from others during the conversion process, he said.
That’s very encouraging for the future prospects of converting other classic films.

Having those digital elements available on a film like “Beauty and the Beast,” one of the first animated films to use some digital animation, is a great help in 3D conversion. Shortly after the world premiere of a new digital presentation of the original “Tron,” Cook told me that no such separate elements exist for that film, which will likely prevent it from being rendered in 3D as the studio is doing with its digital animated films like “Beast” and “Toy Story.”

And it turns out that, no surprise, Disney really knows its customers. The enthusiastic crowds eagerly anticipated and enjoyed each 3D presentation. In fact, next to the goose-bump moment of Johnny Depp showing up as Captain Jack Spaulding amidst a sea of on-stage fog surrounding his ship (a finale staged for maximum surprise and impact that only Disney can pull off so well), the production that seemed to consistently draw the most response in multiple presentations was “Tron Legacy” in 3D.

Who knew?
Clearly Disney fans are more than just moms, young female Disney Channel viewers, and nostalgia buffs.
And here I thought that I was the only oddball Disney fan who didn’t fit one of those other demos.
- Scott Hettrick