Picture perfect

Take a closer look at the benefits of Blu-ray Disc and what this means for movie entertainment.

Recently conducted research suggests a bright future for the Blu-ray Disc (BD) format. Key factors, driving this projected growth are the launch of PLAYSTATION 3 and the range of films offered by BD exclusive studios (Disney, Fox, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate) and its supporters (Warner and Paramount).

A quick look at the top selling DVDs of 2006 reveals that almost all of these were released by the studios supporting BD, meaning blockbuster movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Night at the Museum and Casino Royale will be available on BD.

Blu-ray Disc benefits

This confidence and support from the film industry has been earned by the benefits BD is able to provide. Two types of Blu-ray Disc are currently available, a 25GB single layer and 50GB dual-layer, both of which are playable on PLAYSTATION 3.

Dual-layer BD has roughly six times the storage capacity of dual-layer DVDs (8.5GB) and 77 times that of Compact Discs (650MB).

In January the move to dual-layer BD titles in Europe began with the release of Black Hawk Down, Click and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

This greater capacity fuels the true High Definition movie experience, improving picture and sound quality far beyond the information a typical DVD can store, while still providing ample room for extras and bonus features.

It is not just capacity though, the speed and accuracy at which the blue wavelength lasers can read information results in an impressive output to your TV. BD enables a progressive resolution of 1080p, significantly higher than standard PAL DVDs, resulting in a smoother, vastly more detailed picture with next to no flicker.

European PLAYSTATION 3 compatibility site launches

With the imminent arrival of PS3, a new website launches to guide you through which PS one and PlayStation 2 games you can enjoy on the next generation system.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today launched the website that will allow prospective PLAYSTATION 3 owners to see which of their PS one and PlayStation 2 titles are playable on the new European PS3 model.

The web site at http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc lists those titles from the SCEE PAL game portfolio that are playable on PS3.

"Our engineers have been working overtime, and have succeeded in delivering a significant number of playable PS2 titles for the European launch", said David Reeves, President of SCEE. "We will be adding additional titles to this list in future firmware upgrades, but as we have made clear before, in the future our resources will be increasingly focused on developing new services and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, rather than on delivering PS2 backwards compatibility."

New owners of a European PS3 will need to install the latest system software update to play the titles listed on the website. The upgrade will be available at launch from midnight on 23 March on eu.playstation.com or, for those unable to access the Internet, on a disc obtained from local SCEE Customer Services.

This latest system software update will also allow background downloading (downloading items while continuing to use the PS3 system's other functions), and will offer an improved Internet browsing experience with the ability to zoom sections of the web page for greater clarity and enhance the resolution of web pages to suit different resolution televisions.

Stay with eu.playstation.com for all the information you need on PLAYSTATION 3.